First, choose a suitable framework that will guide your process. 2 common frameworks involve mapping assumptions about: 

• the present – an existing system, service or user journey 
• the future – what is viable, desirable, ethical and usable for a future system, service or journey

Defining the present

To assumption map an existing system, service or journey: 

1. Create a table with rows labelled Doing and Feeling, like this:

1. As a group, add a label for each step at the top of each column. Add as many columns as you need to
2. Ask people to write what they assume the user is doing at each stage 
3. Then ask them to write what they assume the user is feeling at each stage
4. If you want, you can add more rows for things like thinking and saying
5. As you are doing this, discuss as a group why people are making those assumptions

Defining the future

To assumption map ideas you have for a future system, service or journey: 

1. Create 3 lists headed feasible, viable and desirable. This could be in a table, on a whiteboard, or just on a piece of paper
2. Under each heading discuss and write down assumptions about an idea
3. Feasible means whether you can do something (with the resources you have). Is it possible? 
4. Viable means whether it’s worth you doing something (or if it’s too difficult or expensive)
5. Desirable means whether you and your users actually want an idea or not
6. A helpful way to do this is to think about what has to be true for an idea to be placed under each heading. For example, ‘for this idea to be viable we will have to build it in 3 months’
7. Repeat this for each idea you want to think about
8. If you want, you can consider more headings, like ethical and usable

Draw a 2-by-2 matrix, like this: 

1. Label the axes with whatever is useful to help you decide which of your assumptions is the riskiest 
   For example, less confident/more confident vs more impact/less impact 
2. If you have low confidence in a high-impact idea, that is a good candidate for testing

Now you need to test your riskiest assumptions. For example, assumptions about: 

• market trends could be checked using desk research 
• desirability could be tested using research interviews 
• user behaviour could investigated using card sorting

Interviews are most often done one-to-one, but you can also do group interviews and run panels with more people. You might decide to have a separate note-taker so the interviewer can concentrate on the conversation.

You will need:

• to write a discussion guide (we’ll explain how!)
• somewhere to write notes
• an agreed method for capturing notes
• details about the research to send to participants
• a consent form or other way of getting and recording interviewee consent

45 minutes to an hour is usually enough time to get good answers before everyone gets too tired. But that may differ depending on how complicated the subject is. Don’t worry if a conversation finishes early. If you’ve got the information you need, there’s no minimum time limit.

Depending on what you are trying to find out, it can sometimes be useful to have visual prompts or prototypes for the interviewee to respond to.

Writing a discussion guide

A structured discussion guide will make sure the interview flows well, that you ask all the questions you want to, and that you ask the same things of different people.

1. Write down what you want to learn from the interview. This could be a high-level research goal or a list of themes you want to cover.
2. Use this to break up your document with subheadings.
3. Start the conversation by introducing who you are, who you work for, and the context of this conversation.
4. Next, write questions under each subheading.
5. Use open questions that  cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Instead of leading the interviewee towards a particular answer, open questions let them answer however they want to. And their answer can open the conversation up for follow-up questions.
6. Don’t go straight into any big, difficult questions as you may intimidate the interviewee. A good way to break the ice is by asking questions about themselves like ‘Tell me about your typical day.’
7. Get feedback on your discussion guide from others on your team. They might think of some important questions that you’ve missed.

Creating a note taking document

• Use the headings from your discussion guide or simply duplicate the discussion guide.
• Make a space for notes to be written under each heading.
• Make sure it’s clear where the notes should go to make it easy for the note taker.

Participant information letter

A participant information letter (PIL) is an overview of what the project is about. It should give participants enough information to make an informed choice about whether they want to take part. It must be written in clear plain language and will usually be about 2 pages long.

Some things you should include in your Participant Information Letter include:

• What the project and interview is about
• What they will be asked to do if they take part
• Whether they will be getting paid or incentivised in some other way
• What personal information you’ll be collecting and storing (in line with your organisation’s policies)
• Whether their participation will be anonymous and confidential

Writing a consent form

Your consent form goes alongside the participant information letter. On your consent form, ask for confirmation that the interviewee has read the participant information letter and that they have had:

• a chance to ask questions
• their questions answered
• the complaints process explained to them

Check that they understand that they can:

• refuse to answer any question
• withdraw from the interview
• change or withdraw their consent
• complain about anything that happens to them

all without having to give a reason.

