A Scrum Product Owner’s Quick And Dirty Guide To Stakeholder Management

Identify Stakeholders

One of the core responsibilities of a Product Owner is managing stakeholders. Successfully managing Stakeholder expectations, decisions, and time are all signs of effective stakeholder management. There are many tools and techniques to help you identify your stakeholders, however, below is a list of ideas to help you wrangle in those stakeholders and identify who they are:

1. Follow the money – find out who’s got some skin in the game
2. Resources – find out who’s giving your their people to assist with development
3. Deliverables – find out who you are delivering the product to
4. Decision-Makers – find out who will make decisions before you can deliver the goods
5. Related Programs/Products/Projects – find out who acts as a supporting function to your product
6. Organizational Charts – find the organizational chart and make sure it is up to date
7. Team members – if you’re new, ask your team members
8. Find Influencers – Unofficial People of Influence who yield power through influence and not their position

Know What Motivates Your Stakeholders

Understanding what motivates the stakeholders is just as important as knowing the organizational goals. Of course, we like to think that everyone thinks, “yes! go team and go us! let’s move towards our goal.” Unfortunately, politics also play a part in the Product Development game. Some stakeholders have their own interests in mind or put their own department needs first. They lose focus on the over-arching strategy of the organization. Effective Product Owners need to be aware of:

1. The Organizational Strategy
2. Budget Positioning
3. Personal Agendas
4. Stakeholder “Pet Peeves,” “Pet Projects,” and their “Pet People.”

Problem Children

Some stakeholders bring their “baggage with them.” Sometimes they lose trust in a Project Manager, Scrum Master, organizational leadership, the delivery team, or have no faith in the product itself. Some stakeholders might have been recently burned by a project. They can have some sort of “baggage” they carry with them. No one is perfect, and sometimes, as a Product Owner, you just have to own those past issues to keep development moving forward. Saying, “I’m sorry” is free and owning those issues and sharing how you intend to do it better (sharing the lesson’s learned with the stakeholder) is the first step in gaining the confidence of any “problem children.” Below is a list of reasons why your stakeholders may be “acting out.”

Lack of trust in

1. Project Manager/Product Owner/Scrum Master
2. The Project/The Product/Product Delivery Team
3. Product/Project/Program goals not articulated or defined in accordance with the organizational strategy
4. “Bad Project Experiences”
5. Your Own Past Mistakes

Problem Children exhibit the following behaviors:

1. Meddlers: Always inserting themselves into decisions, processes, or meetings where they are not required
2. The Forever SME (Subject Matter Experts): Usually a high performer who was promoted but hasn’t let go of the responsibilities of their old position
3. Indecisiveness: Can never make decisions in a timely manner
4. Lack of Budget: They ask for everything but don’t want to help pay for it

Golden Unicorns

The ideal stakeholder exhibits the below traits. Our “golden unicorns.” As a Product Owner, we want to make sure we keep the trust of our golden unicorns all the way to the finish line.

1. Belief in the Product/Program/Project
2. Don’t revel in the past — even if they had a bad project experience
3. Communicate their needs well
4. Availability
5. Team Player
6. Excellent Manager and Employee
7. Positive self-esteem
8. Helps motivate team members and other stakeholders
9. Accountable & Responsible
10. Can make timely decisions

Share your thoughts on stakeholder management in a comment below. If you’d like to have a discussion, please contact me or connect with me on social media!

Photo Credit: Pixabay

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