Dan:
Yeah it’s about often just some quiet self questions about… like getting to start form the beginning of them as an organization can often reveal things that you either needed to know or is going to be an opportunity within the project.
Russell:
Yeah definitely.
Dan:
If you ask someone, “How did your business get to this point when we’re doing this project?” You can learn all sorts of things where you find, “Okay well you’ve already got this legacy of great content that’s hidden somewhere, you didn’t’ put that in the brief.” We can use that.
I think definitely just keeping it quite open ended as well just asking, “What does your business do?” Which may seem like a silly question but actually the only person that will have told you the answer to that up until that point is the person who’s written the brief. Obviously in some scenarios, the business may be small enough that that is the person. Sometimes you’ll be in a room with other people who will be able also chip in on what the business does and their view might be different.
Russell:
And will probably tell you quite a different to what our philosophy section might tell you actually hearing it from the staff I’m sure it will be…
Dan:
Completely.
Russell:
A more personal story.
Dan:
Yeah completely. I’m big into just finding out about the organization. Also I think a critical question for me is who is everyone here, who’s working on the project, is everyone in his meeting or are there people outside of this meeting who are also going to be on this project.
Russell:
Lurkers.
Dan:
Lurkers. Yeah lurkers, like lurking outside the meeting?
Russell:
Yeah I think so…
Dan:
Just come in.
Russell:
Going around, no, no.
Dan:
Yeah peeking through the window.
Russell:
I’ll be with you in good time.
Dan:
Lurking. Yeah lurkers and maybe people who are just too busy Russ. That’s often someone that’s too busy for the kickoff meeting but is involved in the project. Sometimes a bit of warning sign there. But yeah, who are the stake holders here because again that’s important to us in knowing who’s going to be selling things off. The last thing you want is a stakeholder that’s never met you. The first thing they see is a polished design later on down the project line and they turn around and say, “That’s not what we need.” They’ve heard none of the reasoning up to that and you’ve got a problem then.
Yeah definitely checking who’s involved, what else?