You must establish what you need to find out, and why you need to find this information out. It is crucial that you are clear about this from the very beginning. You must establish a clear statement describing why the exercise is being carried out and how the results will be used. It is important to establish boundaries and scope: to define the issue or question. This will assist in the decisions you make in planning and implementation.
For example, if you’re wanting to find out about services, it will be important to be clear about whether views are to be sought on the level of service or on the means of providing the service. The former will be the most common whereby information is sought on issues such as frequency of service, cost, and quality and performance measures. An example of this would be the frequency and cost of the refuse collection service. In considering means, some changes (such as to the make or size of refuse truck) will be of limited interest to stakeholders whereas changes that directly affect service users (such as a proposal to introduce ‘wheelie-bins’) may arouse strong reactions.
In defining the issue or question, the constraints that apply to the decision must be defined. These may be legal, financial or technical. It is important that those constraints are explained, so that those whose views are sought are aware of the organisations view as to how much room for manoeuvre is available.
A Resource
Checklist can be used and adapted/amended as you continue to plan.