This document provides an interview guide for internal stakeholders at the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller. The guide outlines 10 sections for the interview, including introducing the interviewers and project, understanding the interviewee's role and division, discussing communication goals and challenges, current outbound efforts, division-specific needs, resources, success metrics, and next steps. Sample questions are provided under each section to learn about the communication needs and how to improve digital outreach through email and text messaging. The goal is to build an expanded digital communications strategy to increase transparency through published reports.

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New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller
Internal Stakeholder Interview Guide
Required Divisions| Suggested Interviews
Audit Division Procurement Division
Investigation Division Covid Oversight Project
Medicaid Fraud Division Chief Legal Officer
Interviews Scheduled
Ct. Date Names Division
1 Mon., Oct. 18, 12:00 PM ET | (9:00 AM PT) Jillian Holmes (sic) Covid Project
2 Mon., Oct. 18, 3:00 PM ET | (12:00 PM PT) Barbara Geary Procurement?
3 Wed., Oct. 20, 11:00 AM ET | (8:00 AM PT) Robert Shane Chief Legal Officer
4 Wed., Oct. 20, 1:00 PM ET | (10:00 AM PT) Ravi Ramanathan Investigations
5 Fri, Oct 22, 2021 11:00am ET Josh Lichtblau Medicaid

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New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller
Internal Stakeholder Interview Guide
[Section 1] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When starting the interview, remember to…
1. Introduce yourself
2. Give a brief synopsis of the project and why you are speaking to this individual
Read Statement to Set Conversational Tone and Direction
As you're aware, we'd like to understand your current experiences and
challenges regarding your outbound communications.
The initiative we are scoped and are about to work on together will seek to
improve the OSC's digital communications with the following primary goal:
The primary goal is to build and implement an expanded digital
communications strategy and process principally leveraging email
and SMS text messaging for creating heightened OSC transparency
via the publishing of educational materials, audits, and investigative
reports for public domain and stakeholder access.
We simply want to use your time today to understand where best we can
apply our expertise to help you and the OSC realize your communications
goals and objectives, and to assist all New Jersey residents and key
stakeholders for engaging with the OSC.
We'll keep the question format to our defined 30–60-minute format. But please
feel free to expand on any question you feel important and noteworthy for
which would help all of us in our future efforts.
3. Ask to record.
Our conversation today will be recorded (with your permission) so we may be
accurate in tabulating your responses. May we record the session?

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[Section 2] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roll Call
For each person on the call, make sure you document…
 Name ___________________________________________________________
 Title _____________________________________________________________
 Division | Department ___________________________________________
 Role and Responsibility
[Section 3] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communications Goals & Challenges
Let's talk a little about communications goals, objectives and challenges facing the
OSC.
 From your perspective, what is the main communications goal of the OSC
[and/or your division]?
 How would you define overall success? Communications success? For context,
are there examples of past success you can share?
 What are your current primary pain points? Obstacles? Challenges? What
barriers and/or challenges stand in the way of achieving the success you’ve
outlined? Can you give an example?
 In particular, are there any special use cases for email and/or text
messaging which require special consideration to improve your overall
communications goals and the use of these specific channels?

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[Section 4] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outbound Communications Efforts
We want to take just a few minutes to discuss your current outbound digital
communications efforts to give us a sense of where we can start to make an immediate
impact.
 How do you anticipate this new communications initiative will support your
current digital communications outreach efforts?
 How are current outbound email and text communications managed? Are there
priorities for assistance and/or improvement?
 Who are your audiences? Who do you need to share information or
communicate with? Can you describe each audience segment?
 Are there geo-populations of greater need and relevance (e.g., greater
Trenton area influence vs. outlier state regions: Northern, Central, Pines Barrens,
Southwest, Coastal)?
 What are the information needs by audience segment for which require
communications from your office?
 Are there any special content or topics which require immediate assistance
and/or improvement before the first of the year either at the OSC or Division
level?
 How are you currently raising OSC's awareness and transparency for sharing
information on its work with the general public and with key stakeholders at all
levels? How are you growing or promoting subscription lists for OSC
communications?
 Do you have your own email subscriber lists for your Divisional use?

