Engaging Stakeholders in Projects

4 months ago we got an impossible brief...gain 500K users in 3 months. I'm proud to say we just hit 2M users in 4 months, and still growing 10% WOW. To do this we didn't send a single email, pay for an ad, or an influencer, instead we used our community and our tech. Here's our Web3 growth playbook👇 The Web3 Growth Playbook: 1 - Build trust in the market: First you have to have people trust that you are worth their time. There are many projects offering quests, so why do yours? We highlighted our team, our tech, and our successes to prove we were a legit project and worth their time. 2 - Open the aperture: Wallet based quests limit you to Web3 natives. Our tech enables anyone with email or Apple/Google wallet to join in. This allowed us to go beyond just Web3 natives, to create a much larger community by making it easy to participate. 3 - Nail The Value Exchange: There needs to be value for people to take action. We used a combination of early community rewards paid out from our upcoming listing, partner rewards, early access to other projects, mentorships, NFT's, and Discord roles. 4 - Design Quests for key goals : We didn't just ask you to follow us on Discord, rather multiple steps; follow us, and then get a specific role. We didn't just ask you to tweet, we created AI prompts ensuring tweets were unique allowing us to create new trending hashtags each week. 5 - Keep up the momentum: We released new quests regularly, and enabled one off ways to earn points so our admins could award points to any member easily for things like answering question in Discord, participating in a emoji contest, or alerting us to a bug. 6 - Create Rewards: We leveraged our NFT technology to create the Smart Cats, an NFT derivative of a Cool Cat we own. Our community minted over 500K of them in a week. 7 - Create Ambassadors: We created an ambassador program and guided them as to what content to create. In exchange we gave them mentorship, status, and points in return. 8 - Activate your Ecosystem: We are now working with our partners to integrate our quests into theirs, have them offer rewards to our community, and to allow them to personalize experiences with our Smart Pass. So now the pass is the key to our ecosystem, not just our project giving it greater value. We built all of this from scratch with our tech because we didn't see what we wanted in the market. It's provided us with the flexibility to go beyond other questing solutions to drive rapid growth. > 4m individual quests completed in 120 days > 2M users in 120 days > 500K NFT minted in 1 week > 200k unique tweets in 2 weeks > Trending multiple #hashtags > 5k average attendance for Twitter Spaces This effort has been so successful we are now offering the playbook and the Growth Tooling to others. DM me if you're interested to see what we could do for your project.

I was once working on a project where one key stakeholder was… let’s say, not easy to work with. Constant last-minute changes, strong opinions, minimal responses on Jira or emails — and feedback always came in after we moved ahead. At first, I felt frustrated. I mean, as a Business Analyst, all I want is clarity, alignment, and moving forward together. But here’s what I did differently: 1) I scheduled short weekly syncs just with them — no agenda, no pressure, just a space to talk. 2) I stopped expecting structured feedback. I let them speak freely, took notes, and turned their thoughts into proper user stories. 3) I started sending back short summaries after every call — just to confirm, reduce misunderstandings, and track evolving requirements. 4) I noticed they weren’t active on Jira or long email chains, so I casually asked how they prefer to communicate. Turned out, they liked WhatsApp and quick voice notes — so I adapted. 5) I collaborated with the dev team to create quick mockups and visuals. They responded much better to that than documents. 6) Instead of defending timelines, I started showing how their feedback was shaping the product — and how it helped the end user. 7) I even built a “wish list” backlog for their ideas — not everything made it to the roadmap, but they felt heard. It wasn’t overnight. But slowly, they became more engaged, more trusting, and less reactive. One day, they said: “Thanks for your patience — I know I haven’t made this easy.” And honestly? That meant more than any formal feedback ever could. Lesson learned: Tough stakeholders aren’t always difficult — sometimes, they just need someone to translate their thoughts and make them feel heard. Ever been in a similar situation? Would love to hear how you handled it. #BusinessAnalysis #StakeholderManagement #ProjectLife #ProductDevelopment #RealTalk #LessonsFromTheField #Opentowork #UnitedArabEmirates

Stop Using SAP S/4HANA as a "Garbage Dump" for Your Missing Vision! An SAP S/4HANA project is not an IT project—it’s a business transformation. But for many companies, this massive investment becomes a costly failure because they treat it as a cure-all for a deeper problem: a lack of vision and preparation. Consider this: How effectively does management support project decisions beyond just the budget? The truth is, implementing S/4HANA without first preparing your organization is a complete waste of money. Here’s why: You can't pave over a weak foundation. A new system can't fix broken value creation. Without a clean-up phase, you're just moving your old problems to a new, expensive platform. A project can't create a vision. The biggest mistake is using S/4HANA to compensate for a missing business strategy. Technology can't tell you what your goals are, which processes matter most, or how to get there. It can only enable a vision that already exists. Reflect: Is there a clear connection between your company mission, project charter, and change story? A disconnect often leads directly to scope creep, conflicting priorities, and an over-customized, underutilized system. A successful implementation starts with a clear, strategic vision. Before you spend a single euro on the technology, you must: Let the management define your project "Why": Clearly articulate your business goals and how S/4HANA will help you achieve them. 1. Clean House leads to (SAP) clean core : Get your data in order and analyze your current business processes to find what's broken. 2. Invest in Your People: Make change management a priority, not an afterthought. Don't let your S/4HANA project become a costly lesson in what not to do. A successful transformation is built on preparation, purpose, and people—not just technology. #Changemangement #ocm #sap

