How Can Product Owner Develop Stakeholder Management Strategy?

All the organizations require a proper stakeholder management-based strategy so that the goals of the organization can be achieved most effectively and efficiently. The certified scrum product owner is also responsible to take several decisions so that overall goals are achieved in a coordinated way.

All the activities are to be done in a professional manner which must be based upon the concept of proper planning. The right strategy has to be identified all the time so that stakeholders can be managed well. At the time of development of the proper stakeholder management-based strategy, some of the steps are to be followed in chronological order. The scope of the strategy must be brought by keeping in mind the performances of all the people associated with the organization.

Following are some of the steps that are required to be followed based upon the goals of the organizations at the time of developing the stakeholder management-based strategy:

• The first step is understanding: Understanding is the success related aspect of the whole strategy. At the time of performing the task, one must know why one is doing that. Similarly understanding the stakeholders is the most important concept because the organization has to deal with people who will influence the decision-making directly. The organizations must classify the people as people within the organization and people outside the organization. A proper SWOT analysis for every stakeholder has to be conducted to reach the desired outcomes. This will help to find out what is strong as well as weak points of all the stakeholders so that proper decisions can be made.

• The second step is to rank: After the stakeholders have been identified, the next step is to rank them based upon various factors like influence and power. After this, the individual goals and expectations from all the organizations are to be ranked. This ranking will help in managing them effectively. Proper and due importance is to be given to their needs and then the process of matching the needs with goals is to be done.

• Then a proper interview has to be conducted: The organization has to talk to the stakeholders so that one can find out what are their requirements. The organization can ask them about the reason for their interest in these products. The organization must ask about their expectations and concerns regarding the business and products. They can be also asked about their contributions and suggestions. This interview task will help in providing them with proper confidence that they are highly important to the organization.

• The fourth step is to develop a matrix: The matrix with four quadrants has to be developed in which the stakeholders will be classified on different types. This matrix will help in providing an idea about the effective handling of the stakeholders. This will give a clear picture of the whole scenario

• After this, the expectations management has to be undertaken: The next step is to manage the expectations of the stakeholders. For this, a proper plan has to be created and they must be informed about the expectations from them. There must be realistic expectations so that planning can be done in a coordinated manner.

The whole process has to be based on various principles. They are mentioned as:

• The product owners should collaborate and share the information with all the stakeholders. This gathering of information will help the product-based owners to make various decisions.
• The whole management strategy should be based upon consultation. This intensive and collaborative approach will help to make informed decisions.
• The overall approach must be rational and reasonable so that a productive relationship is maintained.
• Proper planning is required at all the stages and this will help in keeping the stakeholders engaged.
• The relationships should be based upon trust so that people effectively work together. This will help to solve the problems efficiently and then make various decisions.
• Social capital is another concept that can help to strengthen the relationships so that things are undertaken with efficiency. This will help to deal with several challenges.
• When the product owners will frame policies based on these principles, then they will be very well able to mitigate the risks.

The scrum product owner certification helps to provide a proper idea about all the steps so that tasks can be undertaken with efficiency.