If applicable, also check that they understand:

• who you might share information from the interview with
• any risks there might be of taking part in this research
• that the interview will be recorded, what the recording will be used for, and who (if anyone) you might share it with outside your organisation
• that what they say might be included in research reports (using their name, organisation, role, or no attribution at all, depending on what you agree about the level of anonymity)
• you won’t share their personal details with third parties (outside your organisation)
• that you may take photos or video and use them in research reports that you might share with third parties (outside your organisation, who you are working with)

Organise a time and send details

Agree a time for the interview. Send the interviewee all the information they’ll need with plenty of notice. If they feel informed and prepared, they will be more relaxed in the interview.

Include:

• the consent form if you’re using one
• the video conferencing link or directions to a venue
• background information or sample questions

After introductions, check that they have completed the consent form if you’re using one. If they haven’t, you can ask them to complete it there and then.

Make sure the interviewee is comfortable. Let them know that:

• this is a safe space for them to discuss topics without judgement
• you are interested in hearing their perspective even if it is negative
• they don’t have to answer a question if they don’t want to
• they can take a break if needed
• they are free to stop the interview any time without giving you a reason
• they can withdraw consent later if they change their minds (up to the point anything is published, or merged with other information and can no longer be pulled out)

Accessibility

You must make sure your interviews are accessible for your interviewees. This can mean making accommodations for someone’s needs. See our guidelines on running accessible sessions in the introduction for tips on making sure nobody is excluded.

Using your discussion guide

You don’t have to stick rigidly to your discussion guide. It is a guide. Listen and ask follow-up questions. Feel free to jump forward to other questions if they come up naturally. The conversation should feel natural.

If you notice the interviewee going off on an irrelevant tangent, wait for a suitable time to interrupt them, and move onto a new question. ‘I’m just keeping an eye on the clock, and I’d like to move on to…’ is always a handy excuse.

Don’t share your opinion or judgement, you don’t want to bias your research. Silence is okay. The less you say the more the participant will want to fill the space.

If you have a note taker, allow them some time at the end to ask follow-up questions of their own.

Finish up with something that signals you are at the end of the questions you intended to ask. ‘That’s everything from us, is there anything you think we should’ve asked you?’

Explain what will happen next and if you plan to follow up with them, set some expectations of when and why.

Taking notes

There are numerous ways to take notes. Verbatim, or smart-verbatim notes are best because you are recording everything that is said, in the way that it was said.

This:

• reduces the chance of misunderstandings
• makes sure you have captured all the information
• lets you quote people directly later

People can speak quickly, making it hard to get everything down. This is why recording can be useful to refer back to and fill in any gaps. If you miss something the interviewee says, note down the time, so you can easily find the right spot in the recording.

Taking notes and recording the conversation can be trickier if you are interviewing in person rather than online. Focus on capturing specific data, and if you can’t capture verbatim notes, try to get the overall sentiment of each answer.

If you are interviewing multiple people (either in a group session, or in multiple one-to-one interviews), you can use thematic analysis to see what findings are similar across your range of participants.

• With more people it takes longer to go through the questions. But people still get tired, so try to keep the conversation to less than 2 hours
• Include a break if the interview is over an hour
• Give everyone a chance to introduce themselves, so that you understand the context for what they say later
• Set ground rules to make sure everyone is given the chance to speak and that only one person speaks at a time
• Even more so than in one-to-one interview, consider using visual prompts to keep everyone focussed 
• Use a code in your notes so you can easily capture who said what

If you do desk research as a group, it is important to agree a process and framework for making a note of, organising and tagging your findings before you start. This will help when you come to analyse your findings, or if you need to go back to the source to check something later.

You will need to choose somewhere to put your notes and findings. You can set up a physical research wall or use a digital tool like Mural or Miro (virtual whiteboards), or Excel (a spreadsheet app that you can use as a database tool).

See our guidelines on running accessible sessions in the introduction for tips on making sure nobody is excluded.

Start by deciding on your research question or aim. This should usually be an open question that may have subthemes within it. For example, ‘What are the current and future skills the aviation industry needs, and how are they being taught and learned?’

Especially if you are doing desk research as a group, you might want to divide the work up by theme, to create a bunch of different research streams. In the aviation industry skills example above, you could divide the work into ‘Local training and education’, ‘Government skills policy’, and ‘Aviation industry insights’.

Create a table (for example in Excel) or carve out some spaces (on a physical or virtual whiteboard like Mural) to put different types of information. Choose headings for the spaces that match the types of information you want to capture, like ‘challenges’, ‘opportunities’, ‘skills’, ‘context’.