Ed Miliband’s proposal to turn large UK car parks into solar farms is the kind of grounded, system-minded thinking this sector needs more of. The fundamentals make sense: • The UK has over 20,000 public car parks surfaced, underutilised, and close to demand (British Parking Association) • Co-locating solar with EV infrastructure makes operational and economic sense • France and Germany are already moving on similar mandates, setting a clear precedent But as always, the friction isn’t in the concept, it’s in the delivery. Projects like this tend to stall on permitting, DNO approvals, procurement complexity, and capex coordination. These are not technical challenges. They’re systems challenges, and that’s where the real lesson is. Whether we’re talking about public infrastructure or private homes, the blockers are consistent: lack of coordination, fragmented standards, and slow regulatory processes. The tech is ready. The economics are strong. What’s missing is execution at scale. Turning good ideas into working infrastructure is the real challenge. That’s where focus is needed now.

In mining, geology and metallurgy have often lived in separate silos.  One tells you what’s in the ground. The other tells you how to process it. But if those two disciplines don’t talk to each other early enough, projects run into problems. You can easily end up with process plant designs that don’t match the orebody characteristics, often don’t take into account critical factors like slimes content, or which are suboptimal, leaving unrecovered valuable minerals passing through to tails, or as in many cases we've seen a process design that does not cater for the variability of orebody characteristics over the planned mine life. By bringing geology and metallurgy together, you start to design smarter projects, which bring certainty and better results for our customers. You can predict variability across the orebody, model how the ore will behave through processing, and make better decisions before you’ve sunk millions into construction. This means you're de-risking at the very start. But I’m curious - how many of you have seen projects go off track because geology and metallurgy weren’t aligned early enough?

A PM at Google asked me how I managed 30+ stakeholders. 'More meetings?' Wrong. Here's the RACI framework that cut my meeting load by 60% while increasing influence. 1/ 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙫𝙨 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 Most PMs drown because they invite everyone who's "interested." Instead, split your stakeholders into: - R: People doing the work - A: People accountable for success 2/ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙥 Stop asking for approval from everyone. Create two clear buckets: - C: Must consult before decisions - I: Just keep informed of progress 3/ 𝘿𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 > 𝙈𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 For "Informed" stakeholders, switch to documented updates. They'll actually retain more than in another recurring meeting. 4/ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙝𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙚 "𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲." Use this in every email. Watch the right people emerge. 5/ 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 Build your approval flows around your R&A stakeholders only. Everyone else gets strategic updates. --- This isn't about excluding people. It's about respecting everyone's time while maintaining momentum. If you found this framework helpful for managing stakeholders: 1. Follow Alex Rechevskiy for more actionable frameworks on product leadership and time management 2. Bookmark and retweet to save these tactics and help other PMs streamline their stakeholder management

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐞 Enterprise Architecture abhors a vacuum—it thrives on stakeholder engagement. Often, architects jump into collaboration without first assessing one critical factor: • 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞, 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐄𝐀? Before strategy, frameworks, or roadmaps, 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 and 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. This will shape how you approach, gain buy-in, and drive outcomes. Here are 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 for aligning EA with stakeholders: 𝟏 | 𝐆𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐀 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 EA means different things to people, how can you align? Approach: * 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞. What do leaders think EA does? What experiences shape their view? * 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐀 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞. If a product saw EA as 'overhead,’ shift the conversation to ‘rapid decision-making.’ * 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. Finance, operations, and IT leaders have different concerns. Meet them on their terms. 👉 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞: When you shape EA’s role based on their reality, it becomes relevant, not theoretical. 𝟐 | 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐄𝐀 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 EA isn’t all architecture, it’s solving business problems. Approach: * 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐏𝐈𝐬. Growth? Efficiency? Risk? Align EA contributions to what leadership interests. * 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭. Show architecture driving go-to-market, savings, or agility—over compliance. * 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞/𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬. If EA was a bottleneck, demonstrate accelerated decision-making instead. 👉 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞: EA is a strategic enabler, not afterthought. 𝟑 | 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐄𝐀 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 EA works best in collaboration, not isolation. Approach: * 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Decision-making improves when EA is a proactive presence. * 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 ‘𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐀’ 𝐭𝐨 ‘𝐜𝐨-𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.’ Stakeholders engage when architecture is a tool for their success. * 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐨𝐟𝐟. EA isn’t a pitch—it’s a dialog evolving with business. 👉 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞: EA shaping decisions early rather than reacting later. 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. Before pushing frameworks or models, assess 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐀 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲—and how to reshape that narrative to unlock its full potential. How do align EA stakeholders? Let’s discuss.👇 --- ➕ 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 Kevin Donovan 🔔    👍 Like | ♻️ Repost | 💬 Comment    🚀 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬’ 𝐇𝐮𝐛 👉 https://lnkd.in/dgmQqfu2

