We've all been there: we have a vision for the game or the product or the service. We understand the problem space and innovations we want to bring to the market. We might even have the team building a prototype, concepting out design and art, getting something that can be tested to validate the assumptions built into the vision.

And we hit a roadblock. A major stakeholder is out of alignment with the concept, or the timeline, or the strategy. How do we avoid this?

Maintaining stakeholder alignment is critical for product success. Think about all the times you've run into organizations where this didn't exist: there an eternal amount of priority switching, do-overs of work, entire features canned, straying away from player or user feedback, or the team disengages and become a feature factory (this is probably the most heartbreaking consequence).

If you're leading product and this is happening, the impact isn't just on you, but also on the team who's working on the project, burning them out, destroying engagement, and, something that's going to take a lot longer to recover, losing their trust.

Get Your Vision, Together

Before you can align with stakeholders, you need a strong product vision. One that is shared, understood, and internalized by everyone. That doesn't mean it needs to be by consensus (great if you can achieve that, but beware). It just means that everyone agrees that we need to move forward. If you're reading this as a product manager, you already know that a vision needs to clearly communicate the long term goals, along with the value and experience you're hoping to bring to your audience. This should be the guiding light for you, the stakeholders, and the team as you all embark on a journey of discovery.

If you ever find that the vision falls out of alignment with your audience, just remember that your vision isn't written in stone. Take in that feedback, tweak, iterate, and refine.

Think of the vision as a living document. It's never going to be perfect the first time around. Even with reams of data, you own biases and prejudices will color that interpretation. What shouldn't change are the core values on the why you are building what you are building.

Agreeing on that is going to be foundational to moving forward with investors, stakeholders, and the team. In my experience, without a strong conviction of the "whys" of what we're doing, we'll be at the whims of everyone around us. And we already know where that gets us.

What about Bob (the stakeholder)?

Not all stakeholders carry the same weight. Pick your favorite technique and map them out. Think about who has the most influence, the most interest, insight, and who has the most outsized impact to your game or product (regardless if we like to think about power structures or not, in an org, they will always exist). Build relationships with them. Talk to them. You talk to your players or users, right? Find out what they want, what their worries are, how you can make the product or feature better? Stakeholders are no different. They're also our users - just that they consume our results instead of our product (or maybe our product, too).

Use all the techniques you need to keep the conversation going with them: surveys, 1:1 conversations, focus groups, etc. You want to keep them updated on the direction, progress, what's that next important thing that keeps the product moving forward, and, yes, challenges. If you keep them aligned and know who the audience is, stakeholders are some of the most powerful allies you can have to remove roadblocks.

Within that effort of mapping their impact, their needs, and their style, you're going to know how frequently you need to keep them in the loop. You're also going to pick up valuable information on how to tailor the conversation and information to them. Are they your engineering leads, which need broken down, detailed information of what the most important thing that they can work on is? Are they executive leadership, who want a high level view of the roadmap and major blockers? Keep in mind who needs the data and how best to ingest it. (And trust me, long form essays on why something didn't work is great for a post-mortem deep dive, but not many in executive leadership are really going to go down that path with you).

Celebration (Station?)

This should be a given for any team. We've all spent months, years, potentially a decade, working on the game, or app, or physical good. And while, yes, the dev team might have done all of the visible heavy lifting, they're not the only ones. When you hit important milestones, shipped a successful feature, or shipped that game, celebrate with the team - that includes the stakeholders. Recognize the contributions and effort everyone put into the project.

It might sound like a political game to some, but think of it this way: a coach or a franchise owner is a stakeholder in the team's success. How do you think they would feel if they're not part of the team's championship celebration? Do you think they would support the team in the same way the next time they really need their support?

Now, rinse and repeat. Alignment isn't a one-time, I'm done, thanks for all the fish type of event. It's going to require an ongoing effort. Alignment, just like organizational culture, is entropic; it's continuously in a state of decay. Keep at it. Be genuinely interested in understanding concerns when they appear. Keep an open line of communication and continue to build that trust, in every direction possible.

Remember, at the end of the day, the team is counting on you to keep the wheels on. Don't leave them stranded.

/r