What is Stakeholder Management?

From the context of Product Management, my definition for stakeholder management is as below,

The art of convening and convincing all individual or group of individuals affected by a problem to act towards a single goal through a mutually agreed solution.

A person skilled in stakeholder management would ensure

1. They understand the problem thoroughly and know all the individuals or groups affected by the problem
2. They already know or have the capability of knowing how the problem affects each individual or group
3. They are able to analyse the know-how received from all stakeholders to identify common goals
4. They are able to bring together all stakeholders and convince them to work towards common goals
5. They are able to hold conversation with each stakeholder to converge on a solution that suits all of them, and in process sets expectations for each stakeholder avoiding future conflicts
6. They are able to deliver their promises to each stakeholder building their confidence in them

Its a stakeholder management failure when following scenarios occur

1. we are stuck with a problem because all parties cannot decide on a solution
2. some parties claim that they have not been involved in deciding a solution, hence they reject it or do not guarantee its success
3. a party was aligned with the goals and solutions but is not happy when the solution is implemented

Note

I wrote my experience building ‘Smart Batching’, which was a product involving multiple stakeholders. If you’d like to go through an example, I would suggest this read Bringing all teams on the same page