Engaging Stakeholders in Project Prioritization

"What is the best tip or advice you’ve received for effectively engaging sponsors?" Here is an analysis of over 800 responses from registrants of tomorrow's Prosci webinar on our latest research about elevating executive engagement. 1. Understanding and Aligning with Sponsor's Goals and Priorities - Engaging sponsors by deeply understanding their strategic objectives and aligning project outcomes with these priorities, including the importance of aligning the project’s objectives with the sponsor's goals and demonstrating how the project supports their strategic vision and organizational success. "Understand their goals: Align your proposal with their strategic objectives." "Focus on what's in it for them personally, not just for the company." "Understand their vision and roadmap to integrate change management for the best partnership." 2. Effective Communication - Strategies focused on clear, concise, and regular communication with sponsors. This involves tailoring communication to the sponsor's preferences, using concise messaging, and ensuring they are kept informed about project progress, challenges, and needs. "Keep messages concise and get to the point right away." "Short and to the point. Lead with the punch line." "Use bullet points in the communication to them, and put 'ACTION BY DD/MM/YY' in the subject line." 3. Building Relationships and Trust - Developing strong, trustworthy relationships with sponsors through regular engagement and understanding their communication style. Building rapport and trust is critical for effective sponsorship, including strategies for establishing strong partnerships, being a reliable partner, and understanding sponsors' needs and preferences. "Develop strong relationships with executive sponsors by being a reliable and proactive partner." "Spend a lot of time with them to develop a relationship. Demonstrate active listening." "Build trust and credibility." 4. Demonstrating Value and ROI - Showcasing the value and return on investment (ROI) of the project to sponsors. This involves using data, success stories, and clear metrics to demonstrate the project's potential impact, thereby justifying the sponsor's investment and involvement. "Demonstrate ROI: Share success stories and metrics to justify their investment." "Present them with the value add of OCM using numbers." "Highlighting the ROI, but this had been a challenge in a small organization." 5. Active Engagement and Support - Ensuring sponsors are actively engaged and understand their role in the project's success. This category focuses on the actions sponsors need to take and the support they require to fulfill their roles effectively. It includes providing training, tools, and regular updates. "Engage early; understand priorities and pressures; clear and transparent communication and engagement." "Provide them with a tool kit for everything they may need to understand and manage the change." "Ensure alignment early and often."

Tactic 2 for influencing stakeholders from Jules Walter: Frame your message from their POV (not yours) It’s more effective to speak their language and demonstrate how your proposal will help them reach their goals, not yours. Stakeholders are focused on their own problems and are more receptive to proposals that address what’s already top of mind for them. A few years ago, when I was leading Monetization at Slack, we began to encounter diminishing returns in our product iterations, and we needed to take a bigger swing to re-ignite revenue growth. To do that, I spearheaded a controversial project to experiment with a new approach to free-to-paid conversion. The CEO, Stewart Butterfield, had strong reservations about the project. I knew from his previous statements that he didn’t want the company to be thinking about ways to extract value from users, but rather ways to create value for them. We had scheduled a review with the CEO and a few of his VPs to discuss the proposal. Since he was intensely user-driven, I framed the entire proposal around the benefits it would have for users (the CEO’s POV) rather than emphasizing the revenue impact of the project (our team’s goal). I started the meeting by anchoring the proposal on user-centric insights that we shared in a deck: - “About 10% of purchases of Slack’s paid version happen from users in their first day on Slack.” - “Paid users find more value and retain better. Yet we make it hard for people to discover that Slack has a paid version that’s more helpful.” - “How do we help new teams experience the full version of Slack from the start?” Once we framed the issue with this user-centric lens, the CEO was more open to our proposal and let us try a couple of experiments in this new direction. This user-centric framing also got the cross-functional team more excited and set an aspirational North Star with clear guardrails, which then enabled various teammates to contribute productively to the project. After we tested two iterations of our monetization experiment, we landed on a version that resulted in a significant increase in revenue for Slack (a 20% increase in teams paying for Slack) and we used what we learned to shift Slack’s monetization strategy into a new, more successful direction. Full set of tactics here: https://lnkd.in/gezP2EDw

