Introduction

As a follow on to my CRM Project Scoping post I wanted to provide some examples questions that I use to help me size and get an overall understanding of a CRM project. These discovery questions can help you understand not only the size or type of project but also some of the risks and issues of the project. I’m only providing a general set of template questions here, you will want to tailor your questions to the industry, company and division you are talking to. For a comprehensive set of CRM Questionnaire or question templates then Microsoft Sure Step Methodology is a great place to start. I also refer you to my previous post on Great Books for Software and Product Management.

Before I start I thought I would provide a brief overview of the requirements elicitation process and objectives. I am going to write a detailed post on this in the future, for now a brief summary will suffice.

Remember : there is no one size fits all for all types of projects so you will need to be flexible but that is not to say that you should ignore best practise. Be pragmatic.

The requirements process should deliver assets that:

• Clearly outline to the client what they want
• Clearly outline to the client what they need (the difference between want and need can be vast)
• Clearly outline the priority of these requirements
• Clearly outline to the developer what needs to be built

It is important that the documentation or artefacts that are produced are written appropriately for the audience. There are different artefacts that are appropriate to business users and others that are appropriate to developers.

The biggest danger during the early requirements elicitation stage is to design the solution before you understand the problem. It is human nature for users to describe their perceived solution to the problem rather than the problem itself. You must be aware of this at all times. It is amazing how quickly you can fall into the trap of solutioneering, make sure you understand the problem and it’s causes first or you are leaving the likelihood of project success to chance.

Primary Requirement Documentation Artefacts:

• User Stories
• Use Cases
• Workflow & Business Process Diagrams
• Data Models
• User Interface Wireframes & Prototypes

Preparation & Planning

Before setting up the workshops or one on one sessions make sure you have the right people in the room. Beware of people acting on behalf of other roles (such as  managers or IT). Requirements elicitation is a specialised skill and unless you are talking to the real users your probably going to have the wrong interpretation of the problem and therefore your going to build the wrong solution.

• Make sure you study the company you are going to see.
  • Understand their competitors and their customers. Understand the industry, what is the history and how have business, technology, regulatory changes affected this. There is nothing more frustrating from a client perspective than feeling like they are teaching the consultant about their business (why should they pay to train you?). It is important to ask questions (even if they seem obvious) but make sure you understand their business as much as you can before you go in to see then. This is a difficult balance because you are going to want to ask seemingly obvious questions (you want to avoid making costly assumptions), so find ways of making sure that you have demonstrated to the client that you understand their business. A brief scene setting presentation on your understanding of their competitors, their customers, their industry and the purpose of the project is a good way of doing this.
• Tailor and Personalise the questions
  • Make sure the questions you have are tailored to the people you are meeting and be respectful of their time
  • Explain the purpose of the focus group/interview.
• Listen
  • Listen, try not to interrupt and allow different people to speak (you may need to book 1-1 follow ups).
  • Restate what you have heard to make sure you have understood
• Why
  • Keep asking why, this will help you understand the root cause and the problem behind the problem
• Write up
  • Once you have met with the client, write-up the session immediately whilst it is still fresh in your mind.

Before the meeting see if you can get hold of:

• Organisation Chart
• Existing Processes or training documentation
• Existing Application Landscape
• Example Reports

Sample Questions

Below are a list of sample questions, this list is not exhaustive, I may try and expand on it at a later date. In the meantime I hope this helps. Remember to check out my CRM Project Scoping post and my post on Great Books for Software and Product Management and then find out more on Microsoft Sure Step methodology for more information. Send the questions in advance so they have time to prepare (however assume they won’t prepare).

Background Questions

1. Describe the objective of the project (from your perspective)?
2. What is the expected impact to the business?
3. What is the expected impact to the customer?
4. What is the expected return on investment?
5. How will you measure project success?
6. How will you measure return on investment?
7. Who do you think will benefit?
8. How has the problem been addressed in the past?
9. How do you currently address the problem?
10. What is preventing you from addressing this problem?
11. If you don’t implement a solution what is the impact?
12. How did the problem come about?
13. Have similar change projects been undertaken before?
14. Why did they succeed or fail?
15. Who will be the key users and who are the main stakeholders?
16. Whose job is on the line? (you might want to phrase this differently)
17. How will people interact and interface with the system (Outlook, Web, Mobile, Tablet)?
18. What other Microsoft Technologies do you use (Lync, SharePoint, etc)
19. How many people will use the system?
20. Will user adoption be an issue? How will user adoption be enforced, encouraged and measured?
21. How is this project perceived?
22. What do you think are the key challenges?
23. What do you think are the top benefits?
24. Who are the key supporters / objectors of the project ( you may want to rephrase)
25. What is the CRM experience of the users?
26. What is the technology experience of the users?

