How do you evaluate and improve your stakeholder engagement strategy and skills as a service designer?

The first step in identifying service stakeholders is to create a detailed stakeholder map, organised according to the service and/or organisational structure. This map should encompass not only the end users but also internal roles, partners, suppliers, and regulatory bodies that might impact the service. During every interview or workshop, always ask, "Given the nature of this project, who do you recommend I speak with that has a direct influence over the service, and why?" This strategy will facilitate connections and more importantly, build relationships in aid of developing a thorough and comprehensive stakeholder map.

To evaluate and improve stakeholder engagement as a service designer, start by mapping stakeholders and collecting feedback to assess current practices. Identify gaps through feedback analysis and self-assessment, and set clear, measurable objectives for improvement. Invest in training to enhance communication and facilitation skills, and implement new tools and techniques. Regularly monitor progress, using KPIs and ongoing feedback to adjust strategies as needed. Foster strong relationships, practice transparency, involve stakeholders in co-creation, and provide regular updates. Reflect on experiences, seek peer feedback, and conduct post-project reviews to continually refine engagement practices.

Make sure you understand not just who your stakeholders are, but who also needs to "be in the room" during the workshop. Understand what is the challenge at stake, and research a few tools to work around the problem. For example, there are a few ways to run a workshop so choose the best template with your team. Make sure you make it clear to your stakeholders what is the outcome of the engagement. Most importantly, make sure you plan for enough time and for flexibility. Sometimes you think you need an hour, but then you need two, so make sure you can book a follow-up session and that the timeline allows for this.

Always remember to define expectations in a stakeholder engagement plan, because it's crucial for minimizing fatigue and ensuring success. Remember it's not a one way communication, it has to be collaborative since clear shared expectations align stakeholders and scope. This builds trust, confidence, and flexibility, leading to a sustainable engagement process.

Invite stakeholders to co-create services and participate in the research, ideation, prototyping, and testing phases of the service design process, providing feedback and buy-in from those who will use, provide, or benefit from the service. Stakeholder maps, user personas, co-creation and facilitation workshops, customer journeys, and service blueprints are examples of tools used to understand the system and its components, as well as identify and prioritize stakeholders. Interested based on their level of influence and interest.

In your engagement plan, you should also consider the organization culture as a factor. What's their past experience in working with a cross-functional team? Will this interaction be mostly positive or they might hold back their concerns etc. - ''feel the temperature/pulse check''. After knowing more about the context, be strategic on how you would interact.

??Keep track of stakeholders who participated in the engagement process, as well as their frequency and duration of participation, in order to receive feedback. ??Evaluate the feedback received from stakeholders, taking factors such as relevance, usefulness, and timeliness ??Use surveys or interviews to assess stakeholder satisfaction with the engagement process. ??Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the financial impact of the project process, including the costs of engagement efforts and the benefits achieved.

. Quantitative methods can include surveys, engagement metrics (like participation rates, meeting attendance, and feedback scores), and project performance indicators. Qualitative methods can involve interviews, focus groups, and open-ended survey questions to gather in-depth insights from stakeholders about their experience and satisfaction. Analyze this data to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your engagement strategy, identify areas for improvement, and assess how stakeholder engagement has influenced the design process and final outcomes. Regularly review and adjust your approach based on these insights to continually enhance stakeholder involvement and project success.

Other extra things to consider is stakeholder alignment with project goals, communication effectiveness, engagement frequency and quality, trust and relationship levels, conflict management, feedback utilization, inclusivity of all relevant stakeholders, adaptability to changes, and overall satisfaction with the process and outcomes. Reflect on lessons learned to continuously refine and improve future stakeholder engagement efforts. This comprehensive assessment ensures a deeper understanding of the engagement’s impact on the service design process and outcomes.

One thing to keep in mind is to tailor the communication. You can define the stakeholders' personas and tailor communication and engagement methods for each of them based on their preferences, styles, roles, etc. Besides that, staying up-to-date with industry trends can also lead to better engagement and help you develop your rapport.

I like using metaphors to explain topics in a simple and visual way. So, let’s try ?? Imagine you're writing a novel. You need to identify your characters (stakeholders). So, who are the main players? Think about each of them. Each character is important for how the plot develops. It's like creating detailed character profiles in a novel: understanding and engaging stakeholders is key. You map out each character's background, what drives them, and what they're aiming for so you can see how they'll react in different situations. This helps you predict how each stakeholder might respond to changes in the plot (project) and allows you to tailor your narrative (communication strategy) to keep everyone engaged and on track.