Struggling with stakeholder buy-in? I have a template that can help. The Power-Interest matrix maps key stakeholders into 4 personas: 🔴 The ARCHITECTS (high power, high interest) These are people with a lot of power who are very involved in research (e.g., product managers, design leaders) 🟢 The OBSERVERS (high power, low interest) Someone with a lot of power, but an arms-length distance from your work (e.g., Head of Product., C-suite) 🟡 The EXPLORERS (low power, high interest) They’re super interested in your work, but don’t have a lot of influence in the org (fellow UXRs, designers) 🔵 The CASUAL OBSERVERS (low power, low interest) Someone without a lot of influence or interest in research (think other team members like sales, marketing) To make getting buy-in easier, you need to understand each stakeholder persona, and talk to them accordingly. ARCHITECTS need most attention. They need close management with regular updates + involvement. OBSERVERS only care about business outcomes. They prefer concise reports & summaries that are action-oriented, without jargon. For CASUAL OBSERVERS, you can loop them in on big breakthroughs + findings that matter to their work. EXPLORERS are fans of research. Keep them informed through shared repositories & weekly syncs. For a detailed analysis of each stakeholder and how to engage with them better, go here: https://bit.ly/4b0wGSC If you want to skip the reading, just use my FREE Stakeholder Persona Mapping Figjam template: https://bit.ly/4b4JN5A Which type of stakeholders have you struggled with the most? Please share wisdom in the comments! 👇 #uxresearch #stakeholdermanagement

THE stakeholder conversation that will make or break your project You're got a great looking project on paper. Then reality hits. Deadlines slip. Priorities shift. Stakeholders "forget" what they agreed to. And in an instant, you're in firefighting mode. Have this ONE conversation at the start to prevent this: → "What does success ACTUALLY look like?" Here's how to have it the right way: ✅ Ask key stakeholders "if this project is successful, what will be different?" This helps you uncover their REAL priorities beyond scope, time, and cost. ✅ Clarify trade-offs upfront Is speed top priority? If so, are they willing to cut scope? Is quality key? If yes, will they accept delays? Aligning expectations and key deliverables early prevents conflict later. ✅ Have measurable outcomes at the beginning "Improve efficiency" means nothing. "Reduce processing time by 30%" is a clear, attainable goal. Your job isn't just to deliver a project. Your job is to deliver results that matter. Define success upfront to ensure you can deliver it. 🤙

Aligning executive stakeholders with conflicting priorities is a puzzle many product people face. How do you solve it? When stakeholders pull in different directions, the secret isn't in aligning immediately around a product vision. Instead, elevate the conversation: align first on company goals. What outcomes do we aspire to achieve as a company? This unified understanding of company priorities becomes your north star. Here's how you can approach this: 1️⃣ Level Up the Discussion: Before diving into a product vision, ask stakeholders to agree on broader company goals. What did your CEO emphasize as priorities for your business? This context is crucial. It sets the stage for aligning individual goals to the bigger picture. 2️⃣ Connect Back to Product Vision: Once unified on company objectives, demonstrate how the product vision helps achieve these goals. "Here's our shared goal. Based on customer insights and priorities, this vision drives us towards it.” This shows your vision isn't just arbitrary—it's informed and intentional. 3️⃣ Seek Constructive Feedback: Encourage dialogue. Why might a stakeholder disagree with the vision? Is it truly about priorities, or personal impacts and unmet goals? This feedback refines your approach but remember, the product vision isn't a committee decision. It's guided by data and customer needs. 4️⃣ Give Credit and Build Back: Stakeholders feel valued when their input shapes outcomes. Make sure to recognize their contributions. This fosters trust and buy-in. Being stuck in the build trap often arises from chasing outputs over outcomes. Aligning on higher-level goals ensures your product strategy isn't just a list of features but a pathway to delivering real value. 🎯 So, next time conflicting priorities emerge, remember: align at the top, then articulate a product vision that navigates towards those shared company goals. How have you managed stakeholder alignment in your organization? Share your experiences!