Field notes
What to Bring to an Engagement Audit Kick-Off
An admin panel engagement audit moves faster when the kick-off already names the work that matters. Bring a list of the ten tasks that must not fail during peak hours—named the way staff say them, not the way the menu labels them.
Share role titles for people who spend more than an hour a day in the panel. Three to five interviewees is enough for a first pass. Prefer people who still remember their first confusing week; they notice friction that long-timers have absorbed.
If you already export anonymised event logs, bring two recent weeks. If you do not, recorded walkthroughs of common tasks are enough. We would rather watch a careful walkthrough than wait weeks for a perfect telemetry export.
Note known pain points without ranking them yet. Your hunch that the refund screen is awkward is useful context, but the audit should still test that hunch against observation.
Finally, decide who will own the backlog after the readout. Engagement findings without an owner tend to become polite PDFs. Name the person who can change labels, training, or permissions—even if development sits later.