Engaging Stakeholders in Projects

I was Wrong about Influence. Early in my career, I believed influence in a decision-making meeting was the direct outcome of a strong artifact presented and the ensuing discussion. However, with more leadership experience, I have come to realize that while these are important, there is something far more important at play. Influence, for a given decision, largely happens outside of and before decision-making meetings. Here's my 3 step approach you can follow to maximize your influence: (#3 is often missed yet most important) 1. Obsess over Knowing your Audience Why: Understanding your audience in-depth allows you to tailor your communication, approach and positioning. How: ↳ Research their backgrounds, how they think, what their goals are etc. ↳ Attend other meetings where they are present to learn about their priorities, how they think and what questions they ask. Take note of the topics that energize them or cause concern. ↳ Engage with others who frequently interact with them to gain additional insights. Ask about their preferences, hot buttons, and any subtle cues that could be useful in understanding their perspective. 2. Tailor your Communication Why: This ensures that your message is not just heard but also understood and valued. How: ↳ Seek inspiration from existing artifacts and pickup queues on terminologies, context and background on the give topic. ↳ Reflect on their goals and priorities, and integrate these elements into your communication. For instance, if they prioritize efficiency, highlight how your proposal enhances productivity. ↳Ask yourself "So what?" or "Why should they care" as a litmus test for relatability of your proposal. 3. Pre-socialize for support Why: It allows you to refine your approach, address potential objections, and build a coalition of support (ahead of and during the meeting). How: ↳ Schedule informal discussions or small group meetings with key stakeholders or their team members to discuss your idea(s). A casual coffee or a brief virtual call can be effective. Lead with curiosity vs. an intent to respond. ↳ Ask targeted questions to gather feedback and gauge reactions to your ideas. Examples: What are your initial thoughts on this draft proposal? What challenges do you foresee with this approach? How does this align with our current priorities? ↳ Acknowledge, incorporate and highlight the insights from these pre-meetings into the main meeting, treating them as an integral part of the decision-making process. What would you add? PS: BONUS - Following these steps also expands your understanding of the business and your internal network - both of which make you more effective. --- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for daily Leadership and Career posts.

Aligning executive stakeholders with conflicting priorities is a puzzle many product people face. How do you solve it? When stakeholders pull in different directions, the secret isn't in aligning immediately around a product vision. Instead, elevate the conversation: align first on company goals. What outcomes do we aspire to achieve as a company? This unified understanding of company priorities becomes your north star. Here's how you can approach this: 1️⃣ Level Up the Discussion: Before diving into a product vision, ask stakeholders to agree on broader company goals. What did your CEO emphasize as priorities for your business? This context is crucial. It sets the stage for aligning individual goals to the bigger picture. 2️⃣ Connect Back to Product Vision: Once unified on company objectives, demonstrate how the product vision helps achieve these goals. "Here's our shared goal. Based on customer insights and priorities, this vision drives us towards it.” This shows your vision isn't just arbitrary—it's informed and intentional. 3️⃣ Seek Constructive Feedback: Encourage dialogue. Why might a stakeholder disagree with the vision? Is it truly about priorities, or personal impacts and unmet goals? This feedback refines your approach but remember, the product vision isn't a committee decision. It's guided by data and customer needs. 4️⃣ Give Credit and Build Back: Stakeholders feel valued when their input shapes outcomes. Make sure to recognize their contributions. This fosters trust and buy-in. Being stuck in the build trap often arises from chasing outputs over outcomes. Aligning on higher-level goals ensures your product strategy isn't just a list of features but a pathway to delivering real value. 🎯 So, next time conflicting priorities emerge, remember: align at the top, then articulate a product vision that navigates towards those shared company goals. How have you managed stakeholder alignment in your organization? Share your experiences!

