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Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part IV - Customer Interview Funnel
October 28, 2007 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Project Scope Management
Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part IV - Customer Interview Funnel (#4 in the series Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements)
By Keith Mathis - PM Expert Live
The customer interview funnel shows the process used in gaining the needed information from the customer. This process points out how to use open questions, closed questions, paraphrase and summary for detailing the project scope.
You will notice that the interviewing process will begin with open questions designed to gather the needed information from the customer. As you are asking open questions and begin determining the requirements of the project, you then move into asking closed questions to verify your understanding. As you continue through the funnel, understanding and receiving more details about the project, periodically paraphrase your findings to the customer. Paraphrasing allows you to give an overview of how you understand the needs of the project.
After you have paraphrased the requirements back to the customer and they have verified that you are on target, enter back into asking open questions to determine the next requirement of the project, and then follow with closed questions and paraphrase. You will conduct this process over and over again until all the requirements of the project are detailed, concise, and clearly understood by you and your project team.
The last stage of the customer interview funnel revolves around a summary process. The summary is the last component in the requirements gathering interview in which you will verbalize an overview of every requirement specified by the client. The summary is a bullet point of each requirement. It is in this category that the customer has the last chance of making any corrections to that which you will be working. Understanding and consistently using the interview funnel as a matter of being able to guide your customers from open questions to a summary of requirements can be very beneficial and can yield solid details for requirements.
Dr. Keith Mathis, founder and CEO of The Mathis Group, specializes in Project Management, Management Leadership, and Marketing training for private businesses and government agencies of all kinds. He offers 33 Project Management courses, is a Project Management Professional, is certified by the Project Management Institute and will customize every training session to your individual company’s needs. The Mathis Group also sponsors www.pmexpertlive.com, which is a powerful project management resource with free reports, podcasts, videos, and a monthly newsletter. He also offers customized management training and coaching on any subject with prolific communication and professionalism.
Related Articles
- Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part I - Introduction
- Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part VIII - Asking the Questions
- Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part XI - Block Model
- Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part II - Pitfalls of Not Doing A Detailed Customer Interview
- Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part III - Benefits of Conducting a Requirements Interview
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