HOW TO HANDLE INTERNAL PRODUCT STAKEHOLDERS
As a Product Manager, you cannot avoid interaction with stakeholders. When we talk about stakeholders as Product Managers, oftentimes, we limit that group to just Executives and investors of that particular product. Although stakeholders are not just the Executive team, that does not mean that everyone you interact with or everyone who sends you a feature request, falls under this category.
Not every stakeholder will show up in front of you or communicate with you from time to time, as Product managers we encounter both external and internal stakeholders, and you have to learn to deal with these stakeholders.
Dealing with stakeholders can be very demanding. One thing you should realize is that you cannot always make all of them happy at the same time; if you try to do that then you are leading the product to failure.
WHAT IS A PRODUCT STAKEHOLDER?
First, let’s define who a stakeholder is; a stakeholder is someone who has an interest in a company or someone who is directly affected by a company. This same definition is applicable with Product Stakeholders;
In Product Management, a stakeholder is a person or group of people who;
1. Have an interest in the growth of a product,
2. Make decisions relating to the product,
3. Directly or indirectly impacted by the product in any way.
WHO ARE YOUR PRODUCT STAKEHOLDERS?
As a product manager, a lot of people you come in contact with regarding a product want to have a part in the decision-making. That someone or a group sends you a feature request does not mean they are stakeholders; you have to know and carefully understand who your stakeholders are.
Stakeholders are not limited to people you come in contact with on a daily basis. The term Stakeholder is very broad, a stakeholder can be an ETERNAL or INTERNAL stakeholder, as a Product Manager, you should be able to understand and deal with each of your stakeholders accordingly.
With the understanding of who your stakeholders are, in this article, we would be dealing with internal stakeholders who are;
1. The Executive team (investors, directors),
2. The Engineering team (developers, designers),
3. Sales team,
4. Marketing team,
5. Testers
HOW TO HANDLE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
Executive Stakeholders
The executive stakeholders are the board of directors, investors, they are very result-oriented, and you do not want their rush to affect the value of the product you are managing, so you have to find a way to handle them. These stakeholders are interested in things like branding and revenue, in dealing with them;
a. Your communication has to be very detailed and minimal,
b. You have to be optimistic and positive,
c. Don’t delay any form of information they need to be aware of.
Engineering Stakeholders
The engineering teams are also stakeholders and should be treated as such, oftentimes, they reach out to you as the Product Manager to brief them on what the product team expects from them. You have to understand the product and communicate it effectively to them; you are to explain the strategy to be used, as well as breaking up their tasks for them.
In my first product role, the engineering team was a difficult one to handle, they always wanted to sideline me because they could see I was blank on many things, I handled the situation by spending hours reading and understanding certain things, trust me your development team can sense it if you do not understand them, so you have to understand what they do, after crossing this bridge handling them was easy;
a. Communicate effectively what the product team expects from them,
b. Show them the strategies to follow,
c. Be available when you are needed.
Sales Stakeholder
All this sales team is concerned with is how they can sell a product. When walking them on what the product is, also tell them how they can sell that product. In talking with the sales team, you do not want to be too focused on just features, get to think like them by explaining why a feature should and will sell, try to point out the selling points of the products to them.
Marketing Stakeholders
You have to be careful with this particular Product Preachers. You put the products on the shelves, they take it from the shelves to the customers, if you do not tell them what is SPECIAL about the product, they will take it from the shelf to the customer without Preaching the right Gospel to customers.
a. Tell them what is special about the product,
b. Give them detail about the product,
c. Communicate with at every level, from beginning stage till product gets to the customer,
d. Get feedback from them and treat it accordingly.
Testers
the testing team is in charge of testing the functionality of each feature of a product. you want to ensure that you;
a. explain to them what is expected of each feature,
b. the outcome of each functionality,
c. Have effective communication with them,
d. Always get feedback from the testing team
We have highlighted the different internal stakeholders that we have, treat each of them with a different approach from the other, and always have open communication with them at every stage
