Managing Stakeholders

1. S TA K E H O L D E R M A N A G E M E N T
How to make
everyone fall
in love with
your plan

2. Bruce McCarthy
Founder, Product Culture
Product Manager
Director
VP
Chief Product
Person
President
CEO
Strategic
partnerships
Engineering
Manager
UX Designer
Data Analyst
Marketing
Sales
Scrum Master
Enterprise
Coach
Startup Advisor
Trainer
Mentor
Author
Speaker

3. www.goroadmaps.com
bruce@productculture.com
C Todd Lombardo
@iamctodd
Bruce McCarthy
@d8a_driven
Evan Ryan
@evanfryan
Michael Connors

5. A perfectly
doomed plan

8. Marketing
Sales
Support
Finance
I forgot about

9. A good decision with
bad understanding from
others, won’t get you
the results you need.”
Clément Wehrung,
Dir. Product Management, Fuze

10. “If you want stakeholder buy-in,
treat them like customers.”
I N S I G H T

11. How to effectively
manage
stakeholders
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

12. How to effectively
manage
stakeholders
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

13. The Real Org Chart
Mark Walsh from Integration Training (integrationtraining.co.uk)

14. I N T E R E S T
I
N
F
L
U
E
N
C
E
Influence vs. Interest

15. I N T E R E S T
I
N
F
L
U
E
N
C
E
TEAM
People contributing full time or part
time to your product or initiative
IMPACTED
People affected by your results,
including customers & partners
SUBJECT EXPERTS
People with useful information,
ideas, or advice
POWER PLAYERS
People who can approve, fund, or
hold your product on initiative back
TIPS Framework

16. Everybody is a stakeholder
O H C R A P

17. Most of them don’t work for you
O H C R A P O H C R A P

18. How to effectively
manage
stakeholders
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

19. Who are your
power players?
Join at slido.com
#1163 243

20. Stakeholder Atom
Core Team
Customers
Executives
Research
Customer
Support
Production
Finance
Vendors
& Partners
Sales
Marketing
& PR
Other
Product Teams
YOU
Operations

21. How to effectively
manage
stakeholders
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

22. Intimacy vs. Bandwidth
Face to Face
WORLD
CROWD
GROUP
1:1
LOW BANDWIDTH HIGH BANDWIDTH
1:1 Email
Group
Email
Company
Memo
Tweet
Slack DM Text Phone Zoom
Website YouTube
Video
All Hands
Private Slack
Channel
Group
Text
Concall
Webinar
Public Slack
Channel
Zoom
Meeting
In Person
Meeting
Speaking
Tour
Podcast

23. Intimacy vs. Bandwidth
Face to Face
WORLD
CROWD
GROUP
1:1
LOW BANDWIDTH HIGH BANDWIDTH
1:1 Email
Group
Email
Company
Memo
Tweet
Slack DM Text Phone Zoom
Website YouTube
Video
All Hands
Private Slack
Channel
Group
Text
Concall
Webinar
Public Slack
Channel
Zoom
Meeting
In Person
Meeting
Speaking
Tour
Podcast

24. You must infer them
from their effects
Motives are like a black hole:

25. Hey, can I show you my
roadmap?
How will all this help me close business?
Can I promise this to customers?
What about the competition?
I have 5 special requests I'd like to add
Sure.
PM
PM SLS
ENG

26. Hey, can I show you my
roadmap?
Do you know how much work this is?
What about the tech debt?
I would never use this stuff
Will you change your mind tomorrow?
Sure.
PM
PM ENG
ENG

27. Hey, can I show you my
roadmap?
Will this help us drive acquisition?
Retention? Market expansion?
When do we start to make money?
How can we reduce R&D expenditures?
Sure.
PM
PM FIN
ENG

28. Hey, can I show you my
roadmap?
Are you using any open source?
Can we patent something?
Could someone sue us?
Sure.
PM
PM LGL
ENG

29. Start with what you
know, then observe
With stakeholders:

30. Listen
Treat them like you
would a customer:

31. POSTURE
Instead of talking, mirror
FRONTING EYE
CONTACT
LEANING
IN
TRIPLE
NOD
PUNCTUATION
GESTURES
WORD
CHOICE
SPEAKING
STYLE

32. Watching customers struggle
with his product enabled this
engineer to understand their
mindset, which completely
changed our working
relationship”
Melissa Appel,
Assoc. Director. Product Mgmt, Wayfair

33. How to effectively
manage
stakeholders
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

34. PARTICIPATIVE
One person decides but actively seeks
input from stakeholders. Everyone is
expected to debate and commit.
CONSENSUS
Everyone must agree before a
decision is final. Often there is
extensive discussion and debate.
DEMOCRATIC
The group gathers information and
then votes. Everyone is expected
to accept the majority decision.
DIRECTIVE
A few people decide and inform
others. Everyone is expected to
get on board.
Decision styles

35. How does your
org make
decisions?
Join at slido.com
#1163 243

36. PARTICIPATIVE
One person decides but actively seeks
input from stakeholders. Everyone is
expected to debate and commit.
CONSENSUS
Everyone must agree before a
decision is final. Often there is
extensive discussion and debate.
DEMOCRATIC
The group gathers information and
then votes. Everyone is expected
to accept the majority decision.
DIRECTIVE
A few people decide and inform
others. Everyone is expected to
get on board.
Decision styles

37. Bain & Company Survey Conclusions
1. >50% of top performers rely on participative style
2. Employee engagement is signi
fi
cantly higher in companies
with a participative style
3. Employees of participative companies are 3x likelier to
recommend their organization as a place to work
4. A participative style often improves speed and quality of
decisions

38. Requests, approvals,
objection handling
Stakeholder Management is NOT:

39. Proactive,
not reactive
Stakeholder Management IS:

40. Leading a group
of people to do
something great
STAKEHOLDER MANA GE ME N T

41. The Advice
Process

42. In the Advice Process: someone…
Owns
Success
Seeks
input
Drives
alignment

43. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for
consensus, but a molder of consensus.”
M A R T I N L U T H E R K I N G , J R .

44. The DRI

45. “Every project is assigned a
DRI who is ultimately held
accountable for the success
(or failure) of that project.”
“At Apple when someone is
trying to learn the right
contact on a project: ‘Who’s
the DRI on that?’”

46. CROSS-
FUNCTIONAL
TEAMS
COMPLEX
DECISIONS OR
PROJECTS
DELEGATING TO
SOMEONE CLOSE
TO THE DATA
The DRI: useful for…

47. Aligns with
authorities on
objectives
Reviews
available data
Communicates
decisions &
reasons why
Aligns with
stakeholders on
metrics, priorities
Seeks the
best advice
Communicates
progress
broadly & regularly
THE
DRI

48. Anatomy of a
good decision
THE FORD V8

49. ‣ Customers
‣ Dealers
‣ Procurement
‣ Finance
‣ Manufacturing
‣ Executives
Chase Morsey, Jr.
Product Planning, Ford Motor Company

50. How to launch
your product
AND YOUR
CAREER
successfully
LEAD
UNDERSTAND
PRIORITIZE
IDENTIFY

51. Building Trust
Establishing Roles
Speaking the Local Language
Getting to Yes
Making People Happy with No
Sustaining Buy-In
COMING 2023

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