#164 – Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management is foundational to your success as Product Owner, because many people either influence or are influenced by the product—especially in large enterprises. Therefore, drawing out all your different types of stakeholders in a Power Interest Matrix can help you identify the ones you should focus your attention on.

Have a good, hard think about whether you really need to overcrowd your stakeholder overview by adding your own line of Managers to it. A potential upside is that, keeping these Managers happy and in the loop and treating them as stakeholders, even though they are not directly involved with your product, might help you share the success of you and your product to the rest of your organization and open up new opportunities for you and your team.

In any case, if Managers ask you to consider them as stakeholders, have them explain why that is; they might even have a reasonable reason.