Effective Interviewing for Successful Web Strategies

As a Project Manager for LevelTen Interactive, it is often my responsibility to interview clients by conducting a series of discovery sessions to lay a foundation for our creative and development teams. These strategy sessions allow us to create a more effective marketing campaign that can be measured and improved with each new project. Over the years I have studied and developed some useful techniques for acquiring information and thought I would share a few of them.

Before You Meet

First and foremost, you must speak to the right people. CEOs may run the show, but often they are too caught up in day to day activities and the overall result to determine what specific goals and objectives are required for success. While a CEO is of course an important person to speak with, the most useful information typically comes from various division managers, marketing, and IT. However, be warned: bad information can oftentimes be worse than no information at all.

Once you've set up interviews and questions, give your interviewees time to review the information before the meeting. By doing so, you are not putting them on the spot and allow them to get in the right frame of mind for the meeting. Set up a series of broad questions to ask in a survey format and send to all parties attending your meeting.

During The Interview

During the interview process keep these three things in mind: good interviewing is Neutral, Probing, and Accurate.

Neutral

Be pleasant and interested, but not joking or chatty. You are not in the meeting to waste time joking and staying off subject. You will accomplish better results by acting professional, staying on track, reading pre-designed questions and asking opened ended questions. Other tips: Don't reveal your opinions. Don't become impatient. Be selfless.

Probing

The goal of probing is to keep the person you're interviewing talking and on subject. The more useful information you can obtain, the better. Here are a few ideas for probing:

• Make encouraging yet neutral remarks ("Hmm... Oh...")
• Ask follow-up questions ("Can you tell me more about that?")
• Use incomplete sentences ("And your goal is to...")
• Redirect to keep on subject ("Yes, that can be frustrating, but I really want to learn more about...")

Accurate Interviewing

Remember, your overall goal is to gather information about the client's wants and needs. It's our job as marketing/web consultants and project managers to determine the best solutions for those needs. If your client is planning on selling products online, learn more about the products. If your clients is selling itself, learn more about the companies strengths and weaknesses. Learn about the competition.

What to avoid

Do all of these things, but do not ask design questions! Of course it's great to have an idea of what your client is looking for, what types of sites appeal to them, etc. However, design is better left to professional designers who have design degrees and experience. If you start asking design questions, your client will think you've invited them to be a professional designer and begin offering suggestions on your work. Your design team should have the appropriate education and experience to do the work. Let them do it. Would you want a lawyer asking you how you think he should argue your case? No. Then do not ask someone that is not trained in design what they think the site should ultimately look like. By following these tips, you will be on your way to mastering the interviewing process and creating more successful web strategies for your clients.

What interview tips & tricks do you use to ensure a successful project? Share them with us in the comments below.