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[Section 5] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Division Needs
Each Division likely has differing communications needs based on potentially different
audiences for whom you may need to communicate.
 Can you provide a high-level overview of Divisional communications needs as
well as any specific needs for special projects or initiatives?
 What may be any major challenges that may exist that are unique to your
division?
 Are there any federal, state, or local communications regulations or guidelines
you must adhere to and ensure are followed?
 As appropriate, can you categorize any active Division communications which
you are currently implementing? How frequent are these communications?
 Are there any recurring communications and needs we should be aware?
 Do you host occasional webinars? If so, help us understand for what and who?
 Do you create and publish explainer content (e.g., content that is used to allow
recipients to conduct business or service the community per state regulatory
guidelines)?
 Deterrence is a big communications goal as conveyed by the State Comptroller.
What, if any, communications are designed for deterrence? Can you provide
examples of content or information used for general deterrence as related in
your jurisdictional scope?
 How often do ad-hoc communications needs arise (e.g., unexpected needs to
send out a news release, email or social post, operational news update, etc.)?
 If we were to explore "evergreen" communications which is information with no
specific timeliness (a date governing when it must be published, e.g., an audit or
investigative report would need to be published within a reasonable period after
completion), what type of other general information do you share with your
audiences?

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 Where applicable, is this "evergreen content" replicable? Is it valued by
recipients? Do recipients expect this information to be made available in
accordance to past publishing frequencies?
 Do you use any planning calendars to identify the what and when for your
communications? Is there any planning committee? If so, who? If not, how are
communications planned?
 If OSC were to publish a monthly newsletter, would you be interested in providing
content updates? If so, what type of content and/or informational updates
could you provide?
 Do you currently provide any content for the internal Agency newsletter? If so,
what type of news and informational content are you providing?
 Are there other Divisions communicating with your identified audiences? Is
messaging coordinated? Why or why not?
 Do you have a backlinking strategy for driving New Jersey residents and
stakeholders back to the OSC website and to your Division webpage to collect
more expansive information?
 Do you use CTAs in your communications or encourage revisiting the website for
more information? What are these CTAs?
 What’s the most important OSC message for your audiences to hear? Is the
messaging resonating with recipients of your communications? Are audiences
re-engaging with the OSC (e.g., asking for more information, providing
comments, tips, complaints)?
[Section 6] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources & Skillsets
As with all organizations and at all levels, resources and skillsets allow what can be
realistically performed and achieved at the Division or Department level.

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 Who manages your outbound communications? Who manages the Division's
communications needs? Is there a primary person responsible for outbound
communications?
 Who manages specifically your email and text messaging efforts?
 How do you contribute to OSC's social media efforts? Who coordinates?
 Who within your Division may require training on the new email platform?
[Section 7] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Success Metrics & Reporting
Success for communications may mean different things at the Division level.
 When speaking about your own Division and to your communications needs, is
the vision of effectively communicating with your audiences different from the
OSC Agency level? If so, how? How is success defined for your own Division?
 What would be the key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate your
communications success?
 Are there milestone communications goal targets you can identify and which
you would like to achieve?
 If applicable and within Agency policy, who within the Division should be on the
communications update reporting distribution list?
[Section 8] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow Up | Next Steps
Is there anyone else you would recommend we speak with regarding your Division's
communications needs? Maybe, someone who may not be on our radar?

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[Section 9] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre-Sign-Off
We want to thank you for your time and consideration. [Use name(s)], it was an
insightful conversation and we appreciate your comments and valued insights.
The Granicus team looks forward to making a difference and assisting the OSC with
their communications efforts for the betterment of all New Jersey residents and
stakeholders.
On a final note, do you have any remaining questions for us or can we share anything
else with you?
[Section 10] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End
Thank you again. Your help has been greatly appreciated.