Boxes and Arrows has a thorough overview of handling stressful Business Stakeholder Interviews, advising:
- Be prepared for the unexpected
- Identify and recruit stakeholders at multiple levels and departments
- When identifying influential stakeholders, skip the org chart.
- Determine how each stakeholder influences the User Experience
- Guide your client on introducing you to stakeholders
- Understand that no stakeholder intentionally subverts user experience
- To structure or not to structure? Or to semistructure?
- After the interviews are over, keep your stakeholders in the loop.
Good stuff—particularly if you’re working through a contentious portal redesign across groups.