37. Balancing Act: Managing Stakeholder Influence

If you’re having a rough time with stakeholders there’s hope.

In the third installment of the “From Clarity to Chaos” series, we’re digging into how to deal with low-maturity stakeholders, or stakeholders who aren’t very adept at working with the software team.

Low maturity stakeholders may try to overstep their roles. They may try to dictate terms to the software team or they might try to micromanage aspects of the project that fall outside their domain expertise. 

They might push for their own agenda without any consideration for the potential impact on the user experience or the overall project outcomes.

All these these behaviors can create friction within the team. It can lead to bad decisions, and ultimately, it could compromise the quality and the success of the final product.

This problem of low stakeholder maturity is an all too common one, so you need to be prepared for it. Especially if you’re the sole designer.

Today we’re going to get into managing stakeholder influence and do whatever we need to do to improve how we work with our stakeholders. 

Our end goal is to foster a symbiotic relationship where stakeholders and the software team start to work together, not against each other, with the users at the heart of it all.

Topics:
• 03:25 – What is stakeholder maturity?
• 04:58 – as a UX professional
• 06:19 – What is a stakeholder?
• 07:43 – What does maturity look like?
• 10:57 – Understanding the role of UX professionals
• 14:22 – Some tools we can use
• 18:01 – Stakeholder assessment matrix
• 18:59 – Stakeholder attitude matrix
• 23:33 – Strategy 1: Learn to speak the language of the business
• 26:31 – Strategy 2: User-centered data as a tool
• 28:48 – Strategy 3: Set boundaries and expectations
• 30:22 – Strategy 4: Foster stakeholder inclusion
• 32:39 – Strategy 5: Build strong relationships
• 34:48 – Always assume positive intent

Helpful Links:
• 5 Steps to Creating a Stakeholder Engagement Plan
• 5 Levels of Stakeholder Engagement You Need to Know | Hygger.io
• 4 ways to improve internal stakeholder engagement skills | Barclay Simpson
• Stakeholder relationship management maturity | SRMM®
• Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix | monday.com Blog
• Stakeholders Analysis: Power/Influence-Interest Matrix
• Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping: Getting Started Smartsheet
• Stakeholder Map Toolkit activity – Enterprise Design Thinking
• UX Storytelling | Jeff White
• Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix
• Stakeholder Attitude Matrix Template

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