Managing Challenging Stakeholders

How To Manage Challenging Stakeholders and Influence Without Authority (free eBook, 95 pages) (https://lnkd.in/e6RY6dQB), is a practical guide on how to deal with difficult stakeholders, manage difficult situations and stay true to your product strategy. From HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) to ZEbRAs (Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant). By Dean Peters.

Key takeaways:

✅ Do your research to understand their perspectives.
✅ Show how your strategy supports business goals.
✅ Attach your decisions to a goal, metric, or a problem.
✅ Have research data ready to challenge assumptions.
✅ Explain your tradeoffs, decisions, customer insights, data.

✅ For one-off requests, paint and explain the full picture.
✅ Give some technical insights to explain your decisions.
✅ Study how to keep them engaged and on your side.
✅ Create a space for small experiments to limit damage.
✅ Build trust for your process with regular key updates.

One of the most helpful strategies I’ve been using is to provide full transparency about the work we are doing. The decision making, the frameworks we use to make these decisions, how we test, how we gather insights and make sense of them.

It’s much more difficult to argue against real data and a real established process that has led to positive outcomes over the years. Stakeholders rarely know how we work. They rarely know the implications of last-minute changes. They rarely see the impact of last-minute changes based on hunches.

Explain how your work ties in with their goals. Stay high-level if you can, but don’t be afraid to get technical if you must. In the end, we all we come with our biases and expectations. Support your stakeholders, and you might be surprised how quickly you might get the support that you need.

Useful resources:

The Delicate Art of Interviewing Stakeholders, by Dan Brown 🤎
https://lnkd.in/dW5Wb8CK

Good Questions For Meetings With Stakeholders, by Lisa Nguyen, Cori Widen
https://lnkd.in/eNtM5bUU

UX Research Studies to Win Over Stubborn Stakeholders, by Lizzy Burnam 🐞
https://lnkd.in/eW3Yyg5k

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users
https://lnkd.in/erb-nMiE