This worksheet will help you prepare for an interview with stakeholders. A successful interview is planned and targeted to find out specific information.
This page courtesy of Megan Sapp Nelson
Attitude: Open attitude leads to open communication.
Attention: Show attention by body language.
Focus: Focus on content and ideas. Make mental notes of questions to ask when the speaker has finished.
Probe: Ask questions that will provide opportunity for more details to emerge.
Personas are a tool to describe archetypes of users, they can be vivid ways to communicate to stakeholders the typical users or uses of a product. For example, typical users of a library could be a 'newly minted assistant professor,' 'liberal arts major with loud roommates,' 'end of career expert researcher.' You develop the personas through research, based on observations/interviews of typical behaviors, desires, or needs.
Here are useful resources to learn why and how to create a persona:
You can get more information from the client through reading about them.
Ask for documentation from the company...mission and vision statements, values, marketing information
Find out about the company using business databases and financial statements
Learn about the community and potential consumers