Product Management
Stakeholder Management
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Stakeholder management involves identifying, analyzing, and engaging with individuals or groups who have an interest or Influence in the product's success. It aims to build relationships and ensure their needs and expectations are met to achieve successful outcomes.
Stakeholder Management is part of our Engineering Career Leveling Framework. Explore next steps in your career from this industry-standard model.
Intro to Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder Management involves the identification, analysis, and engagement of stakeholders to ensure their needs and expectations are met. It is a critical aspect of product management and requires a strategic approach to achieve success.
Stakeholder ManagementMarty provides an end-to-end breakdown of stakeholder management, with various tips, such as when to engage stakeholders in discovery and solution previews, and how much time to spend with stakeholders per week.
Common Stakeholder Management Challenges
These are common challenges people face when gaining expertise in stakeholder management. Tackling these challenges head-on can help you learn this skill quicker.
I’m a Product Manager at a startup. We are developing a new feature that requires significant changes to the existing infrastructure. The engineering team is already overwhelmed with other projects and deadlines, so they are resistant to making these changes. What are the best steps for me to address their concerns about workload and bring them on board with this project?I’m a VP of engineering at a tech company. We are planning to adopt a new technology stack to improve performance and scalability. The development team is hesitant as they are comfortable with the existing stack and are nervous about the learning curve. What should my approach be to get this group of stakeholders to understand why this is important and get their support?Add your own to track your progress and inspire othersHow to Manage Stakeholders
Effective stakeholder management involves a range of activities, including stakeholder identification, analysis, prioritization, and engagement. This requires clear communication, Active Listening, and a willingness to adapt to changing stakeholder needs and expectations.
Techniques for Making it Easier to Manage StakeholdersDavid covers the end-to-end process his team uses at Freightos to manage stakeholders, including: • Avoid Opinions — Use Data • Involve Stakeholders in Prioritization and Tradeoff Decisions • Give Your Stakeholders Visibility
Stakeholder Management: How I get Everyone on the Same PageJackie covers three key areas of stakeholder management: • Focus on goals • Clarify the decision maker • Know when to escalate
Getting to Effective Stakeholder CommunicationBased on an expert workshop led by Melody Koh and Alexandria Stried, Brittney covers 20 do's and 13 don'ts of stakeholder communication, spread across 4 categories: • Communicating with Leadership • Communicating with your team • Communicating with stakeholders • Communicating with customers
What I learned about cross-functional collaboration from being a PM at LyftHadar covers his tips for how to manage stakeholders across communication, documentation, and feedback. He also provides tips for how to resolve conflict in a large group of stakeholders.
Managing Difficult Relationships
Managing difficult stakeholder relationships requires a proactive approach that involves identifying potential conflicts, addressing concerns, and finding mutually beneficial solutions. This requires strong communication skills, Empathy, and the ability to negotiate effectively. It is important to establish trust and build positive relationships with stakeholders to ensure project success.
18 tricks to deal with unhelpful stakeholdersSid outlines four different types of unhelpful stakeholders that product managers often encounter and provides advice on how to work with them: 1. the one who is never transparent 2. the one who thinks they know-it-all 3. the arrogant and authoritarian one 4. the one who is always negative.
4 Ways to Win Over a Reluctant StakeholderAshley digs into 4 ways to manage difficult stakeholder relationships: 1. Walk in their shoes 2. Define shared success 3. Overcome the ‘we can’t’ wall 4. Underpromise and overdeliver
Good stakeholder, bad stakeholderGraham uses the good (and sometimes great) / bad framework to show examples of stakeholder relationships from multiple angles.