Business Analyst
Stakeholder
hard
How would you elicit requirements from a senior stakeholder who won't give you time?
Asked at
SwiggyRazorpayPhonePe
Framework
observe → strawman → confirm in writing
Model answer
Stop asking for time — send them a draft to react to. A one-page strawman with three clear options gets a response in 24 hours; a blank meeting invite gets ignored.
What great candidates actually do
- Observe the workflow first — shadow the team, read tickets, sit in on calls.
- Draft a strawman that's 80% right and 20% deliberately wrong. Wrongness invites correction.
- Ask for a 15-min async review (Loom or doc comment), not a 60-min meeting.
- Confirm every verbal agreement in writing within 4 hours.
Traps to avoid
- Naming the solution before the problem — always restate the goal in one sentence first.
- Answering without structure — pick a framework out loud, then execute it.
- Skipping the trade-off — every strong answer names what you would NOT do and why.
Related questions
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