41 Stakeholder and Questionnaire Planning Worksheet
Before you can write or adapt questions to ask people, you must consider stakeholders (those directly involved, impacted by, or decision makers for):
Your name:
Community change topic:
Subtopic (if you have one or know right now):
- Think about stakeholders, folks who have a ‘stake’ in this issue persisting, being resolved, being compromised on. Stakeholders can include people who have some direct involvement with this issue, folks who are impacted by this issue, or individuals who make decisions about this issue. Brainstorm some people who you know or may have access to. In some cases, you know of someone but may not know their name, so just put their ‘position’ (i.e. a teacher, police officer, etc.) and check whether directly involved, impacted by, &/or make decisions (some folks might have or play multiple roles, so check all that apply). Don’t worry too much about the involvement/impact/ decisions designation. The idea is that you begin to see the various roles around this issue and then try to gain different viewpoints so that you can avoid interviewing two people with the same or similar roles. In this way, you’re seeking out more diverse perspectives of this community issue. Last names are not necessary at this point. Protect identities if need be.
Example for umbrella topic of homelessness; narrowed topic/subtopic of homelessness of students/minors:
| Name &/or position | Directly involved | Impacted by | Make decisions |
| Phil, homeless student | x | ||
| Captain Hernandez, police officer | x | x | |
| Taylor Jones, nurse | x | x | x |
| Suki Tanaka, local business owner | x | x | |
| Union Gospel Mission worker | x | x | |
| Out-of-the-box person: the student’s teacher, Mrs. Patterson | x | x |
Your turn:
| Name &/or position | Directly involved | Impacted by | Make decisions |
| Out-of-the-box person: | |||
| Out-of-the-box person: |
2. Next, Google a survey, questionnaire, poll about your umbrella issue or narrowed topic of interest. Copy down any questions you like from that/those survey(s) and reword if necessary.
3. What do you want to know, generally speaking, about your umbrella issue? Write down at least 5 questions.
4. What do you want to know, specifically speaking, about your subtopic or area of interest? Write down at least 5 questions. If you’re not sure about a subtopic, then you can just brainstorm 5 potential areas of interest, ex. Homelessness and teens, homelessness and the lack of affordable housing, homeless with substance abuse issues, etc.
