#173 – The Immediate Stakeholders

As mentioned in Strip 164 – Stakeholder Management, as a Product Owner in a large enterprise, you can drown in the number of stakeholders you have, so making a Power Interest Matrix is a great start. The purpose of it is to equip yourself to spend your time wisely, as not all stakeholders should be managed similarly; spend the most time on the most important ones, so you don’t spend all of your time managing all members of the full Galactic Senate (there’s much more the PO accountability, as you know!).

Hereafter, find the balance between individual and group-based stakeholder management; some stakeholders you should definitely manage on a one-to-one basis and build up an individual relationship with (e.g., internal Executives and customer-side decision-makers), while others can be managed in groups (e.g., end user representatives at Sprint Reviews). Also, if you’re a new product person, do ask your Scrum Master or Agile Coach for help in building some structure around your stakeholder management practices–they’re here to serve you, as well.