"Step 2:  Identify stakeholder questions or concerns"
featuring Dr. Vincent Covello

The second step in message mapping is to identify stakeholder questions or concerns.  In this particular regard, there are certain types of questions that we have to ensure that we’ve covered.  The first are referred to as overarching questions, the second are informational questions, and the third are challenging questions.  Let me say a few words about each in turn. 

Overarching questions are the big-picture questions, the 35,000-feet questions such as, “What would you like us to know? What’s important for us to know?”  The informational questions are the same questions, typically, for example, that the media will ask, such as the “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why,” and “how.”  But I would argue that the most important, often, in helping to resolve an issue are what are referred to with the challenging questions.  Three examples would be a false-allegation question where people would say, “You’re lying to me. You’re not telling me the whole truth. You’re covering up information.”  Or it might be a guarantee question: “Can you guarantee X,Y, or Z?”  Or it might be a “what if” question: “What would happen if the worst should happen?” 

In order to get these questions, there are various ways to acquire these questions—such as empathetic thinking.  You can say to yourself, “What would I be asking if I were in this position?”  But even more—I would argue—accurate is to do empirical research.  The best predictor of the future is the past, to see what people have asked in the past—everything from hotlines and telephone calls and letters and public hearings and public meetings and media research.  For example, one of the most famous lists of questions from stakeholders is the list called the “Seventy-Seven Most Frequently Asked Questions by Reporters in a Disaster.” Again, the purpose of this is to be able to profile the stakeholders in terms of their questions and concerns.