General Questions

1. Describe your ecosystem (Partners, Customers, Competitors)
2. Please describe a typical day
3. Do you think you have the information you have to run your business or make informed decisions?
4. How do you measure Client Value?
5. Do you track information about accounts (companies)?  If so, what characteristics are important?
6. Do you track information about contacts?  If so, what characteristics are important?
7. Please describe the customer lifecycle.
8. How do you identify customers?
9. What are the steps?
10. Who maintains the relationships?
11. How are accounts assigned?
12. What activities do you want to track?
13. Are there any data security  /visibility restrictions that need to be in place?

Sales Related Questions

1. Please provide a brief description of your existing sales organisation.
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current tools and processes?
3. Please describe a typical day in the life of a (relevant roles).
4. What is strategy, goals and objectives of your sales organisation?
5. What is preventing you from achieving these?
6. Is your strategy to acquire more customers or make existing ones more profitable (and how do you do this)?
7. How do you contact your customers and vice versa?
8. How do you segment your customers?
9. What information is shared between different teams (such as marketing)?
10. How do you forecast sales?
11. Describe the lifecycle of a sale.
12. How do you turn a prospect into a customer, what are the steps, what are the activities that are needed to support this?
13. Do you have a different processes for existing and new customers?
14. Do you have different processes (by region, product, segment)?
15. Is any of your sales function outsourced?
16. How do you measure sales performance?

Marketing Related Questions

1. Please provide a brief description of your existing marketing organisation.
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current tools and processes?
3. Please describe a typical day in the life of a (relevant roles).
4. What is the strategy, goals and objectives of your marketing organisation?
5. What is preventing you from achieving these?
6. How do you plan and budget your marketing campaigns?
7. What data is required to support marketing and is this shared between different teams?
8. Will you marketing system need to support integration into or from other systems (sfa, mail houses, call centers, web, etc)
9. What channels are used?
10. How do you segment your customers?
11. Do you outsource any part of your marketing process?
12. Describe the lifecycle of a marketing campaign.
13. How do you measure campaign performance?
14. How do you measure marketing effectiveness?

Client Service

1. Please provide a brief description of your existing client services organisation.
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current tools and processes?
3. Please describe a typical day in the life of a (relevant roles).
4. What is strategy, goals and objectives of your client services organisation?
5. What is preventing you from achieving these?
6. Describe how client service works in your organisation.
7. Describe the lifecycle of a service request.
8. How are issues recorded?
9. How do you segment your customers (from a client service perspective)?
10. How are issues resolved?
11. What channels are used?
12. Do you want customers to self serve?
13. Is any of your client service function outsourced?
14. How do you measure service performance?

Non Functional Questions

1. System and Integrations
   1. How many systems will be impacted by the solution?
   2. How many systems will impact the solution?
2. Data Migration
   1. Does the data need to be updated by the user?
   2. Is there data that would be useful in reports, workflow, dashboards, devices?
   3. One way or two way integration?
   4. Batch or real-time integration?
   5. What is the frequency of integration?
   6. What will be the golden source?
   7. What happens if data or system is unavailable?
3.  Platform Requirements
4.  Security Requirements
   1. Details any specific security requirements regarding the platform
5.  Integration Requirements
   1. Detail any technical integration requirements
6.  Performance and Scalability Requirements
   1. Detail any specific performance and scalability requirements that need to be adhered to
7.   Availability and Resilience Requirements
   1. DR, Load Balancing, or any other requirements
8.  Data Retention Requirements
9.  Operability Requirements
10.  Accessibility and Usability Requirements

Now that you have gathered the information you want to write this up in the appropriate format using the write artefact(s). I will cover the details of this process in a future post.

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Next time on Mark Margolis’s Blog: CRM Demo Tips and Suggestions