How2 not drown in stakeholders
Does your calendar look like a battlefield of conflicting priorities? Are you spending more time in meetings explaining "why" than you are actually getting things done? If you're a product manager, you know that stakeholders, those million people with different priorities and interests in your products, and while their input is critical, managing them can feel like a full-time job.
The common mistake is treating all stakeholders equally, giving them all the same amount of time and energy. This is a common path to burnout and a bit of a tangled, messy roadmap.
Sooooo, how do you handle the competing demands of leadership, sales, developer, customers, and support without losing your mind?
……
The secret is to work smarter, not harder, by strategically mapping your stakeholders and tailoring your communication to their specific needs.
3 Common Stakeholder Problems (and Why They're So Frustrating)
The "HiPPO" Effect: The Highest-Paid Person's Opinion often trumps data and user feedback. Their suggestions can feel like mandates, forcing you to chase ideas that may not be the best for your product or users.
The Silent Partner: Some stakeholders are quiet until the last minute, only to emerge with a major concern right before launch. This leads to (annoying) and costly last-minute changes and missed deadlines.
The Unending Request List: Every team has their own agenda. Sales wants a new feature to close a deal, marketing wants a specific campaign tool, and devlopers have a list of technical debt … and that is before we even speak to our customers who have their own needs. Without a clear framework, you become a human conveyor belt for every request.
Your Solution: The Strategic Stakeholder Map
You can't pour from an empty cup, and you can't satisfy every single person's whim. One of my favourite quotes springs to mind “you can only please some of the people some of the time, not all of the people all of the time.” The key is to be intentional with your time and energy. A stakeholder map is your compass for navigating these complex relationships.
A well know, and in my opinion most effective way to map your stakeholders is by plotting them on a grid based on two simple criteria:
Influence: How much power or authority do they have over your product's success?
Interest: How much does their work directly involve or depend on your product?
This gives you four distinct quadrants, each requiring a different strategy:
1. High Influence, High Interest: Manage Closely These are your key allies, leaders, and decision-makers. You need to invest significant time in them. Share your progress regularly, involve them in the discovery process, and seek their feedback proactively. They should feel like a partner in the journey.
2. High Influence, Low Interest: Keep Satisfied These stakeholders have the power to block your progress but don't need a day-to-day update. They might be senior executives or department heads who need a high-level summary. Focus on providing clear, concise updates that highlight key outcomes and how the product aligns with their broader business goals. Don't waste their time with granular details.
3. Low Influence, High Interest: Keep Informed This group, which often includes many team members and end-users, is passionate about your product and will have plenty of feedback. They don't have the final say, but their buy-in and morale are crucial. Use channels like a shared Slack channel, regular email updates, or a public roadmap to keep them in the loop. Listen to their feedback and acknowledge it, but don't get bogged down trying to action every single request.
4. Low Influence, Low Interest: Monitor These are the least critical stakeholders. They need to be aware of what's happening but don't require your direct time or attention. A periodic, automated email update or a public dashboard is often enough. Don't let them pull you into time-consuming discussions.
The Sustainable PM: How to Divide Your Time
Now that you've mapped your stakeholders, you can stop treating every meeting and every request as an emergency.
Be Proactive: Instead of reacting to requests, schedule dedicated, recurring check-ins with your "Manage Closely" stakeholders. This builds trust and gives you a chance to shape the conversation.
Create Clear Boundaries: For your "Keep Satisfied" and "Keep Informed" groups, leverage asynchronous communication. Use dashboards, internal newsletters, and shared documentation to provide updates without needing to schedule a meeting. This lets you communicate on your own time.
Empower Others: You don't have to be the sole source of information. Encourage other team members to share their progress. A developer sharing a demo or a designer presenting a wireframe can be a powerful way to engage stakeholders without adding to your workload.
The most effective product managers aren’t the ones who say "yes" to everyone. They are the ones who strategically say "no," and can explain why, all while maintaining trust and alignment. By mapping your stakeholders and intentionally dividing your time, you can move from being a reactive task-taker to a proactive, strategic leader.