Want buy-in from business leaders? Stop using technical language. This is probably the lesson that took me longest to learn and it's the one that's made the biggest difference in my career. Early on, I would walk into meetings with CMOs, CFOs, and COOs and start talking about semantic layers, data orchestration, observability, and pipeline architecture. Their eyes would glaze over. And then they'd deprioritize my projects. It wasn't because the work wasn't valuable. It was because I was speaking a language they didn't understand and honestly, didn't care to learn. Now I do it completely differently. When I talk to a CMO, I use their language. I talk about customer acquisition cost, consumer lifetime value, and CRM performance. I reference the metrics from their last board presentation. I say things like: "That report that takes you 14 weeks to get? Here's how we fix it so you get it in 4." That lands. That gets attention. That builds trust. I spend the first four to five months of any new role just building relationships. One-on-ones with as many stakeholders as possible. Learning their pain points. Understanding what success looks like for them. I'm not coming in to fix things right away. I'm coming in to listen. Because here's what I've learned: People don't do business with you because you have the greatest tool or the smartest team or the most impressive architecture. They do business with you because they like you. They trust you. And they believe you actually care about solving their problems. Relationships > Tools. Every single time. Once you have the relationship, the technical stuff becomes so much easier to execute. Doors open. Resources get allocated. Priorities shift in your favor. But without that trust? You're just another cost center asking for budget. How do you build relationships with non-technical stakeholders? 👇 #Leadership #Communication #ExecutivePresence #DataLeadership #Influence #Stakeholders

Aligning executive stakeholders with conflicting priorities is a puzzle many product people face. How do you solve it? When stakeholders pull in different directions, the secret isn't in aligning immediately around a product vision. Instead, elevate the conversation: align first on company goals. What outcomes do we aspire to achieve as a company? This unified understanding of company priorities becomes your north star. Here's how you can approach this: 1️⃣ Level Up the Discussion: Before diving into a product vision, ask stakeholders to agree on broader company goals. What did your CEO emphasize as priorities for your business? This context is crucial. It sets the stage for aligning individual goals to the bigger picture. 2️⃣ Connect Back to Product Vision: Once unified on company objectives, demonstrate how the product vision helps achieve these goals. "Here's our shared goal. Based on customer insights and priorities, this vision drives us towards it.” This shows your vision isn't just arbitrary—it's informed and intentional. 3️⃣ Seek Constructive Feedback: Encourage dialogue. Why might a stakeholder disagree with the vision? Is it truly about priorities, or personal impacts and unmet goals? This feedback refines your approach but remember, the product vision isn't a committee decision. It's guided by data and customer needs. 4️⃣ Give Credit and Build Back: Stakeholders feel valued when their input shapes outcomes. Make sure to recognize their contributions. This fosters trust and buy-in. Being stuck in the build trap often arises from chasing outputs over outcomes. Aligning on higher-level goals ensures your product strategy isn't just a list of features but a pathway to delivering real value. 🎯 So, next time conflicting priorities emerge, remember: align at the top, then articulate a product vision that navigates towards those shared company goals. How have you managed stakeholder alignment in your organization? Share your experiences!

It is ten years since my first book 📚 'Sustaining Change in Organizations' was published by Sage. So in celebration of so many years writing about change here in no particular order are ten practical things to consider when implementing change: ✅ Engage stakeholders. Engaging stakeholder in change means shifting the power and agency of change from employer to employee. ✅ Ask people for their views, ideas, hopes and fears about change. The process of planned change will be much smoother if people are engaged early with it and are asked for input on issues that will affect their work. ✅ Focus on what will not change. Build in sources of stability by identifying and articulating which elements of the status quo will remain the same because people need to know what wil remain stable and not change as well as what will change. ✅ Power and politics affect all transformations. Map the political landscape of who will be affected, who can impact and who can influence the change and devise an action plan for engaging these different stakeholders. ✅ Change is an emotional process. Recognize and acknowledge the complexity of emotions that arise with a major change. ✅ Conversations are the engines of business transformations. Engage in and encourage dialogue throughout a change process. ✅ Failure is a necessary part of change. Recognize the learning from failure and share lessons learnt. ✅ Make change meaningful. For change to stick it has to be made personal by aligning it to what is of value to key stakeholders and highlighting what it means for them. ✅ Reduce the negative impact of change on wellbeing and mental health. Build wellbeing initatives into business transformations from the start and assess them: how many individuals are actively involved in them; what impact are the initiatives having; and are people applying the tools/techniques and sticking to them. ✅ Build a culture that embraces people-centric change. Process is important but people are more important when it comes to organizational change - put them at the heart of any transformation. Give them space to voice their concerns, fears, hopes and ideas. Listen and acknowledge their voices. #peoplecentricchange #leadingchange #managingchange