Who to talk to

Use existing material

To understand your agency, do desktop research. Some of the following documents will help:

• corporate plan
• annual reports
• media releases
• speeches
• senate estimates
• messages from senior executives
• internal news
• intranet content
• strategy presentations

Create a central point for this information to have a record of where everything came from.

Talk to stakeholders

You’ll need to talk to all areas of the agency to capture your business needs. Record information from the top down, senior executives first.

Look at the structure of your agency and work out which branches to involve. Find out each of their missions and goals.

Interview stakeholders

Like any research activity, go into an interview with an objective and plan. Document what it is you want to find out, remembering to listen and note what you’re hearing.

Plan, design and run interviews using these user research interview techniques.

Workshop with stakeholders

Interviewing 1-on-1 can be time consuming if you’re up against a deadline. A workshop can be more a effective way to discover problems and goals across your agency.

They’re also useful when it’s difficult to clarify what your agency’s mission and goals are.