Now you’re ready to start your research. Copy or summarise any useful information you find and slot it into your table or space.

Consider codifying your findings using a colour code or tags that will help you quickly spot patterns or find specific info.

If you are using colour coding, make sure you choose colours that everyone on your team can tell apart even if they are colourblind. It is a good idea to use a code that doesn’t depend only on colour, but uses texture or text as well.

Make sure your notes would make sense to someone who has less knowledge of the project than you. Avoid acronyms or industry jargon.

Use square brackets to add your own notes that complement a quote. Add page references including page numbers so you can go back to the source if you need to.

By the end of this process, you will have information from lots of sources in one place. Anyone on your team should be able to quickly and easily find the information that is relevant to them.

Next, you will do a thematic analysis to group findings from across your various sources. This will help you to process and summarise what you have learned. It will also add another layer of scrutiny that gives your findings more credibility and validity.

The first step is to look around you and see which local organisations exist who might be able to help you.

• Start with your local councils or unitary authorities. They can be useful in themselves, but can also help you find other people and organisations to talk to
• Find policies and reports that are relevant to your industry. As well as being useful background information, they will often mention, be sponsored by or co-written by organisations you can get in touch with
• Look for bodies who fund schemes related to your industry, and find out which organisations they are funding
• Organisations like Connected Places Catapult exist to bring others together and promote collaboration. If you have a similar organisation working in your area, ask them for help
• Go to events. Even if the topic of the event is not 100% relevant to your work, they are great opportunities to network and make new connections
• Get yourself in the room where it happens. Spread the word that you are interested and available. Invite yourself to policy discussions as early as possible. You might have to dig around a bit. Often preliminary discussions happen some time before things are discussed openly in public

• Your local city, county and district councils or unitary authorities
• Local enterprise partnerships
• Chambers of commerce
• Industry leading businesses
• Individual universities or colleges

Try to find a specific person to talk to at an organisation. There is usually someone who is keen to make connections and champion collaboration.

It might not be obvious from their job title who that is. Unless an organisation has a role dedicated to networking, it might just be a passion project of someone with an unrelated role.

Aim as high as you can in an organisation. You’ll be more successful if you find someone whose job it is to think strategically and who has time to give.

People will be more keen to give you their time if you can show them what you will give back and how they will benefit. The more value you bring to a collaboration, the more you will be able to get out of it.

If you can show that you’re pushing to collaborate because collaboration is in everyone’s interests, you’ll be surprised how keen to co-operate people can be. Clearly state your case and your aims, and you’ll bring people along with you. When the economic case is clear, people will put their fears of working with competitors aside.

Try to do stakeholder mapping as early as you can in a project. If you have existing research that is up to date and reliable, you can pull from this and do stakeholder mapping on your own. But if you can, it’s best to invite some of the stakeholders you already know about to make the map with you.

Set up 3 concentric circles and sticky notes in 3 different colours. This can be in-person with paper, or online using a virtual whiteboard like Mural or Miro.

Label your concentric circles, for example with:

• Centre = Must speak to
• Middle ring = Useful to speak to
• Outer ring = Nice to speak to if possible

Give everyone a brief description of the activity ahead of time, so they can prepare.

See our guidelines on running accessible sessions in the introduction for tips on making sure nobody is excluded.

Start by clarifying for everyone in the session the question you are trying to answer. This can be as simple as ‘who do we need to speak to during this project?’

For each person, group or organisation you can think of, put a sticky note into one of the circles.

Include people who: 

• use the service or product
• are affected by any changes
• you need to keep informed about the project
• make decisions about the project

Use prompts like: 

• Which groups should we talk to and why? 
• How do they help us meet our project brief? 
• How can we make sure we talk to people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse experiences?

Review the map you have created.

• Is anyone or anything missing?
• Think about the map from the stakeholders’ perspective. What do you notice?
• Does anything need to be repositioned?
• Are you unsure or making assumptions about which circle you’ve put any of the stakeholders in?
• Note any insights or questions that arise and use them to help guide your research.

Think about exactly how you will engage each stakeholder

• Do they need to be collaborators, consulted, or just kept informed?
• How often do you need to talk to them? Regularly, occasionally, or in one-off events?
• How many people from each group do you need to talk to, to make sure you get a diverse set of views?

This will all feed into your project and research plans.