How to Extract Information from Stakeholders 🎯 Getting accurate information from stakeholders can make or break your financial planning process. Each stakeholder speaks a completely different language and focuses on totally different metrics. The secret? Knowing exactly what to ask and how to ask it. ➡️ CEO CONVERSATIONS CEOs think big picture, so focus on strategic direction and vision. You want company strategies for next quarter, budget allocation expectations, risk tolerance levels, and market positioning goals. The money question: "What are the top 3 strategic priorities that should drive our Q4 planning?" ➡️ HEAD OF SALES Sales leaders live and breathe pipeline projections and customer acquisition costs. Get those sales pipeline projections, customer acquisition costs, territory performance data, and resource requirements for targets. My go-to approach: "What's the realistic revenue projection for Q4, and what support do you need?" ➡️ MARKETING DIRECTOR Marketing lives for lead generation and brand metrics. You need campaign performance metrics, lead generation forecasts, brand awareness initiatives, and marketing budget requirements. Hit them with: "How many qualified leads can marketing deliver to support the sales targets?" ➡️ HR MANAGER HR thinks talent and workforce planning 24/7. Grab headcount projections, recruitment timelines, employee retention rates, and training and development needs. Start here: "What's our hiring timeline to support the growth plan, and any retention concerns?" ➡️ ENGINEERING LEAD Engineering leaders obsess over product development roadmaps. Collect that product development roadmap, technical debt priorities, infrastructure requirements, and team capacity information. The must-ask question: "What features can be delivered by Q4, and what technical investments are critical?" ➡️ ACCOUNTING MANAGER Accounting thinks financial health and compliance every single day. Get cash flow projections, budget variance analysis, financial compliance requirements, and cost optimization opportunities. The essential question: "What's our cash flow outlook, and are there any financial constraints for our growth plans?" ➡️ UNIVERSAL BEST PRACTICES These six practices work with EVERY stakeholder: Be Specific: Ask for concrete numbers, dates, and measurable outcomes rather than vague commitments. Respect Their Time: Come prepared with focused questions and provide context upfront. Speak Their Language: Use terminology and metrics relevant to their department and priorities. Validate Understanding: Repeat back key points to ensure alignment and avoid miscommunication. Follow Up: Send summaries of key decisions and next steps within 24 hours. Close the Loop: Show how their input directly influences decisions and outcomes. === What's your approach to stakeholder communication? Share your best practices in the comments below 👇

If the decision meeting is "exciting," I failed. I used to treat project reviews like courtroom dramas. Surprise evidence. Heated debates. Last-minute persuasion. It was exciting. It was also a disaster. I’ve learned that if you are hearing a key stakeholder’s major objection for the first time when everyone is already seated... You have lost control of the room. I’ve realized that "Drama" is usually just a synonym for "Lack of Preparation." So now, I aim for "Boring." Before any high-stakes review or Go/No-Go decision, I run a shadow campaign to ensure the meeting is a tool for Resolution, not Discovery. 1. I don't wait for the deck to be perfect. I take the "ugly," half-finished skeleton to key stakeholders individually. "Here is where the data points. What part of this makes you uncomfortable?" Result: We identify the landmines while they are still easy to move. 2. I make a deal with anyone who disagrees: "You don't have to agree with the recommendation right now, but you will not be surprised by it in the room." We define the gap before the meeting starts. Result: We don't waste time arguing about the facts; we focus on the trade-offs. So, why have the meeting at all? We aren't meeting to find out what people think. We know that. We're meeting to bridge the gap between known positions. We're meeting to leverage the collective brainpower to solve the final 10% of the problem. By the time we start: The shocks are gone. The emotions are managed. We focus on the solution. The meeting becomes a boring, highly efficient engine for consensus. Boring is efficient. Boring is scalable. Boring is professional. Save the drama for Netflix. Keep it out of your project reviews. – I share actionable frameworks and real-world stories for tech leaders. 👉 Follow me, Rony Rozen, to get them in your feed.

