Description

Prior to taking interviews with stakeholders, formulate questions covering the topics or areas of information that:

  • might be important for you
  • your interview partners (== the stakeholders) have knowledge or experience in.

The questionnaire can be specific for a single interview or be a template for multiple interviews.

Experiences

I (Gernot Starke) used such questionnaires within several technical reviews and audits. They helped me to stay on track, cover a multitude of topics, even when I conducted several interviews consecutively.

I usually printed out one copy of the questionnaire for every interview I had planned, so I could sketch notes - and always had the context of my notes already printed, saving a lot of note-taking effort.

Applicability

Whenever you interview stakeholders, a thorough preparation will lead to better results, interviewers will be less likely to forget important topics.

Consequences

Questionnaires can

  • serve as checklists for interviewers
  • aid in group-interviews to stay on track

Especially when multiple interviewers conduct interviews, preparing a questionnaire can lead to more homogeneous questioning.

Also Known As

  • Interview checklist