Stakeholder Interviews: What to do when you’re not face-to-face?

Sitting at the intersection of technology, design and the business, a crucial initial step for any product manager is to understand the expectations of key stakeholders before diving headlong into building product.

Stakeholders have the power to bestow sponsorship and funding and, once they buy in, can exert great positive influence to help you and your team achieve your goals and drive success. They are experts in their fields, with unique insight, experience and knowledge about the business, the market and the customer.

However, whilst stakeholders can be valuable advocates, a mis-alignment or a mis-understanding can quickly lead to lost trust and cut funding. Building good quality relationships across the business allows you and your team to quickly gain a shared understanding of different perspectives and learn how other key players align on goals, contribute to business success as well as mitigate or avoid risks.

Stakeholder interviews are one of the key items in a Product Manager’s arsenal. They are crucial for building trust and alignment with key players associated to your product. All PMs should carry these out when joining a new business or beginning a new initiative. They usually take the form of a structured, one hour meeting in a 1:1 setting. The aim is to get the interviewee to speak openly and candidly about their desires, constraints and incentives. I find that these sessions often surface things which could easily go unsaid and then have a major impact on decisions made later.

Recently I was asked to give some feedback to a team member on their stakeholder interview technique. With our team based in the UK and our stakeholders in the US, a lot of the interviews we are currently doing are being carrying out via a phone call (but sadly not a video call).

As I was making notes, I realised that the pointers were just as useful to remind myself of best practices. There are loads of articles on stakeholder interview techniques already, but not so many on how to conduct a good interview remotely. So I decided to put together some thoughts on what I believe constitutes good technique when you’re not face-to-face.

The key thing to keep in mind is that in-person interactions are very different to interactions on a call, particularly one without video. Even if you are a seasoned pro when it comes to face-to-face interviews and tricky conversations, you should adapt your technique when you’re speaking to someone remotely. Changing the way you interact is important to ensure your meaning is not lost, your interviewee remains comfortable and open, and you get real value from your interactions.

How many of the following have you used in a conversation to convey meaning above and beyond what you’re saying? Arm waving, nodding your head, making chopping motions with your hands, raising your eyebrows, winking, putting your finger on your nose… Most, if not all, of them — right?

None of these will work on a call. Body language and facial expression are powerful things but are completely useless when you cannot see the person you’re talking to. So what can we do when we don’t have body language, expressions, looks and gestures to fall back on? In the absence of seeing, interviewees will need to hear it, which means:

You have to say it.

It may seen forced and strange but it’s important to let your interviewee hear that you’re listening to them. You can do this in several ways:

Vocalise your thoughts and feelings. If you’re surprised about something and your body’s reaction is to raise your eyebrows, it won’t be seen. You will need to say “that is surprising to me”. Better yet, you need to explain why it’s surprising… is that new information to you (raised eyebrows + wide eyes + head nod) or does that run contrary to something you thought you knew (frown + pursed lips)?

Likewise, if you understand and agree with what’s being said, you will need to say “I agree” or “that’s right” out loud because your head nod is going unseen (don’t agree all the time though, we’ll talk about this more later). Again, the ideal would be to follow your affirmation up by clarifying (and saying) exactly what you agree with to remove any doubt. This agreement also helps to build shared understanding and rapport with your interviewee.

When you’re on a call, remember that nodding along will not be enough. You will need to let the interviewee know that you have heard what they’ve said by saying so out loud. Resist the temptation to say “ya huh” and “ok” after every sentence. This practice may work in-person but can easily be disruptive for an interviewee on a call. If you have an even slightly poor internet connection, your affirmations may be heard out of step with your interviewee’s dialogue. This could easily cause them to lose their thought or thread or, worse, force them into truncating their answer to your question — a bad outcome all round. If you find this particularly hard, a little trick here is to put yourself on mute when you’re not talking. This allows you to “ya huh” all you like without being heard.

A common trap is to say something like “that’s interesting” — be sure to clarify why that’s interesting for you, what gap does it fill in your knowledge, how does that new piece of information build on something else you know? By adding this extra information, it tells the interviewee what is interesting to you and where they should focus their answers. It may also encourage the interviewee to further build on that point and provide even more ‘interesting’ insight for you.

Another technique to demonstrate that you are actively listening is to repeat or paraphrase an interviewee’s answer. Firstly, this makes it clear that you have been listening to what is being said and, more importantly, that you understand it. It also gives someone the opportunity to correct, clarify or adjust their meaning if they feel your explanation is not on point.

Finally, be aware of your surroundings. Ideally, find a quiet room where you can conduct the interview alone without distractions. If things are a little noisy around you be conscious that this could interrupt the interviewee. Put yourself on mute when you’re not talking.

Aside from these, there are a few other key pointers I recommend for any interviewer, but particularly for interviews carried out via phone.

They talk, you listen. Remember that the purpose of an interview is to get information you don’t already have. You need to strike a balance between building rapport and providing context. However, don’t forget that your key activity during an interview is to listen.

Don’t cut people off, allow for some silence. With a phone interview, you cannot see from someone’s body language whether they are finished speaking or not. You also cannot expect the interviewee to be clear and ‘say it’ like you would. Allow for a bit of breathing space between questions to make sure that the interviewee has finished speaking before posing your next question. Remember, if you’re running out of time but still getting a lot of value out of the conversation, don’t rush your final questions. Instead, look to schedule more time with that person to carry on the discussion with the necessary breathing space to talk.

When you do speak, be concise and clear about what you’re saying. You only have limited call time so use it wisely. You should have a list of questions prepared before the meeting. Ideally a consistent set that you use across all stakeholder interviews. This is helpful but you should not feel like a slave to the questions. To strike a balance, focus on just a handful of key questions that you must ask but allow the conversation to flow naturally. If you find yourself rattling off questions from the list, there probably isn’t enough rapport and safety built up to sustain an open and honest conversation.

If you think you’ve not been clear, summarise with clarity. We’ve all been there… you get going on a point and launch into an explanation, but lose your thread and stumble. You can’t rely on checking the facial expression of you interviewee to know whether they understood what you were saying. Asking “did that make sense?” is a leading question which invites the interviewee to agree even if they don’t. It’s better to stop and clarify the key points of what you’ve said than to leave the interviewee’s understanding up to chance.

Say thank you, but not too much. If you find a particular answer really useful, or if it was challenging for the interviewee to talk about a topic, it’s ok to thank them directly. However, whilst it’s easy to want to thank people for every piece of new information, overdoing your gratefulness can make the conversation feel transactional rather than conversational (like you’re extracting information rather than having a chat). And even worse, if used too much, your thanks can begin to feel insincere. You wouldn’t thank everyone for every sentence they tell you in-person so why do it on the phone!

It’s important to adjust your technique when carrying out stakeholder interviews which are not face-to-face. I hope this article has provided some useful reminders and techniques to sharpen your game and get more from your interviews. Only with a clear understanding of stakeholder drivers and fears is it possible achieve the best outcomes for your products. So remember…

• Let them hear that you’re listening: paraphrase and clarify why.
• You have to say it: Vocalise your thoughts and feelings.
• They talk, you listen. Use “ya huh” and “ok” sparingly — remember a poor connection can disrupt the flow.
• Don’t cut people off, allow for some silence.
• Be concise and clear. When that’s not possible, summarise with clarity.
• Say thank you, but not too much 🙂

Is there anything I missed? Do you have any more tips and tricks you use when interviewing people on the phone?