How I Align Strategy with Vision to Achieve Exponential Growth In a world where disruption is the norm, vision without strategy is wishful thinking—and strategy without vision is just busywork. Over the years, I’ve helped financial services, FinTech, and mid-sized companies unlock exponential growth by tightly aligning long-term vision with executional strategy. Here's how I consistently turn bold ideas into measurable business impact: 1.) Craft a Vision That Inspires Action A vision isn’t a corporate tagline—it’s a vivid, motivating picture of the future. It must resonate with internal teams and customers alike. I always ask: Does this vision excite, focus, and direct decisions? If not, we refine it until it does. 2.) Build a Strategy That Bridges the Gap Turning vision into reality requires a strategic roadmap: --Clear objectives tied to business outcomes --Prioritized initiatives that drive momentum --KPIs that align cross-functional teams Results follow when every team knows how their work ladders up to the big picture. 3.) Operationalize for Scale Sustainable growth comes from systems, not scattered wins. I design growth engines using: --Omni-channel demand gen --Smart segmentation & personalization --AI-driven marketing automation These systems allow companies to scale efficiently, without sacrificing agility. 4.) Inspire Teams with Purpose People perform better when they believe in the “why.” I connect the vision to each role, creating a culture of ownership and high performance. Purpose drives performance, and performance drives results. 5.) Iterate Relentlessly Markets shift. Customers evolve. That’s why I build feedback loops and foster a test-and-learn culture. Strategy isn’t static—it’s living, breathing, and always improving. Bottom line: When strategy and vision are aligned, marketing stops being a cost center and starts driving exponential, repeatable growth. If your business is at a critical inflection point or seeking scalable momentum, I’d love to connect. Let’s talk growth, strategy, and what’s possible when vision leads the way. #GrowthStrategy #VisionToExecution #FinTechMarketing #StrategicLeadership #CMOInsights #ExponentialGrowth

Lou Gerstner walked into IBM in 1993 expecting a strategy problem. What he found was worse. Here's what leaders need to learn: Every division had a strategy. Every executive had a vision. Every team was chasing a different goal. Engineering was building for one future. Sales was selling into another. Marketing had its own roadmap entirely. At his first exec meeting, each leader presented different success metrics: Revenue. Market share. Innovation. NPS. Same company, completely different definitions of winning. Gerstner didn’t write a new strategy. He did something more powerful: He mandated one framework for priorities. Same metrics. Same language. Same scorecard. Within 6 months, misalignment became visible. Within a year, IBM started moving as one. I saw the same pattern play out in a Fortune 500 basement. The quarterly review was nearly over when the Head of Ops paused: “I need to be honest. I don’t even know what our top 3 priorities are right now.” Silence. Then heads nodded. The CMO had been focused on brand. Sales thought revenue was the priority. The CTO was deep in infrastructure rebuild. The CFO was chasing cost control. 9 executives. 27 different priorities. 3 overlaps. That’s not a team. That’s a collection of soloists. Strategy isn’t the problem. Alignment is. Everyone knows the strategy. But what are they actually optimizing for this week? I’ve seen it again and again: • Monday: “Retention is everything” • Friday: Sales signs three bad-fit clients to hit quota • Product starts chasing new features • Success never gets the memo 5 days. Alignment gone. So how do you fix it? 1. Make priorities visible weekly Every Monday: top 3 org-wide priorities, posted publicly. No guessing. No side quests. 2. Create explicit handoffs Marketing, sales, product, and success - define the exact criteria for every handoff. Spotify did this. Discovered 40% of handoffs had misaligned expectations. 3. Run weekly alignment checks One question: What are you optimizing for this week? If it doesn’t match the org’s top 3, you catch drift instantly. 4. One source of truth No more 50 dashboards. Microsoft did this with their Customer Success Score. Every division had to contribute to the same North Star. Alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It deteriorates by default. Great companies don’t assume alignment. They build it systematically. That Fortune 500 team? 6 months later, they went from 27 priorities to 3. Revenue grew 18%. Engagement jumped 43% → 71%. All because they stopped guessing. Want more research-backed frameworks like this? Join 11,000+ execs who get our newsletter every week: 👉 https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

