Structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders to surface business goals, constraints, and alignment gaps that shape design decisions.
| Question it answers | What are the real business drivers? What constraints must the solution live within? Where are stakeholders aligned or misaligned? |
|---|---|
| Participants & timing | 8-15 stakeholders · 30-45 min per interview · 2-3 weeks |
| AI compatibility | AI summarizes goals and constraints, identifies conflicting requirements, and generates alignment matrices. |
| Output | Stakeholder matrix (goals/metrics/constraints), alignment/conflict map, business requirements synthesis |
"What do customers want?" gets rationalized answers. Ask about their own metrics, budgets, timelines, and competitive fears instead.
Accepting "we want quality AND speed AND low cost" at face value. Push on tradeoffs: "If you had to sacrifice one, which goes first?"
Finance wants cost reduction; customer service wants features. Surface these conflicts explicitly rather than smoothing them over.