Stakeholder interviews are game-changers for website redesign projects

Conducting stakeholder interviews gives behind-the-scenes insight to the inner workings and aspirations of your organization. You’ll need this point of view to create a website that resonates with executives, staff, and users and that delivers results. Skipping stakeholder interviews can lead to several problems in a website redesign project.

Who to interview?

The stakeholders I interview are typically inside the organization and have some stake in the success of the website or content. They wouldn’t be on the main project team (although they could be). These people would either impact the website design, content, or technology, or would be impacted by the website.

Building report while gathering requirements 

One-on-one interviews uncover specific requirements and preferences that might not surface through surveys or group discussions. These interviews accommodate different personalities, introverts and extroverts, and allow for people to speak their mind without getting into conflict with someone else in the meeting.

The conversational nature of interviews can uncover subtle nuances, emotions, and attitudes that might not be captured through written responses. You hear the tone, see body language, and understand the context better. 

I typically create a stakeholder engagement plan with specific stakeholder interview questions. I make sure to ask each stakeholder these same questions to ensure consistency in qualitative data and ease of analysis. But interviews can be tailored in real-time based on what stakeholders say. This flexibility helps in exploring unexpected areas that might be crucial but weren’t initially considered.

Understand business needs and goals

One-on-one or one-on-two stakeholder interviews help you grasp the unique perspectives and objectives of different parts of the organization—whether it's marketing, sales, IT, customer support, HR, or your DEI team. This insight ensures the redesign aligns with the overall organizational goals while also giving more specific insights deeper within the company. 

Unlike surveys or questionnaires, interviews allow for a direct, two-way conversation. This enables the interviewer to clarify questions on the spot, ask follow-up questions, and dive deeper into interesting points.

Sometimes an interview will be scheduled to let a key individual share their thoughts and perspectives on the problems and the desired result. While each interview would have a standard set of questions, this one-on-one approach allows you to adjust the meeting to the specific individual. Sometimes their role, experience, and expertise calls for a different approach. Sometimes people just want to vent and once they vent, they feel heard. 

Without one-on-one interviews, important requirements and preferences might be missed, resulting in a website that doesn't fully meet the needs of its users or the business. Collecting requirements and preferences is key to better change management. 

Build rapport

As a consultant, establishing a connection with the interviewee is essential to understanding your organization’s situation and desired goals. I’m an outsider who needs to learn about an organization, its history, and its future. 

I focus on breaking the ice and building rapport to help a stakeholder feel more comfortable. Then I like to use my introversion and curiosity to dive deep into a subject. Questions and thoughtful responses can lead to more honest and detailed responses. This is especially important for sensitive or complex topics.

Build buy-in and trust

Engaging stakeholders early and regularly can foster a sense of ownership and trust. When stakeholders feel heard and involved, they’re more likely to support the project's success. Stakeholders will often reveal potential obstacles, resistance to change, or things they’ve tried in the past and why it didn’t work. Addressing these concerns proactively can save time and resources down the line.

Stakeholders who aren't involved in the process may feel disconnected and less supportive of the project. This can lead to resistance, lack of cooperation, or even active opposition. I’ve encountered active resistance on projects where stakeholders haven’t been briefed or interviewed. Workshops are derailed because people didn’t know what was happening, when it was happening, or what their role in the project was.

Like it or not, organizational leaders and staff like to feel included. When they don’t feel consulted or informed, they can feel undervalued and ignored. This can (further) damage relationships and trust within the organization as well as derail meetings and the project.

Prep for future workshops and activities

Interviews can produce rich qualitative data, including anecdotes, examples, and detailed explanations, which can provide a deeper understanding of the subject matter. I always find these stories useful to create the stakeholder alignment workshops, proto-persona workshops, content process workshops, or any other workshops that need to happen as part of the project. 

Knowing as much as I can about an organization before going into a stakeholder alignment workshop helps me look good! It shows I care about your organization, its problem, and am there to support the work. 

Identify pain points

Stakeholders can highlight current issues or inefficiencies with the existing website. Understanding these pain points allows you to prioritize fixes and improvements that will make a real impact. Without direct input, critical issues or inefficiencies with the current website might go unnoticed, leading to a redesign that doesn't address key problems.

Note that not all pain points will be brought up during these interviews. In the past I have talked with teams who don’t bring up requirements or goals or restrictions and only bring them up once the project is into the design phase. In my experience, this is a symptom of “humans being humans.” They might forget about the issue and sometimes they purposefully withhold information. In either case, this is why it’s important to check in, to give updates, and to ask for feedback through the life of the project.

Ensure usability and relevance

Stakeholders can provide valuable feedback on user experience and content relevance. This helps in designing a website that not only looks good but is also user-friendly and valuable to its audience. Ignoring stakeholder input can result in a website that's not user-friendly or doesn't provide relevant content, negatively impacting user experience and engagement. These interviews are also a chance to emphasize user research and how that phase of the project will affect the content.

For some projects I’ve done, especially the intranet projects, stakeholders can raise that they don’t have dedicated staff to maintain their website content or structure. Over time, the user experience degrades. These are all points that need to be addressed during the life of the project and into the website and content governance. If teams don’t have the time, resources, or training to create appropriate content and structure, the same problems will persist on the new website.

Stakeholder interviews are key to ensure the website structure, content, and design are well-informed, supported, and effective in achieving organizational goals. Interviews allow you the opportunity to gather insights, build trust, and create the momentum needed to achieve those goals.