Categories

Subscribe to My Feed   Follow Me On Twitter   Join Me On LinkedIn   Friend Me On Facebook

Engaging Stakeholders – A Mini Case Study – Part I

Engaging StakeholdersAlex was about to undertake a project in the organization that impacted the marketing department. It was not a large initiative at all and was only expected to last 2 – 3 months in duration. The initiative was to update an internal portal used by marketing for managing campaigns.

During a PMO meeting, one of Alex’s colleagues, Jessica, asked him what he was doing to engage the stakeholders in the project. Alex was taken aback. He told Jessica it was a simple project and he didn’t think there was much need to focus on the stakeholders. He was simply working on updating a portal marketing used – not a big deal. And, he told her, it would make the portal so much more functional for the group that they must be thrilled with the project. He was working on a few other larger projects and felt he needed to focus on engaging stakeholders for those projects, but not for this one.

Jessica told him that he was wrong. He needed to engage the marketing stakeholders. In fact, she told him, she learned that the hard way! She was working on an initiative with marketing a few months ago when she first joined the organization and didn’t bother to provide information other than the fact that the project was starting and she was leading the effort. Her initiative took far longer than she expected because she never really figured out what the marketing stakeholders needed and expected. She never bothered to understand how the project would impact them. She suggested Alex didn’t make the same mistake! She told him it wasn’t just marketing either, she has learned that even the smallest initiative – one that seems so simple – needs stakeholders to be engaged.

Alex reached out to a number of other colleagues within the PMO and got the same answer. It was essential to engage every stakeholder for every project regardless of how insignificant the project seemed to be.

Alex listed the individuals within Marketing that he would need to communicate with:

  • Sam – VP Marketing
  • Jeremy – Marketing Coordinator
  • Jacklyn – Marketing Manager
  • Allison – Content Specialist
  • Sammie – Marketing Assistant
  • Joshua – Content Specialist
  • Paula – Marketing Analyst
  • Joseph – SEO Specialist
  • Harry – Marketing Analyst
  • Sally – Graphic Artist (part time)

He then considered how this project might impact them. In the long run he knew this project was great for the group. By updating the internal marketing portal, the group would have more flexibility, more features and better be able to track a growing customer base. Alex decided to meet with Sam, the VP of Marketing, to get his take on the project.

Meeting with Sam

Alex asked Sam how the group felt about the upcoming project of updating the internal marketing portal. Sam said that while overall they realized it was going to be a great benefit to them, they were nervous about it overall. They used this portal constantly throughout the day and were worried about their ability to use it once it was updated. Sam told Alex that the last time the portal was updated (before Alex’s time in the organization) it literally stopped working and the group didn’t have access to it for nearly a week. As Alex could imagine, Sam noted, the group was backed up with work and revenue ended up being impacted.

Given all this, Sam suggested that Alex come to the next department meeting and talk with the group about the project. The department meeting was scheduled for later that week.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll share the conversation that Alex had at the meeting with the marketing group.

Comments are closed.