As Business Analysts, we often face a mountain of stakeholder requirements—but not all can be delivered at once due to time, budget, or resource constraints. That’s where requirement prioritization techniques come in—to help teams focus on what delivers maximum value first. 👇 Here are 7 practical techniques I use (with real-world examples): 1️⃣ MoSCoW Technique (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) ✅ Used in: Agile projects with tight sprints. Example: In a mobile banking app, Must: User login and money transfer Should: View recent transactions Could: Set custom notifications Won’t: Currency conversion (for this release) 👉 Helps align delivery with MVP scope. 2️⃣ Kano Model ✅ Used in: Product feature analysis based on user satisfaction. Example: For a food delivery app: Basic Needs: Track order, payment integration Performance Needs: Fast delivery, real-time tracking Delighters: AI-based food recommendations 👉 Helps differentiate must-haves from innovation drivers. 3️⃣ Value vs. Complexity Matrix ✅ Used in: Sprint planning or roadmap decisions. Example: In a healthcare dashboard: High Value, Low Effort: Show patient vitals summary High Value, High Effort: Integration with wearable devices Low Value, High Effort: Dark mode for admin panel 👉 Focus first on quick wins and high-impact items. 4️⃣ WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) ✅ Used in: SAFe (Scaled Agile) environments. Formula: WSJF = (User/Business Value + Time Criticality + Risk Reduction) / Job Size Example: In a regulatory compliance portal, WSJF helps prioritize GDPR compliance (high risk reduction, medium effort) over UI enhancement (low risk, high effort) 👉 Promotes economic decision-making in large programs. 5️⃣ 100-Dollar Test ✅ Used in: Stakeholder workshops How it works: Stakeholders are given “$100” to allocate across features based on value. Example: In a CRM tool upgrade: Lead Scoring: $40 Email Automation: $30 Social Media Integration: $20 Custom Dashboard: $10 👉 Useful for collaborative and quantifiable feedback. 6️⃣ RICE Scoring (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) ✅ Used in: Product-led companies and SaaS prioritization. Example: For a subscription service platform: Reach: Will it affect many users? Impact: How much will it improve their experience? Confidence: How sure are we of success? Effort: How many hours/weeks of work? 👉 Ideal for objective scoring and backlog management. 7️⃣ Eisenhower Matrix (Urgent vs. Important) ✅ Used in: Time-sensitive, operational projects. Example: In IT Service Management tool enhancement: Urgent & Important: Fix for ticket assignment bug Not Urgent but Important: Knowledge base restructuring Urgent but Not Important: Color change in UI Neither: Feature used by very few users 👉 Great for visual prioritization and firefighting tasks. 🎯 Key Takeaway Prioritization isn't just about ranking features. It’s about strategic decision-making that balances value, effort, risk, and urgency—all while keeping stakeholders aligned. BA Helpline

Product Vision vs. Product Strategy: How to Align the WHY and the HOW for Maximum Impact Imagine that you are building a career guidance platform for product managers 🎯 Goal: Empower PMs to successfully transition into new roles 🆘 Challenge: Your team is constantly debating features, chasing new ideas, and the roadmap is all over the place ❓ The PROBLEM: You’re mixing up your product vision (the why) with your product strategy (the how) Vision vs. Strategy – What's the Difference? ✅ Vision: This is your North Star - it defines WHY your product exists. 📌 Ex: Empower PMs to successfully transition into new roles with confidence and support. ✅ Strategy: This is your GPS - it outlines HOW you will bring that vision to life. 📌 Ex: Build an AI tool to match PMs with mentors, courses, and job opportunities. 👉 THE SECRET: A clear vision inspires. A sharp strategy executes. To get both right, I recommend the following two frameworks that can simplify the process: 1️⃣ Roman Pichler’s Product Vision Board - Craft an inspiring yet actionable vision by focusing on: 🔹 Vision: What’s the big, bold goal? 🔹 Target Group: Who are you serving? 🔹 Needs: What problem are you solving? 🔹 Product: What makes it stand out? 🔹 Business Goals: How does it align with company objectives? 2️⃣ Paweł Huryn's Product Strategy Canvas - Turn vision into action with a 10-point strategy, including: 🔹 Vision: What are you aspiring to achieve? 🔹 Market Segments: Who are your customers, and what problems do they face? 🔹 Relative Costs: Are you optimizing for cost or unique value? 🔹 Value Proposition: How does your product uniquely solve your customers’ problems? 🔹 Trade-offs: What will you not do to maintain focus? 🔹 Key Metrics: How will you measure success (e.g., North Star Metric, OMTM)? 🔹 Growth: What’s your plan for scaling (e.g., PLG, sales-led growth)? 🔹 Capabilities: What competencies or resources do you need? 🔹 Can’t/Won’t: Why can’t or won’t competitors copy your strategy? 🔹 Ask Yourself: Do all elements of your strategy align, and how will you validate assumptions? 🔗 Why These Frameworks Work Together - Roman’s Vision Board bridges vision and strategy. Pawel’s Strategy Canvas dives deeper into execution, ensuring every decision aligns with your ultimate goals. Together, they create a seamless flow from inspiration to action. I’ve found this combination to be highly effective in driving clarity, alignment, and impact. 🔑 Key Takeaway - Your vision is the why. Your strategy is the how. Together, they ensure your product THRIVES, not just survives. 💬 Your Turn: How do you approach vision and strategy? Tried these frameworks? Let’s discuss in the comments! #ProductManagement #VisionVsStrategy #FrameworksForSuccess #ProductStrategy #ProductLeadership

