Stakeholder Management for Agile Product Owners: 33 Different types of Stakeholders
This article is the second article in this series about Stakeholder Management for Agile Product Owners. In the first article we addressed the question: “What is a stakeholder?”. In this article we will address the question: “What different types of stakeholders are there?” And in the last article we’ll address the question: “How can I make a good stakeholder analysis?”
So, in the first article, you can find a definition of what a stakeholder is and what we can learn from this definition is that stakeholders come in many different forms and types; 33 types to be exact! In his book “Stakeholder management: Start with who”, Paul Stamsnijder classifies 33 different types of stakeholders (shown in the image below). Some of these types of stakeholders are relevant to you as an Agile Product Owner. Some others may not be very relevant in your context. So, use this list as a source of inspiration when you want to identify your own stakeholders.
Importance and influence
The stakeholder types mentioned can inspire you to list your stakeholders. After you have identified your stakeholders, you can identify their desired involvement and their (formal/informal) influence. Stakeholders have many wishes, requirements and issues which may be very far apart from each other. A very valuable wish by one stakeholder may not result in any value for the other stakeholder. Being able to destinguish between different types of stakeholders is therefore a relevant skill for effective stakeholder management. In practice, it will help you to gain insight into your stakeholders. The relationship between interest and influence determines to what extent this is a stakeholder with whom you must work very closely, or from which you can take a little more distance.
Interest of the stakeholder
Stakeholders often have different interests in relation to your product and therefore different types of stakeholder groups can be defined:
- Stakeholders who have a positive interest in your product; they want the product to be a success. Think of customers or users for example.
- Stakeholders who have a negative interest in your product; they want your product to not be successful. Think of a department that becomes superfluous or where work is taken away from by your product or service.
- Stakeholders who have an interest in your team, but not so much an interest in the product. Think of the manager of your Development Team, or your own manager perhaps.
- Stakeholders who have a personal interest or who have an interest from their departments’ perspective, but who are not so interested in the product itself. Think of stakeholders such as an operations manager who wants to keep his or her own metrics ‘in the green’ and who wants to prevent extra pressure on his or her department / team.
- Stakeholders with whom you as a Product Owner have an interest yourself. Think of suppliers, partners, government agencies or social agencies.
Knowing the different interests of stakeholders well helps to build a better relationship with them. It also helps you manage them more effectively. This makes it easier for you to align your message with the stakeholder’s perspective.
Influence of the stakeholder
You can distinguish stakeholder into formal influence and informal influence. There are stakeholders who, based on their formal, hierarchical position, have or can exercise influence. Think of stakeholders at management or boardroom level. In many organizations, Product Owners have to listen to people who exercise this form of influence. In addition to the formal leaders, there are also people who show (informal) leadership, with which they have created a certain status or reputation among colleagues. This is more of an informal form of influence. You undoubtedly know someone who does not have a management position, but still manages everything within the organization. You also want to get a clear picture of these stakeholders.
The next step to take, after identification of your stakeholders, is to start plotting them in a stakeholder map. You can read more about this in the next article: Creating a Stakeholder Analysis: How do you do that?.
Learn more about stakeholder management.
Do you want to learn more about stakeholders, stakeholder analysis and stakeholder management? Then read on in one of the following articles:
- What is a stakeholder?
- Creating a Stakeholder Analysis: How do you do that?
- 10 Tips for Product Owners about Stakeholder Management
- 50 Shades No — Effective Stakeholder Management for the Product Owner
Do you really want to deepen your stakeholder management skills? Then contact us for a Stakeholder Management Training or participate in the Advanced Product Owner training and learn to master the Product Owner stance: The Influencer.
If you are a Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master or Agile Coach with about a year or experience under your belt, go and explore our brand new class Advanced Product Owner class and master the six stances of the Product Owner ! Check out our Xebia Academy page for more information or inquire for an in-house class at training@xebia.com.
