Mastering Product Stakeholder Management: Essential Tips for Product Managers and CEOs
As a product manager or CEO with ownership of the product function, managing stakeholders is a crucial part of your role. Stakeholders are individuals or groups who have an interest in or are affected by the product you're creating, and they can include internal team members, executives, customers, investors, and more. Effective stakeholder management can help you navigate challenges, gain valuable insights, and build trust with your team and stakeholders. Here are some essential tips for mastering product stakeholder management.
Identify Your Stakeholders
Before you can manage your stakeholders effectively, it's important to know who they are. Your stakeholders will vary depending on the product and the organization you're working with. They may include internal team members, executives, investors, customers, suppliers, and partners. Identify who your stakeholders are and their level of interest or influence in the product. This will help you determine how to engage with them and what information they need. A simple spreadsheet will do to list who the stakeholders are, their role, their needs from you and their role with the product/service.
Build Trust with People
Trust is essential when working with stakeholders. You need to establish trust in your insights and expertise, which can be done through empathy, active listening, and building relationships beyond the work you're doing. Take the time to understand your stakeholders' perspectives, goals, and pain points. This can help you tailor your approach and build a strong foundation of trust that will allow for clear communication from everyone.
Involve Stakeholders in Important Product Decisions
Involving stakeholders in important product decisions can lead to better outcomes. A more holistic view of the product can help you identify potential issues and opportunities as you are not only looking at the problem/solution from one perspective. I have seen many projects that were sidetracked due to overlooked factors. However, it was a great learning to see this as it showed me how beneficial it is involve all stakeholders. But you need to be mindful of how you engage with each stakeholder to, which brings us on to the next point.
Tailor Your Approach to Stakeholders
Different stakeholders have different needs and goals. Collaborate with your stakeholders and get feedback on how they prefer to receive information. Tailor your communication and engagement strategies to meet their needs. This can help you build stronger relationships and foster more productive collaboration. For example, a CEO might want to receive a demo of a prototype early on and weekly 1-sentence updates for every week after that. A Marketing Manager, might want awareness of the project early on through the likes of a weekly update, but will need more information in the weeks coming up to the launch. Speak to everyone and find out what works best for everyone and yourself.
Engage Stakeholders Early
Engaging stakeholders early can help you avoid major issues down the road. When stakeholders feel left out, they may stay silent, which means you're not getting valuable input, or they may ask for changes to things that have already been committed to. Involve stakeholders early in the process, gather feedback, and use it to inform your decisions. This can feel like a balancing act at times as you might wonder what the right point is to bring a stakeholder into the conversation. You need to trust yousrelf on this based on your judgement of people and make changes when needed.
Set Boundaries
While it's important to involve stakeholders, it's also important to maintain boundaries. As a product manager or CEO, your job is not to take blind orders, but to ask questions and be curious. Don't take all opinions and try to implement them all, as it won't work. Instead, use your expertise and insights to make informed decisions that will benefit the product and the organization as a whole.
In conclusion, effective stakeholder management is essential for product managers and CEOs who want to create successful products. By identifying your stakeholders, managing internal key stakeholders, building trust, engaging stakeholders early, involving stakeholders in important decisions, keeping a map of your stakeholders, tailoring your approach, and setting boundaries, you can build strong relationships and create successful products.
If you're struggling with stakeholder management or other product management challenges, consider working with a product management consultant. As a consultant, I can provide you with the expertise and guidance you need to optimize your product function, engage stakeholders effectively, and create successful products. Contact me today to learn more about how I can help you achieve your product management goals.
