Creating a Stakeholder Engagement Approach
Product Owners need to engage the right people at the right time to maximize the value of the product that the Scrum Team builds and delivers. This requires you to know who your stakeholders are, when to engage with them, and what level of engagement is required to help gather helpful feedback and insights.
One way a Scrum Team can create some understanding and transparency into who needs to be involved during product delivery, is by collaboratively creating a lightweight stakeholder engagement approach to help guide the team.
Activity Guidelines
1. Identify Different Stakeholders
The Scrum Team should understand their stakeholder relationships as early as possible. Try using a stakeholder mapping activity and regularly review it to adapt the stakeholder map as relationships change.
2. Categorize Stakeholders by their Level of Influence and Stake
Though they may seem similar, there is a difference between having influence and having a stake. A person who has influence has the ability to affect decisions, direction or outcomes. A person who has a stake in the product has an interest and is affected by the outcome of a product.
Create 4 categories and collaboratively, as a Scrum Team, discuss and place each stakeholder’s name in one of the categories like in the example shown.
| Category | Stakeholder Names |
|---|---|
| High Influence/ High Stake | Jenny, Blake (Enterprise Customer) |
| Low Influence/ High Stake | Mo (Legal Counsel), Dan (Marketing Manager), Beau (Software User) |
| High Influence/ Low Stake | Dorian (Sales Manager) |
| Low Influence/ Low Stake | Andy (Human Resources) |
The Stakeholder Engagement Approach that the Scrum Team takes will depend on these categories.
Keep in mind that a stakeholder's level of influence and stake will fluctuate depending on where a product is in its lifecycle. For example, someone who has a lot of interest and influence in a product when it is being introduced into the market may have less interest and influence as the product matures.
3. Agree on Stakeholder Engagement Approach
Discuss and agree on required Stakeholder Engagement Approach per category. This may include the level of engagement (how much to engage), ways to engage (approach), frequency of engagement (how often) and any other element that helps the Scrum Team to engage with their stakeholders at the appropriate level and time.
The four basic levels of stakeholder engagement are:
- Involve extensively and collaborate closely
- Include and update actively
- Keep satisfied and involve when required
- Inform when needed - can be passive or active
The example continues with added levels of engagement and a variety of Stakeholder Engagement Approaches.
| Category | Stakeholder Names | Level of Engagement | Approaches (Example) |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Influence/ High Stake | Jenny, Blake (Enterprise Customer) | Involve extensively and collaborate closely | - Invite to every Sprint Review - Involve in refinement |
| Low Influence/ High Stake | Mo (Legal Counsel), Dan (Marketing Manager), Beau (Software User) | Include and update actively | - Invite to every Sprint Review - Engage for feedback during Sprint - Include in all end of Sprint communications |
| High Influence/ Low Stake | Dorian (Sales Manager) | Keep satisfied and involve when required | - Schedule monthly face-to-face sessions - Include in all end of Sprint communications |
| Low Influence/ Low Stake | Andy (Human Resources) | Inform when needed; can be passive or active | Make updated information available on Wiki |
4. Revisit your Stakeholders Engagement Approach regularly
Stakeholders and their level of required engagement changes, so the Scrum Team should regularly revisit the level of engagement needed. This helps to foster transparency in how the Scrum Team is involving stakeholders and also ensures that the Scrum Team receives valuable insights by actively involving the right stakeholders at the appropriate time.
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