Business Managers

<h2>Structured Interviews with Business Managers</h2>

<p>The interviews should be with the most senior business managers to whom you can get access. To&nbsp;achieve this some pre-selling will be needed. Their fi rst response when asked for a meeting will be&nbsp;along the lines of &lsquo;Why can&rsquo;t you see my technical manager?&rsquo; You fi rst have to convince them that&nbsp;it really is them with whom you need to have a discussion and that you need to explore what they&nbsp;perceive to be the most signifi cant business risks and the most pressing needs to protect corporate
information. You must make it plain that you do not want to ask technical questions (and having&nbsp;made such a promise &ndash; do not ask any!).</p>

<p>&nbsp;By far the easiest way to get these interviews arranged is to use the infl uence of a champion who is&nbsp;a peer or even a more senior person than the target interviewee. This is where the role of the&nbsp;influencer that was discussed in an earlier section of this chapter really comes into its own.</p>