Stakeholder Management
Two weeks before a launch, Meera finds out that the security team needs three weeks' notice for a review, and that customer support has never heard of the feature. Both teams had every right to be involved from the start. Nobody asked them, because nobody had listed them.
The rule
Build the relationship before you need the favour.
A stakeholder is anyone who is affected by your team's work or can affect it. For the checkout team that includes Rohan (product), Lakshmi (Meera's director), Anita (who leads customer support), finance, the security team, and other engineering teams such as loyalty and notifications.
Managing stakeholders comes down to three things:
- Know who they are and what they care about. Support cares about what customers will ask. Finance cares that payment reports match the bank's records. Lakshmi cares whether the team is on track and what could go wrong.
- Involve each one at the right level. A simple grid of influence against interest helps:
- high influence, high interest: work closely together (Rohan)
- high influence, lower interest: keep satisfied with short, regular summaries (Lakshmi)
- lower influence, high interest: keep well informed (support)
- low on both: check in now and then
- Build trust before you need it. Trust comes from doing what you said you would, raising bad news early, and understanding the other person's goals.
That trust is how you get help from people who don't report to you, which is most people. This is influence without authority. Meera can't order the loyalty team to change their API. She can understand what they are trying to achieve, show how the change helps them too, and help them in return.
The shortcut
For each stakeholder, answer two questions: What do they care about? What would surprise them badly? The second answer tells you what they need to hear first.
List them
Rohan, Lakshmi, Anita in support, finance, security and the notifications team.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
When should Meera first contact the security team about a launch?
Lakshmi has high influence but limited time. What is the best approach?
Which habit builds trust with a stakeholder fastest?
Meera needs the loyalty team to prioritise a change to their API. Which approach is influence without authority?
Remember
- Build the relationship before you need the favour.
- For each stakeholder: what do they care about, and what would surprise them badly?
- Trust comes from keeping promises and sharing bad news early.