How to Provide an Exceptional Stakeholder Experience

The best procurement teams operate at a truly strategic level, driving substantial value for their organisations.

They excel at prioritisation, execution, and communicating the value they deliver.

They are lean, agile and focussed.

To support working at this level, the focus must not only on the efficiency of processes but also on stakeholder experience.

Ansd not just making small improvements when we remember.

Nor sending out a survey once a year to our advocates and patting our backs on a job well done.

The best teams obsess over stakeholder satisfaction.

But the majority of stakeholders just want procurement to run faster.

It’s a difficult balance to achieve - having the right levels of governance in place without the business grinding to a halt and keeping everyone satisfied.

So how can we get the balance right?

In the same way many have a systems lead, a process lead, category leads and so on, we should also have an experience lead.

Or as we’d say in tech: a ‘Product Manager for Experience’

This could be part of someones role, or a role in its own right in a larger team.

The objective is to treat experience itself as a product to be meticulously developed and continuously improved - enhancing processes, procedures and technology.

We must create a seamless and exceptional experiences for all stakeholders, whether that be internal stakeholders, suppliers, or even our teams.

With this approach we can develop stronger partnerships, boost satisfaction and empower our teams, driving sustainable success and competitive advantage.

How can we set up this role for success?

1. Appoint someone to the role: they should be a strategic thinker, process minded, excel in developing relationships, strong communicator, innovative, skilled in change management and customer centric. A good all-rounder! Empower them to make change.
2. Speak to stakeholders: determine their objectives, strategies and what they want to achieve from procurement activities.
3. Define Clear Objectives and KPIs: Collating stakeholder feedback, establish goals and KPIs to track and measure progress. Look at simple measures that meet 90% of stakeholder objectives. North star metrics - e.g. average time to value.
4. Create an Experience Backlog: Collect and prioritise feedback to build a high-impact improvement backlog. Make visible to everyone - and for extra points get stakeholders to vote on the best improvements! Have visibledue dates for improvements.
5. Iterate or implement new Technology and Processes: Look to improve tech solutions and optimise processes for seamless interactions. Remove handoffs where possible and look to delete, delegate, accelerate or automate.
6. Continuous Improvement Culture: Encourage innovation and provide ongoing training to keep the team at the forefront of best practices. Think experience during all decision making - include the product manager in all major decisions.
7. Monitor and Adapt: Use dashboards and regular reviews to track effectiveness and adjust strategies as needed. Keep talking to the stakeholders!

This approach is not a silver bullet - we still need to care about experience, understand stakeholder objectives and what it’s like to engage with our teams.

But having someone with a specific responsibility to improve experience is a great way to give it the focus it deserves.

Let’s make sure that every interaction is not only efficient but exceptional.