✓ When to use
- •You need deep, qualitative insight from a specific stakeholder or SME.
- •Topics are sensitive, political, or confidential.
- •Stakeholders are geographically distributed and group sessions are hard to schedule.
✕ When NOT to use
- •You need consensus across many stakeholders — use a workshop instead.
- •You need quantitative data from a large population — use a survey.
- •Time and budget are extremely limited and document analysis would suffice.
Simple example
A BA interviews the Head of Claims for 45 minutes to understand how exception cases are handled today, capturing pain points to feed into a future-state process map.
Deep learning module
A planned, structured conversation with one or a few stakeholders to elicit information, opinions, and tacit knowledge.
Problem solved: Surveys can't probe. Workshops dilute individual voices. When you need depth, nuance, or to surface what someone won't say in front of their colleagues, an is the only tool that gets there.
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