Really useful, I think managing stakeholders is definitely the most important aspect of the job, and the hardest overall. For me, it's historically been easy to fall into the 'everyone blames product' trap, and to tell others that we know what we are doing and they don't. But I completely agree, communication and collaboration are the only ways to be successful, they need to be who they are, with their own pressures and targets and we have to help make them all successful.
yes, it’s generally hard for most of us PM’s to accept some of the harsh truths when we are young and idealistic, but with experience, we realize that most of “Stakeholder Management” is just working with other living, thinking, feeling humans!
I particularly appreciate this article because it provides perspective on what PMs can do within an organization to be more effective without feeling like you’re selling your soul - rather understanding that this IS part of the territory and should be treated as a skill like any other. Very helpful advice. My question for you is - where does this insight come from? I am sure that much of this is personal experience, but if you have any recommended books or other media resources that flesh out these ideas or have inspired you, we would love to know. Thanks again and keep it up!
Thank you for the comment. To be really honest, I have struggled a lot with stakeholder management in my career - I hated it! I still do sometimes, I feel like it really slows down the process of building things, putting it out to the actual customer and getting real feedback - However, I kept seeing other PMs actually be good at it, somehow manage to convince stakeholders and move sooner, so I started to change my outlook towards it. Rather than thinking negatively about it, I started to play along to see if things change, and few months later, my entire experience in the team became better, work shipped faster, which is where this article comes from.
So I cannot recommend books, because I have not read any - Only thing to do, is to see people as “people” and not resources, which was my biggest mistake earlier.
Really useful, I think managing stakeholders is definitely the most important aspect of the job, and the hardest overall. For me, it's historically been easy to fall into the 'everyone blames product' trap, and to tell others that we know what we are doing and they don't. But I completely agree, communication and collaboration are the only ways to be successful, they need to be who they are, with their own pressures and targets and we have to help make them all successful.
yes, it’s generally hard for most of us PM’s to accept some of the harsh truths when we are young and idealistic, but with experience, we realize that most of “Stakeholder Management” is just working with other living, thinking, feeling humans!
I particularly appreciate this article because it provides perspective on what PMs can do within an organization to be more effective without feeling like you’re selling your soul - rather understanding that this IS part of the territory and should be treated as a skill like any other. Very helpful advice. My question for you is - where does this insight come from? I am sure that much of this is personal experience, but if you have any recommended books or other media resources that flesh out these ideas or have inspired you, we would love to know. Thanks again and keep it up!
Thank you for the comment. To be really honest, I have struggled a lot with stakeholder management in my career - I hated it! I still do sometimes, I feel like it really slows down the process of building things, putting it out to the actual customer and getting real feedback - However, I kept seeing other PMs actually be good at it, somehow manage to convince stakeholders and move sooner, so I started to change my outlook towards it. Rather than thinking negatively about it, I started to play along to see if things change, and few months later, my entire experience in the team became better, work shipped faster, which is where this article comes from.
So I cannot recommend books, because I have not read any - Only thing to do, is to see people as “people” and not resources, which was my biggest mistake earlier.