Product managers sit in the middle of business, user experience and technology. Each area has different needs in order to reach their goals, and feels that their asks should be considered the most important. As a result, product managers are often put in a difficult situation of balancing the needs of many stakeholders, all while moving their product forward for their customers.
This talk covers important points of stakeholder management.
10. 1. Identify Your Stakeholders
@thedailyem
But recognize they’re not all equal
11. Transparency - don’t hide information
Don’t try to win every argument up front
Back your decisions with data, and ask the same of others
Goals for
Monitor
Keep informed
Keep satisfied
Manage
Closely
Stakeholder Onion
13. @thedailyem
Who: 5-10 key stakeholders
When: At the beginning of any large effort,
or when you sense misalignment
How long: 30-45 minutes
Stakeholder Interviews
14. @thedailyem
• Tell me what you know about this project
• What are your goals for this project?
• What are your biggest fears about this
project?
• How would you like to be kept updated?
• What problems are you the right person to
solve?
Stakeholder Interviews
17. Core Team High-Touch Low-Touch
•Goals Alignment
•Contributor/user of
tracking tools
•Daily standup
•Weekly retros
•Regular ad hoc
conversations
•Goals Alignment
•Access to tracking tools
•Weekly update meeting
•Weekly update email
•Frequent ad hoc
conversations
• Goals Alignment
• Weekly update email
• Weekly email
• Ad hoc conversations
when they have
questions
Sample Communication Plan
29. @thedailyem
Who: Core team, key stakeholders,
naysayers
When: At the beginning of any large effort,
or when you sense misalignment
How long: 1-2 hours
Goals Alignment Workshop
30. @thedailyem
• Everyone generates goals of the project on
sticky notes on their own (silently)
• Business goals, Product goals, Team goals
• Each person reads their goals out loud,
ENDING with the HiPPO
• Identify themes and dot vote importance
• Prioritize goals (especially conflicting)
Goals Alignment Workshop
31. @thedailyem
• List out things this effort will not accomplish
• Good things for the future, but not a part of
this project
• Things that could be tempting distractions
for the team
• You might pull some of the generated goals
into this category
Anti-Goals and Distractions
32. @thedailyem
• Prioritized list of goals for the team
• Revisited by the team every few weeks to
ensure we’re headed in the right direction
• Can be altered if the team decides a goal is no
longer relevant, but needs buy-in
• Use with stakeholders to re-focus
conversations
Goals Workshop Output
