HKSM

Interviews are a data-gathering technique that uses one-on-one or small-group conversations to elicit information from stakeholders. As an interpersonal and team skill, it relies on active listening, trust, and effective questioning to uncover needs, constraints, risks, and expectations.

Key Points

• Interviews gather qualitative insights directly from stakeholders through structured, semi-structured, or unstructured conversations.
• Success depends on interpersonal skills such as active listening, empathy, neutrality, and asking clear, non-leading questions.
• Useful for exploring complex, sensitive, or high-uncertainty topics that are not easily captured in group settings.
• Can validate assumptions and clarify requirements, risks, benefits, acceptance criteria, and constraints.
• Requires preparation (objectives, guide, participant list) and disciplined capture of notes, decisions, and actions.
• Often combined with other techniques (workshops, document analysis, surveys) to triangulate and confirm findings.

When to Use

• Early in a project to elicit stakeholder needs, expectations, and definitions of value.
• When topics are sensitive or confidential and stakeholders prefer privacy over group forums.
• To deep-dive with subject matter experts on technical or regulatory details.
• When stakeholders are distributed or unavailable for workshops.
• To validate requirements, clarify conflicting inputs, or explore the root cause of issues or risks.
• During lessons learned or benefits realization reviews to capture nuanced feedback.

How to Use

• Define objectives and outcomes: what decisions the interview should enable and what information is needed.
• Select participants: identify stakeholders with relevant knowledge or influence and confirm availability and consent.
• Prepare an interview guide: include introductions, ground rules, open-ended questions, probes, and timeboxes.
• Schedule and set context: share the purpose, agenda, and any pre-reading; ensure an interruption-free environment.
• Conduct the interview: build rapport, ask open questions, probe for specifics, paraphrase to confirm, and avoid leading questions.
• Capture data: take structured notes, record with permission, and track assumptions, decisions, risks, and action items.
• Close and validate: summarize key points, confirm next steps, and agree on review of notes or outputs.
• Analyze and integrate: synthesize themes, update registers and backlogs, and reconcile with other data sources.

Inputs Needed

• Interview objectives and scope.
• Stakeholder list and roles or expertise mapping.
• Interview guide with prioritized questions and probes.
• Background documents (business case, scope, prior requirements, process maps, policies).
• Logistics plan (schedule, venue or platform, consent and confidentiality approach).
• Note-taking template or tool and recording method if applicable.

Outputs Produced

• Interview notes and summaries, including key quotes and observations.
• Elicited requirements, acceptance criteria, and success measures.
• Identified assumptions, constraints, risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Decisions, action items, owners, and due dates.
• Updated stakeholder insights (interests, influence, expectations) for the stakeholder register.
• Refinements to the backlog, scope statement, or risk and issue registers.

Example

A project manager schedules semi-structured interviews with an operations manager, a compliance officer, and a customer service lead to clarify service-level targets and regulatory requirements. Using an interview guide with open-ended questions and probes, the PM captures acceptance criteria, operational constraints, and risks. The findings update the product backlog, inform risk responses, and resolve conflicting expectations between speed and compliance.

Pitfalls

• Leading or ambiguous questions that bias responses.
• Poor preparation resulting in scope drift or missed critical topics.
• Interviewing the wrong stakeholders or an unbalanced sample.
• Inadequate note capture or lack of consent for recording.
• Failure to validate and synthesize findings across interviews.
• Breaches of confidentiality that erode trust and participation.

Related Items

• Workshops and facilitation.
• Focus groups.
• Surveys and questionnaires.
• Brainstorming and nominal group technique.
• Delphi technique.
• Observation and job shadowing.
• Document analysis.

PMP Example Question

A project manager plans to interview key stakeholders to clarify conflicting requirements. Which action best increases the reliability of the interview results?

1. Ask only closed-ended questions to keep responses consistent.
2. Use a semi-structured interview guide and probe for examples.
3. Limit interviews to the sponsor to avoid mixed messages.
4. Skip note-taking to maintain rapport and avoid distraction.

Correct Answer: B — Use a semi-structured interview guide and probe for examples.

Explanation: A semi-structured guide ensures consistency across interviews while allowing probing to clarify and validate responses. Closed questions, limited participants, or no notes reduce depth, accuracy, and traceability.