If a stakeholder is struggling to articulate the value of a requested Information Product, what questions would you ask to help them define the Actions and Outcomes they expect to achieve?

the key is to guide them away from focusing solely on the data they want and instead explore what they plan to do with it and what success looks like when they use that information effectively

If a stakeholder is struggling to articulate the value of a requested Information Product, what questions would you ask to help them define the Actions and Outcomes they expect to achieve?

When a stakeholder struggles to articulate the value of a requested Information Product, the key is to guide the conversation away from the data itself and focus instead on what Actions they intend to take with that data and what Outcomes they hope to achieve from those Actions.

A good starting point is to ask, “If you had this information at your fingertips, what would you do with it?” This moves them from a vague request to a clear and specific Action. For example, if they are concerned about customer churn, they might respond with, “We would send retention offers to customers flagged as high risk.”

Another useful pattern is asking, “What decisions are you currently making without this information?”. This uncovers gaps where decisions are being made based on assumptions or gut instinct rather than data.

Exploring where the Information Product fits into their workflows can also provide clarity. Asking, “What processes or workflows would this information improve or automate?” helps them connect the Information Product to possible increases in operational efficiencies. For example, if the marketing team currently builds churn lists manually, automating that process could save time and increase accuracy.

Once Actions are clearer, the next step is to help them define the expected Outcomes. Asking, “If these actions succeed, what would the result look like?” helps them to think and discover the Outcome. In the churn example, they might say, “Reducing churn from 15% to 10% would increase revenue by $500,000 per quarter.”

You can explore how they will measure the value of the Information Product by asking “How will you know if this Information Product is useful?”. This prompts them to link this Information Product to the key performance indicators it will support, such as “A reduction in churn rate from 23% to 15%” or “The Marketing team efficiency improves by 50%.”

Another pattern is to ask, “What’s the cost or risk of not having this information and therefore not taking that action?”. This can highlight the downside of not having access to the information and not taking Action, such as continuing to lose high-value customers to competitors.

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