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Interview: Stakeholders

Understand business objectives, project constraints, and internal expectations.

What it is

Main objective

Understand business objectives, project constraints, and internal expectations.

Detailed description

Stakeholder Interviews are a qualitative methodology that gathers perspectives, objectives, constraints, and expectations from key stakeholders within the organization. This technique helps align the project team with business goals, identify potential conflicts between different areas, and understand political and organizational context that may impact the design (Nielsen Norman Group). They are essential for establishing a solid foundation before beginning user research and design work.

When it fits

Project start (planning/discovery).

•For complex services
•When redesigning processes
•To identify opportunities
•In digital transformation projects

Effort level

Low to Medium

Recommended number of users

5–10 key stakeholders

What you gain and what you give up

Advantages

Strategic alignment: Makes sure the design team understands the business goals instead of designing in a vacuum.
Heading off sabotage: Helps identify the people who might oppose the project, so those relationships can be managed from the start.
Efficiency in user research: By collecting what the company believes it knows about its users, the research team can focus on validating or refuting those specific assumptions (persona hypotheses).
Access to expert knowledge: Subject-matter experts (SMEs) can provide deep knowledge of complex domains and of legal requirements that designers are not aware of.

Disadvantages

Does not replace user research: A common mistake is relying solely on the informal understanding internal teams have of their users. This information is valuable but often biased, and it must be supplemented with disciplined research on real users.
Conflicts of interest: Different stakeholders often have contradictory goals (e.g., Marketing wants many features, Engineering wants stability), which requires the researcher to act as a negotiator.
Authority bias: If not managed well, the opinion of the highest-paid person (HiPPO) can override real user needs or technical feasibility.
Mistaking solutions for problems: Stakeholders tend to ask for specific solutions ("we need a dropdown menu") instead of stating problems ("the user needs to navigate"). It is the designer's job to get to the root of the problem.