5 Practical Tips to Improve Managing Stakeholders: As a product manager, you have to deal with stakeholders. But how do you do it? How do you persuade those that control your resources (people, budget, and systems) that your idea is worth investing in? What if this skill is the difference between a successful product manager and a mediocre one? Alex McCarthy, Product Manager at Navigate Next, taught how to manage your stakeholders, how to craft your message, how to say “yes” and how to say “no” to senior leaders, and how to get the outcome you want. Influencing stakeholders can change the trajectory of your product – and your career.

1. How to Improve Managing Stakeholders by
Navigate Next Product Manager
www.productschool.com

2. 5 6 Practical Tipsto Improve
Managing Stakeholders
(added one thanks to Robert!)
Product School
10/26/17

3. About Me
Breadth of experience
•
Product management, software, marketing
and sales roles
Early-stage startups to global publicly-traded
companies.
Built product management teams for
hardware, software and services.
•
•
•
Product School Slack: @alexmc
Most recently VP of Product Management at• Email: alex.mccarthy@navigatenext.com
American Innovations (IoT and compliance
software).
Founded Navigate Next to help leaders make
smarter transitions to jobs where they are
passionate and engaged.
•
Product School 26 OCT 2017 2

4. 3
Summary
Stakeholder management is criticalto your success…
… and your products’ success
•
•
• Know your stakeholders
• Understand what they care about
• 5 tips to improve influencing
stakeholders
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017

5. What is stakeholder
management?
CEO / GM
• A stakeholder is anyone who can affect or is affected
by
your work
Customer R&D
• Influencing resource allocation
Channel
partner
Sales /
Marketing
•
Developing champions for your product … and for you! PM
•
Knowing the answer to “What’s in it for me?”
Supplier Support
•
Communicating clearly
Finance /
HR / ITOps / Mfg
•
Influencing without authority
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 4

6. SCORE – a simple model to think through
and present your case
Tip #1
•
•
•
•
•
Situation – what’s happening?
Challenge – what’s the challenge or problem?
Options – what options were considered?
Recommend – what’s the recommendation?
Execution – what do we do next?
Craft a Clear and
Compelling Case
(alliteration helps)
•
Afterwards make sure to capture:
•
•
The decision – “Yes”, “No”,
“Maybe”,
Next steps
“Later”, …
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 5

7. Be deliberate with your
stakeholder managementTip #2
•
List your stakeholders
Build a stakeholder
influence map
• Map them according to levels of interest
and influence
• Develop a needs list and proactively
manage each stakeholder based on their
position in the influence map
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 6

8. UnderstandYourStakeholders
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 7
Role What They Need What I Need
CEO / GM A product plan that supports
business goals and company
strategy
Funding, time, influence rest
of executive leadership…
R&D
Architect
Clear product definition,
timely feedback, voice of the
customer
Excellent design, quality
development, on-time
releases…
Sales VP A product the customer
wants, training, a partner
Access to customers,
forecasting and pricing
feedback…
Marketing
VP
Understanding of customer
problems, unique value prop.
Market positioning and
campaigns…
Customer
Support Product training, high quality,
ease of use
Excellent customer service,
feedback…

9. Map Your
Satisfy their
needs when
required
Stakeholders
Fully engage.
Make part of
the team (if
possible)
Provide
general
information
when needed
Understand
needs & solicit
input
**Stakeholder Map exercise credit: https://www.kbp.media/stakeholder-
map/
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 8

10. Get them to say “No” themselves
1. Really listen and understand it. Maybeit’s a great idea in disguise.
Tip #3
2. Ask them how it benefits the business
or your customers, improves the
UVP,…
Say “No” to dumb
ideas
- respectfully! 3. Discuss potential trade-offs
4. If unsuccessful, delay until you can:
• Speak with other stakeholders
• Collect more data to weigh the merits
• Propose fast, low-cost experiment
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 9

11. Questions to TestBad Ideas
•
•
How does it benefit the customer?
How does it improve our unique valueproposition?
How does it grow the business?
What does it cost the business?
How does it align with our companygoals? Brand?
How does it fit with the product
vision?
How will it benefit the existingworkflow or backlog?
How will it improve engagement?
•
•
•
•
•
•
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 10

12. Communicate with stakeholdersopenly and often
Develop a project wiki, internal site or a
newsletter
Tip #4
•
• Provide both quantitative and qualitativeinformation
• Metrics and KPIs
• Customer interactions
Practice
transparency
• Consider your stakeholder needs
• Encourage questions and feedback
• Keep it up to date!
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 11

13. Make conversations more influential andproductive
Tip #5
• Every stakeholder will have words, ideas and
models that are unique to their roleBe conversant
in their
language
• Finance has GAAP, SOX, deferred earnings,
• Development has burndown, sprints, …
• IT has firewalls, SLAs, …
• Sales has quotas, pipelines, …
…
•
Learn to speak “beginner
.”
(Parlez vous finance?)
•
Use blogs, videos, training, etc.
©2017 Navigate Next Product School 26 OCT 2017 12

14. Product School 26 OCT 2017 13
Start with a few, core stakeholders and build outwards from there.
1. Start with the most influential stakeholder first to get feedback
and
support
Then engage other stakeholders and their trusted advisors (the people
they count on)
Finally, engage the rest of the stakeholders and their trusted advisors
Tip #6
2.
3.
Socialize to
build
consensus
•
•
The bigger the idea or “the ask” the more important this is.
It takes longer up front – but if you don’t build consensus early it’ll takea lot longer over time.
1. Meet with 2 to 3 core high-
influence stakeholders
2. Other stakeholders and key
“lieutenants”
3. Broader functional team
members
©2017 Navigate Next

15. 6 OCT 2017 14
Conclusion
• Stakeholder management is
critical to your career…
• …and your products’ success
• Stakeholder management is
easier if you follow several
basic tips
• Focused communication and
transparency turn your
stakeholders into champions
Product School Slack: @alexmc
Email:
alex.mccarthy@navigatenext.com
Product School 2

16. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles
and New York
www.productschool.com