Here’s how a single stakeholder sunk a £30m FM bid. A large FM company lost a £30 million annual contract they were defending. They were the incumbent. They had strong relationships. But, they built their entire tender around the priorities of one stakeholder. One stakeholder. One perspective. One massive risk. Their MD had a conversation with the Director of Estates, who said cost reduction was the absolute priority. So they focused everything on savings and efficiency. But they lost the tender. They lost because while that individual wanted cost reduction, the board had different priorities. They were dealing with political sensitivities surrounding the perception of making decisions purely on price. They had multiple board-level risks they wanted the tender to address. Cost was an element, but it wasn't the driving factor for the people making the decision. I've seen this repeatedly. Providers build strong relationships with one person in the customer organisation and assume that person's priorities reflect the entire decision-making process. They don't. These organisations have complex systems with complex stakeholders who have different requirements and different pressures. Individuals don't make contract awards. They're made by committees with multiple perspectives and priorities. Bidders need to build relationships across the organisation. They need to understand who else is involved in the decision and what matters to them. The bid needs to address multiple agendas. The strongest relationships won't save you if you've misunderstood what the organisation actually needs. What's your experience? Have you seen bids fail because they focused too narrowly on one person's priorities?

How to Create a Stakeholder Matrix That Works A well-defined Stakeholder Matrix (Power-Interest Grid) helps project managers focus their energy where it matters—on the right people at the right time. Here’s how to build one step-by-step: 1. Identify Stakeholders: ↳ List anyone who impacts or is impacted by the project—executives, sponsors, team members, vendors, customers, regulators, and end users. 2. Assess Power and Interest: ↳ Rate each stakeholder on: → Power – Their influence over project outcomes → Interest – Their concern or involvement in the project 3. Plot Them on the Power-Interest Grid: ↳ Categorize each stakeholder into one of four groups: → High Power / High Interest – Manage Closely: Keep engaged and involved in decisions → High Power / Low Interest – Keep Satisfied: Update periodically, maintain support → Low Power / High Interest – Keep Informed: Share progress, maintain engagement → Low Power / Low Interest – Monitor: Minimal updates, watch for shifts 4. Tailor Engagement Strategies: ↳ Communicate based on their position in the matrix: → Manage Closely: Frequent meetings, collaboration → Keep Satisfied: Strategic updates, occasional input → Keep Informed: Status reports, access to key info → Monitor: Light touch, reassess if needed 5. Keep It Updated: ↳ Stakeholder roles shift—review the matrix regularly and adjust your approach as needed. A Stakeholder Matrix isn’t a one-and-done document. It’s a living tool that helps reduce risk, improve alignment, and drive better results. How do you keep your stakeholders engaged and aligned?