Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Stakeholder Management 8/4/2016 Agenda Intro (30 sec each, 10 minutes) Groups of four (20 min) Share the most challenging stakeholder situation you have encountered and how you resolved (or didn’t!) Stakeholder Management Strategies Presentation (20 min) Groups of four (20 min) Name, organization, years in product management and most interesting comment you have ever been told by a stakeholder Each group pick a stakeholder type and summarize strategies for Management Regroup (30 min) Each team present their strategies back to the group (5 min each) Stakeholder Management Process How to approach stakeholder management? 1. Who are your Stakeholders? 2. Analyze your stakeholders 3. Manage your Stakeholders 4. Monitor Stakeholder Management Identify stakeholders Stakeholder Identification • Traditional: Managers, Department leads, Business leads • Organizational Politics, Review & Approve, PMO • Agile: Peers, Agile Team, Sales, Marketing, Development • Team autonomy, peer to peer stakeholder Most Common Stakeholders in Product Management Executives Sales/Marketing Support/Implementation Engineering/Development Design/Creative Customers Analyze your stakeholders Stakeholder Needs Executives Sales/Marketing How do we build this this product? Design/Creative How do we insure customer success with this product? Engineering/Development How do we convince people to buy this product? Support/Implementation How does this product relate to the bottom line and company strategy? How do we maximize the user experience of this product to make it amazing? Customers How does this product solve my problems? Stakeholder Communication Mapping • How much control over resources and decisions does your stakeholder have? • How much do they care about your work? Stakeholder Behavior and Expectations • I think… • I like… • I know… Analytical Driver Amiable Expressive • I feel… Stakeholder Behavior and Expectations • Let’s do it the right way. • Let’s do it the caring way. • Let’s do it my way. Analytical Driver Amiable Expressive • Let’s do it the fun way! People Styles, Merrill & Reid Stakeholder Behavior and Expectations • Process • Consensus • Results Analytical Driver Amiable Expressive • Recognition People Styles, Merrill & Reid Stakeholder Behavior and Expectations • Process • Consensus • Results Analytical Driver Amiable Expressive • Recognition People Styles, Merrill & Reid Stakeholder Behavior and Expectations • Quiet, focused, data driven • Calm, focused, caring and soothing • Authoritative, results focused, directive Analytical Driver Amiable Expressive • Bubbly, enthusiastic, ideas & people People Styles, Merrill & Reid Stakeholder Type Sales, Marketing Executives Development, Engineering Support, Services Communication Tools Communication Tool: Active Listening Be sure to empathically listen to your stakeholders needs… Communication Tool: Organizational Politics • Politics occurs when two people interact! • • • • • • • Financial or emotional interest? Current opinion of your work? Information source? Influencers? Are influencers stakeholders? Plan how to bring them to support9] Plan how to manage their opposition Who do stakeholders influence Communication Tool: Organizational Politics Resource: “I wish Id known that earlier in my career: the power of positive workplace politics” Jane Horan Communication Tool: Social Exchange and “Stroking” Every interaction accumulates reservoir of good or bad will This adds up over time! Full bucket=favors and forgiveness Empty bucket=blame and no forgiveness Especially important in sales, support and peer to peer relationships Communication Tool: Transactional Analysis We adopt ego-roles in our relations with others Parent/child/adult Relate to your stakeholder on their level or as an adult Parent: “You must build this feature in the product..” Child: “I don’t understand why you never build in the features we ask for…” Adult: “ Let’s’ work together to understand what might be possible..” Reference: “Games People Play” Eric Berne Communication Tool: Problem/Solution Always be sure to get to the root cause of a request…often a solution is already available! Ask: “What is the problem the user is trying to solve “Tell me more about why you need this feature..” “Let’s talk with the customer to understand the use case..” Offer Alternative: “I know you asked for this, but based on your need this approach may work better…” Communication Tool: Negotiation + Relationship Most requests are a negotiation… Both parties should feel “Win-Win” interaction Especially important in working with sales - Issue You Win/ They Win You Lose/They Win You Win/ They Lose You Lose/ They Lose - Communication Tool: Delay • Sometimes the best approach is to delay a response… • Take the request seriously, and don’t immediately decline • It also gives you time to find a negotiating point. • “Let me investigate a bit…” • “Let me regroup with development to understand technically what this might require..” Communication Tool: Respect, Defer, Data Allow the other party to own the decision Express respect for their expert knowledge “I trust your expertise…” Be sure to present your perspective backed up by data Allow for candid, direct critique and “fierce conversations” Crowdsource the analysis Manage and Monitor your stakeholders Manage/Monitor Your Stakeholders Use your analysis to create a plan for each major stakeholder or stakeholder group Manage and update that plan over time to assess if changes need to be made Activity! Exercise: Break into groups of four and select a stakeholder persona from the list below: Executive Sales Support Development Design Marketing Customer Develop a plan for managing & communicating with this stakeholder Present your plan back to the group Consider: Communication Needs Communication format Political factors Driving motivation in role Behavioral motivators Challenges likely to be encountered Approaches for overcoming challenges Marketing/Executive I admit, I couldn't quite read these! Marketing/Executive Marketing Executive Sales Talk with them in person/phone, not over email Requests: Don’t just say no, instead take the time to listen empathically to their needs Build relationships with sales. If they feel you have done your due diligence in investigating a request and in helping them with other requests, they will be more accepting if you cant complete the current requests. Be sure to track what you have done in the past to show proffo of what you will continue to do in the future-if you are trying to convice sales or a customer you can deliver on a feature, create a visual map of previous features delivered upon as a timeline. When they make requests, place them in your product backlog and help them understand it isnt just “No” but more like “not right now, but maybe in the future” If they have a significant demand, ask them to help you validate the request by verifying opportunity size. Ask them to commit to delivering on that opportunity size. Good guy, bad guy approach can sometimes help. Remind of Sales management alignment at a strategic level when asked for requests that are not aligned with strategy. For GTM, Focused communication on their needs Recognize their needs often tie to numbers Messaging/positioning is most important, not all details of the product Provide buyer personas and market segmentation in a concise GTM package Creative/Design Reaffirm their value to the team and project Provide feedback in a positive-critique-positive sandwich, so they feel affirmed Help them understand the context of the problem by providing information about use cases, personas and why a change needs to be made Set office hours for communication, but maintain boundaries to prevent excessive back and forth Ask the 5 whys when trying to understand something that seems confusing Recognize their reasons (they usually have reasons) and try to be understanding Ask them to help understand not only the usability and aesthetics of the problem, but the ROI as well If in conflict or disagreement, use customer testing as a way to resolve Be certain to provide clear requirements and clear personas to the creative team to prevent having to rework or change later