Getting started with stakeholder buy-in
Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. A short on-ramp to stakeholder buy-in for teams who have not touched it before.
Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.
What is actually at stake
Late objections cost the most. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.
Your first week
- Find out what is already in place
- Involve the sceptics early rather than presenting to them
- Change one thing and measure it
Frame decisions in their terms, not in design terms. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.
How to tell if yours is fine
The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about stakeholder buy-in before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Involve the sceptics early rather than presenting to them — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.