How do you measure and communicate the value that your project creates for your stakeholders?

Measuring and communicating the value of a project to stakeholders is essential to ensure they understand the project's impact and stay engaged. I will understand the stakeholder priorities and engage them to understand what they consider valuable.Align the project's goals with the specific outcomes stakeholders care about and establish relevant Key Performance Indicators.With the help of these data, qualitative insights, and tailored communication, you can effectively measure and convey the value your project creates, keeping stakeholders informed, engaged, and satisfied.

From a stakeholder perspective, value is defined as the benefits and outcomes that align with their interests, goals, and expectations. This includes tangible returns, such as increased revenue, cost savings, or improved efficiency, as well as intangible benefits like enhanced brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. Stakeholders seek assurance that the project will meet their needs, mitigate risks, and contribute to strategic objectives. Effective communication and collaboration are essential to ensure stakeholders understand how the project delivers value, fosters trust, and encourages their ongoing support and engagement throughout the project lifecycle.

Measuring & communicating project value to stakeholders is crucial for demonstrating success & securing ongoing support. Here's my approach: 1. Define Clear Objectives within the organizational goals and establish measurable KPIs such as cost savings, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction. 2. Conduct a baseline assessment before the project begins. Monitor progress and gather stakeholder feedback to assess variances. 3. Emphasize financial metrics. Conduct cost-benefit assessments and calculate return on investment to evaluate performance. 4. Transparency and Continuous Improvement: Utilize reporting dashboards for stakeholder review and feedback, facilitating ongoing enhancements.

that can be challenging, but it is important to take the time to do so. I think by following the mentioned steps you may have a satisfying result : 1-Identify the metrics that will help you understand how your work produces value for customers and stakeholders. 2-Have a conversation with project owners and stakeholders to determine what is important to them. 3-Collaborate with stakeholders at the highest possible level to develop ESG goals. 4-Secure the support of the CEO or a director to ensure that ESG benchmarks are a priority for the whole team. 5-Communicate the financial feasibility of ESG scores to clients and stakeholders.

This is critical - the first rule of any kind of engagement is that it is about the stakeholders, not us. To get a true and rounded understanding of stakeholder value, it is necessary to step back from our own perceptions, and put ourselves in the shoes of each stakeholder group - as each one will be different. A good question to ask is "why should they care" about your initiative. This will help you frame the engagement methods and analyses and avoid bias. And finally - listen. Let them talk, let them get into detail. Be interested, curious, and willing to challenge your own assumptions. Show that you are taking their feedback on board.

Selecting relevant and realistic value indicators is crucial for effectively communicating the value created by a project to stakeholders. Quantitative metrics, such as financial returns, productivity gains, or customer satisfaction scores, provide tangible evidence of value creation. Qualitative measures, like improved employee morale, enhanced brand reputation, or increased customer loyalty, can also demonstrate intangible benefits. It is essential to choose indicators that are measurable, achievable, and directly attributable to the project's outcomes. Regularly reviewing and adjusting these indicators ensures they remain relevant and accurately reflect the project's evolving value proposition.

Getting the key performance indicators right can be one of the hardest things to do in any project or initiative. Just because you can measure something, doesn't mean you should! At all times be driven by the major outcome(s) that you and stakeholders are looking for - often this may be the bottom line, but not always. With all indicators, get clear on whether this is a key, leading, or lagging indicator. You need a mix of both to ensure that any issues can be flagged early enough for action to be taken. Also, go deeper into each indicator to ensure that you can measure quality as well as quantity. More customers, or more customer satisfaction doesn't necessarily mean an increase on the bottom line.

Value maps are effective tools for communicating with stakeholders by visually illustrating how a project creates value. They outline the relationships between project inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts, helping stakeholders understand the value proposition clearly. By mapping these elements, stakeholders can see how their needs and expectations align with project goals. Additionally, value maps can highlight key performance indicators and evidence supporting value claims. This visual representation fosters engagement, encourages feedback, and facilitates discussions about value delivery, ensuring stakeholders remain informed and invested throughout the project lifecycle.

This is so important, yet can be tricky to get right. When we're leading a project, it's easy to slip into communicating what we think is important. However, each stakeholder group will have their own priorities and things that they value. So communication is best tailored specifically to ensure that stakeholder needs are met. A good practice is to use your stakeholders' own language - go back to the initial engagement you did with them. Pull out their words and phrases, and show how you are meeting their expectations. This shows that you have listened to your stakeholders and value their opinion. Which builds trust and makes them far more receptive to your communication (especially when problems arise).

This is critical and really should be at the beginning of this list. The most effective projects and collaborations are those where each party feels invested in the initiative. When you approach stakeholders with curiosity and openness, this immediately builds trust and engagement. A question I always ask stakeholders when scoping out and designing a project is "how can we design this to make your job/life better?". I usually come with a framework as a basis, which we can then adapt. The result is always better than something I could come up with in isolation, and generates fantastic engagement throughout the project.

Accept that you're going to get it wrong occasionally. It's not always easy to tailor communication in the right way to each group, especially when leading a big or controversial change project. We humans are not always logical, and any change can bring about fear in our stakeholders - which in turn leads to misunderstanding. Take time to talk face to face with stakeholders. If possible run any email or online communications through a representative of the stakeholder group. Put yourselves in your stakeholders' shoes and ask yourself if any of your communication could be misunderstood. And if things don't go well, apologise, sit down with people, let them air their fears or anger, and resolve to come to a common solution.