Giving Stakeholders What They Want (when they don't know what they want)
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Slides from a talk at edUi, October 25, 2016
![giving stakeholders
what they want
[when they don't know what they want]
Anne Haines
Web Content Specialist
Indiana University Bloomington
Libraries
@annehaines](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/whattheywantslides-161018205958/85/Giving-Stakeholders-What-They-Want-when-they-don-t-know-what-they-want-1-320.jpg)
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Giving Stakeholders What They Want (when they don't know what they want)
- 1. giving stakeholders what they want [when they don't know what they want] Anne Haines Web Content Specialist Indiana University Bloomington Libraries @annehaines
- 2. Photo by Kingston Information & Library Service - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/47879667@N08 Created with Haiku Deck
- 3. my context • content strategy • UX generally • project management • who are "stakeholders"?
- 4. stakeholder interview • clarify project goals • gather requirements • gain rapport with the team • identify potential threats to the work [adapted from Meyer & Wachter-Boettcher]
- 5. truth: we're not psychic cc: ancient history - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7745843@N03
- 6. oranges and peaches?cc: julochka - https://www.flickr.com/photos/24209378@N03
- 7. interviewcc: Duke University Archives - https://www.flickr.com/photos/19219926@N04
- 8. structurecc: james j8246 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/127437870@N08
- 9. Four levels of information need cc: valkyrieh116 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/54357435@N00
- 10. flickr.com/wocintechchat CC BY 2.0
- 11. The problem is, um, so many THINGS! On the website! cc: JD Hancock - https://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00
- 12. somebody get us a content strategy! cc: juhansonin - https://www.flickr.com/photos/38869431@N00
- 13. RFP for FAQ ASAP! cc: andertoons - https://www.flickr.com/photos/75545090@N00
- 14. Bruce Ryan, 4 Syllables www.4syllables.com.au/resources/cartoons/
- 15. I'm in ur library guess I should ask for a book then cc: paul goyette - https://www.flickr.com/photos/65414509@N00
- 16. Robert S. Taylor, Question Negotiation 1. the visceral need 2. the conscious need 3. the formalized need 4. the compromised need
- 17. WHAT I didn't know we could do that! cc: Greencolander - https://www.flickr.com/photos/37539977@N00
- 18. interview as negotiation cc: Sachmanns.dk - https://www.flickr.com/photos/35974633@N00
- 19. Photo by Manchester Library - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/14802104@N07 Created with Haiku Deck
- 20. Photo by Jordi@photos - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/65107251@N00 Created with Haiku Deck
- 21. the gaps cc: hey mr glen - https://www.flickr.com/photos/17106526@N00
- 22. the uses cc: familymwr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/36196762@N04
- 23. "Inquirers frequently cannot define WHAT they want, but they can discuss WHY they need it."
- 24. faster horses? cc: Toronto Public Library Special Collections - https://www.flickr.com/photos/43021516@N06
- 25. [Ford never actually said that]cc: born1945 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/12567713@N00
- 26. Photo by Scott McLeod - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/93393982@N00 Created with Haiku Deck
- 27. closed questions cc: theunquietlibrarian - https://www.flickr.com/photos/10557450@N04
- 29. open questions cc: theunquietlibrarian - https://www.flickr.com/photos/10557450@N04
- 30. cc: Si Jobling - https://www.flickr.com/photos/59372110@N00
- 31. sense-making questions (also called neutral questions) cc: theunquietlibrarian - https://www.flickr.com/photos/10557450@N04
- 32. sense-making questions • how much info do you need (scope of project)? • what's your deadline? • what are your top priorities?
- 33. sense-making questions • what have you done so far, or where have you looked for answers? • what do you plan to do with the information? • what would a perfect solution look like?
- 34. • what data do you wish users were providing? • where do you tend to get messy or unreliable data? • how do you use this piece of info to drive other processes?
- 35. unboxing questions cc: hehaden - https://www.flickr.com/photos/30972961@N04
- 36. active listening cc: niclindh - https://www.flickr.com/photos/40257616@N00
- 37. encouragers cc: Rob Swystun - https://www.flickr.com/photos/88781579@N05
- 38. resist premature diagnosis cc: jeffeaton - https://www.flickr.com/photos/70315202@N00
- 39. we don't always know cc: simpleinsomnia - https://www.flickr.com/photos/95329455@N02
- 40. (they probably do) treat everyone as though they have a broken heart cc: Will Cyr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/31812896@N06
- 41. some other tricks cc: kennymatic - https://www.flickr.com/photos/99472898@N00
- 42. Photo by llauren - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/96715224@N00 Created with Haiku Deck
- 43. Photo by wonderferret - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/65555826@N00 Created with Haiku Deck
- 44. content strategy as problem solving cc: dullhunk - https://www.flickr.com/photos/14829735@N00
- 45. context is everything cc: c@rljones - https://www.flickr.com/photos/17149966@N00
- 46. UX is people cc: Great Beyond - https://www.flickr.com/photos/26104563@N00
- 47. "the best way to placate a difficult man is to ask him to teach you something" [Ta-Nehisi Coates]
- 48. questions?cc: hazzeltoz - https://www.flickr.com/photos/28865063@N07
- 49. Thanks! Anne Haines @ahaines ahaines@indiana.edu (I’m really really bad at LinkedIn) Further reading : https://iu.box.com/v/stakeholders
Editor's Notes
- Many of the techniques I’m going to talk about are also helpful in interviewing end-users, though that won’t be my focus today.
- The question people ask at first is almost never what they ultimately want to know.
- A classic reference librarian story.
- Asking the right questions is the key.
- We know about structured content – this is structured communication.
- Robert S. Taylor, Question-Negotiation & Information Seeking in Libraries (1968)
- The visceral need
- The conscious need
- The formalized need
- The compromised need
- Conscious need = “our customers don’t understand us.” Compromised need = “we need a new glossary.”
- People ask for what they think you can give them.
- Work backwards to get at the real needs.
- Negotiation is iterative, collaborative – not adversarial.
- 3 things to understand about our patron (stakeholder)
- Per Dervin/Dewdney, 3 things we need to understand. First, the situation: the context of the question
- Then understand the gaps – what they don’t know, and need to.
- What the person would like to do as a result of bridging the information gap.
- Robert S. Taylor, again.
- Henry Ford supposedly said “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
- They just wanted to get where they were going!
- Example of a closed question.
- Examples of open questions.
- Pioneered by Dervin/Dewdney in the mid-80s.
- Open questions used by Meyer & Wachter-Boettcher when interviewing stakeholders about redesigning an organization’s online forms.
- I made this one up. Allows you to negotiate assumptions and advocate for those whose voices may not be present at this stage of the game.
- Tell me more…
- Resist suggesting solutions before you have all the info.
- We don’t always know what’s important to our stakeholders, or why.
- Empathy!
- These principles also apply to tech support! (although this question came from a library reference desk, funny enough)
- A real life example from my recent experience…
- Georgy Cohen, “Content Strategy as Problem Solving.”
- Neither problems nor solutions exist in a vacuum.
- Be present, be human.
- This.