A key part of product management is managing stakeholders, as most teams require participation, guidance, and approval from a wide range of people across the organization. But oftentimes, product managers treat all stakeholders equally in terms of focus or time expended. A key component to effective stakeholder management is identifying your various stakeholders and grouping them by need. Having this knowledge will help your product team communicate effectively with these groups, and therefore gain early alignment on goals and plans, as well as address any conflict or risk early on.
Often stakeholders can be grouped by their levels of power and interest. A simple two by two can map these out - resulting in four groups: Players, Context Setters, Subjects, and Crowd. (This matrix was popularized by the book Making Strategy: Mapping out Strategic Success.)
The needs of each of these groups are different.
Players
High Interest, High Power
- need to be managed closely
- need high-quality data/insights regularly
- get buy-in on big decisions early
- ask for feedback often
Context Setters
High Power, Low Interest
- need to be kept satisfied
- they can influence the future overall context
- raise awareness with them
- could convert them to players?
Subjects
High Interest, Low Power
- need to be kept informed, "read only" stakeholders
- make use of their interest through low-risk areas of involvement
- "goodwill ambassadors"
Crowd
Low Interest, Low Power
- not worth time to actively manage
- inform via general communications
- aim to move into Subjects
How you interact with these groups in form of the cadence, information provided, and size of audience will all vary. But it is important to keep these general needs in mind, as the more you can tailor communication to gain support or approval from various stakeholders, the more likely your initiatives are to succeed.
STAND-UP EXERCISE
Have your team do a stakeholder analysis by first listing all the groups (or individuals) they know to be stakeholders for your product. Then work to sort these folks into the 2x2 matrix, paying attention to both the level of power and interest. After their needs are identified, the product manager and team can begin to create tailored communication plans, focusing on building and maintaining trust with each of the groups.