Case study · FDE · 30 min

AI Stakeholder Discovery Workshop

Run a discovery workshop that aligns economic buyer, champion, and end users on problem, data, and pilot success metrics.

FDEstakeholdersscoping

Interview opener

Facilitate a workshop that produces architecture decisions.

1.Two VPs disagree on success metrics — facilitation move?
2.How do you leave with written decisions, not vibes?
3.Engineers want to skip discovery — why not?

Strong signals

Decision log with owners/dates
Persona-based success metrics
Explicit non-goals

Hit 0/3

Weak signals (avoid)

Open discussion with no artifacts
Building during the workshop

Requirements

Goal: 90-minute workshop → written problem brief + MVP scope
Attendees: economic buyer, champion, IT/security, 2 end users
Outputs: JTBD, constraints, data sources, success metrics, risks
Anti-goals: no live coding; no vendor feature dump

Back-of-envelope Estimation

Metric	Calculation	Result
Prep time	FDE research + agenda	4 hours
Workshop	90 min + 30 buffer	2 hours
Write-up	brief + MoSCoW	3 hours
Follow-ups	security questionnaire start	2 hours
Total	sum	~11 hours week-0

Workshop "API" (Agenda Contract)

Segment	Minutes	Description
Context & goals	10	Buyer states desired business outcome
Current workflow	20	Users map pain and workarounds
Data & access	20	IT lists systems, ACL, residency
Success metrics	15	Define pilot KPIs and exit criteria
MVP MoSCoW	15	Force prioritization
Risks & next steps	10	Owners and dates

Artifacts Model

Artifact	Key fields	Notes
problem_brief	users, pain, frequency, cost-of-status-quo	1–2 pages
stakeholder_map	role, attitude, power	RACI draft
mvp_scope	must/should/could/won't	Signed by champion
risk_register	risk, likelihood, mitigation	Living doc

High-level Design

Stakeholder flow

Economic buyer (ROI) ──┐
Champion (day-to-day) ──┼─► Shared problem brief
End users (pain) ───────┤
IT/Security (constraints)┘
            │
            ▼
     MVP scope + pilot metrics + data access plan
            │
            ▼
     Technical spike week 1

Deep Dive: Separating Buyer vs User

Buyer cares about cost/risk; users care about minutes saved
Never let the buyer alone define UX — schedule user shadowing
Security early: "what would block us in week 4?"
Write exit criteria: when to expand, pivot, or stop

Bottlenecks at Scale

Missing economic buyer — workshop yields no budget
IT no-shows — data access slips weeks
Scope creep in-room — park lot with timestamps

Failure Modes & Monitoring

Signal	Target	Response
Brief signed	≤ 3 days	Escalate champion
Data access ticket	Opened day 0	Chase IT weekly
Metric disagreement	Resolved in workshop	Re-run 30-min align
Ghosted stakeholders	0 for 5 days	Executive sponsor ping

AI & FDE Interview Room