Taming your stakeholders

It is all too common for an organization to approach problems in a certain way simply because it knows how to do certain things or because it’s always been this way rather than first asking what the problem really is.

Making an impact with your products or services requires more than just solving a problem, it requires solving the most relevant problems your customers face. So it’s fair to say that successful outcomes depend on how well a problem is framed.

While this might sound common sense, in reality it’s difficult to attain.

Most is related to what you (don’t) control. It often comes down to the limitations on what you can influence.

It’s usual that stakeholders throw solutions as problems, as briefs for work to their teams.

You get the point. You know these are not real customer problems to solve, but you don’t have the means to push back. All you can do is hope that somehow you can retrofit a real customer problem into these prescribed stakeholders’ solutions.

And then, once you get working on it, the question is what can you actually decide? If you did not have too much control to begin with, what control do you have when it comes to solutions? What can you launch, what can you put in front of your users without having to convince someone else first?

In most of the cases, it’s probably not many things. At least not without going four levels deep into your orgs chart, chasing sign-offs. These decisions are still made by stakeholders, by leaders, and the criteria they use are connected to their personal objectives, internal politics, rather than customer-centricity.

But let’s switch the POV. You are no longer the product manager, designer or innovation expert with customers’ best interest at heart. You are the “ruthless” business stakeholder. The gatekeeper.

And yes, empathy can be deployed towards these people too.

What do they do? Where do they spend their time? What do they need?

— > They are short on time. They are constantly in meetings, trying to understand different problems, switching contexts frequently, as they need to make decisions.

— > They are removed from frontline teams and customers. So when they make decisions they need to rely on incomplete or second-hand data.

— > They juggle multiple projects. Sometimes this prevents them for getting deep enough with their understanding, so they resort to “easy decisions”

— > They are under pressure to deliver and hit their business KPIs, so they weigh every decision mainly through the business frame, missing out on other (promising) perspectives.

What can you do?

— > Don’t waste their time. Do you homework and be very clear about the decision you are asking them to make and how it’s linked to their KPIs.

—> Collect and prepare insights. Think about what data do they need to see to make a decisions. Avoid sending a 50-page research document. They’ll not read it. Instead visualize data (e.g. a customer journey map, a service blueprint, etc) so they can quickly understand and asses a context.

—> Make it easy for them. Turn decision-making into a quick and effective workshop, where they can immerse in data to better understand the problems, frame and reframe them to ensure they are worth solving.

As you can see, this is a process. It’s called Problem Framing.

• It’s based on data.

• It requires preparation.

• Covers all perspectives.

• Encourages critical thinking.

• Creates alignment and buy-in.

Next time you need your stakeholders to make a decision, when progress is slow, or you feel your organization is not focusing on the right problems, consider Problem Framing.

If you do it correctly you’ll become a hero in your organization.

There are many people who can solve problems given to them.

There are much fewer who can define them in the first place.