HOW TO PLAN STAKEHOLDER ENGAMENET

In my previous article, I discussed the definition of the stakeholder, stakeholder classification, the why behind stakeholder engagement, and the definition of engagement roadmap.

To engage stakeholders effectively, three steps must be followed: planning, engaging, and reviewing.

This article discusses the prerequisites for engagement as well as how planning strategy must be designed to allow stakeholders to participate effectively in decision-making.

Planning strategy gives you the opportunity to incorporate stakeholders with a specific purpose during the product development process.

Planning the stakeholder engagement strategy contains the following steps:

A) CREATE A PRODUCT VISION

Engaging stakeholders begins with defining a clear product vision.

The vision creates an opportunity for you to talk about product requirements, in the form of user stories to understand who the stakeholders are, what they expect from the product, and why.

The product backlog will be generated out of this vision. A product backlog item (at an abstract level) can be ordered based on stakeholder preferences.

This helps you to decide how the communications with stakeholders can take place during the product lifecycle.

In the stakeholder preference table, the stakeholder weighted sum (SW) impacts on prioritization and timing of engagement activities.

As shown in Figure A, the stakeholder preference table indicates how each product backlog item is rated by its surrounding stakeholders.

B) SET ENGAGEMENT OBJECTIVE

To decide which stakeholders to engage, it is vital to identify the objectives of stakeholder engagement during various phases of the product development process.

The objective comes from definition of successful engagement.

Does success count as number of stakeholders engaged, or is it considered successful when a co-production process resulted in creative or innovative ideas, or when the stakeholder’s awareness is raised or participant behavior is changed?

Defining the objectives begins with identifying the stakeholder roles and all of their calls to action from the ideation for the product development to its finalization/ after delivery.

Then, we need to define what is the added value of each call to action.

Lets look at the following example:

Call to action: To review 
Explanation: Stakeholders provide feedback on an intermediate version    of a product
Degree of engagement: Light
Timing during product development process: Halfway to late 
Power distribution: Developers ask stakeholders for feedback or input on intentions, plans or drafts. Developers decide whether to incorporate the received feedback or input        

Once you have selected call to action, you can combine them with the envisioned added values.

At a later stage, when it is clear which stakeholder groups are to be engaged, the benefits of these engagements for stakeholders can be defined.

When the engagement objectives are clear, you can explore which stakeholder groups you want to involve.

C) IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDERS

A key element of engagement is the stakeholder identification approach.

Through stakeholder identification, you are able to determine and tailor attitude, expectations, and needs of the stakeholders.

Moreover, you can develop targeted communications, and decide on communication content.

It is, therefore, necessary to analyze the stakeholders according to their tractivity to the product, their authority, their direction of influence (level of involvement), their impact (the person's ability to effect changes), and their power.

To identify stakeholders, various useful multi-dimensional tools helps you cluster stakeholders around the similar needs, goal, or activity.

The stakeholder circle map is one of visualization tool that classifies stakeholders based on their attitudes towards the product.

Figure A is an example of a stakeholder circle map.

As illustrated below, Stakeholder 1 has the most power and potential to kill the product, Stakeholder 2 is more influential and Stakeholder 3 has the least power to affect but is very close to the team.

The most significant stakeholder will be plotted in position starting at 00 o'clock, and the other stakeholders will be positioned in order of significance adjacent to each other.

The color and shadings indicate the direction of influence of the stakeholders and whether they are internal or external to the organization.

To identify stakeholder you should consider the following:

• Define which stakeholder group(s) you want to engage for each engagement objective.
• Define specific stakeholders you want to engage.
• Reflect whether you can reach all the stakeholders you aim to engage, and whether enablers need to be identified.
• Identify benefits for the stakeholders related to their engagement, based on their role and the group they are part of.

When you know which stakeholders you intend to engage, you can better understand the engagement benefits and engagement objectives.

STEP D) CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE FORMAT

To achieve a successful engagement outcome, it is important to select the appropriate formats for each engagement objective.

Choose the format/methods that will allow you to reach a successful outcome. Those methods can be workshops, focus groups, E-mails, (Network) events, conferences, etc.

Decide on who will take on the role of Facilitator during the engagement activity.

There are multiple considerations to take into account when deciding on the appropriate format, such as:

• Will the stakeholders feel comfortable/safe with the chosen format?
• Organizational and logistical considerations in terms of location, timing, stakeholders availability, and different time zones.
• What is necessary so stakeholders can be engaged meaningfully?

STEP E) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

The implementation plan outlines the engagement activities to be undertaken, their objectives, and how to engage stakeholders.

To plan accordingly, it should be made clear in which order your engagement activities need to be done.

One engagement activity might be dependable on another.

The implementation plan should be mapped to the product development iterations of the agile workflow.

When setting out the overall timeline for engagement, decide on the appropriate times to engage with your stakeholders on such an intermediary product version.

To have a communication plan, you need to answer the following questions:

• What is the current level of stakeholder support for the product's work and outcomes?
• What is the stakeholder's level of receptiveness to information about the product?
• What is the current and optimal attitude and engagement level of the stakeholders?

Figure C is a stakeholder communication matrix that supports the communication plan by detailing who, how, how often, in what detail, where, and for what purpose this kind of communication with stakeholders takes place.

Based on the communication plan, you can determine the specific report that must be provided for the stakeholder to fulfill their expectations.

SUMMARY

Planning the stakeholder engagement strategy needs product vision, engagement objectives, stakeholder identification, specific format, and implementation plan.

Each engagement activity has its objective. For each engagement activity, different stakeholders can be involved.

Each engagement activity may have different formats for different stakeholders.

The same stakeholder can have different engagement benefits during different engagement activities.

The number of engagement activities during product development and when a product is finalized depends on the product, stakeholder needs, and the availability of stakeholders.

We do not have a fixed implementation plan. Every engagement activity should be updated after new insights are gained through self-reflection or stakeholder input.

Figure D is the flow of implementation plan that presents a logical order of the engagement activities as well as the what, when, why, who and how?