Stakeholders

#38 - Nov.2022

Are you confusing stakeholders with users of your product? Seems like a trivial question but I find many times that teams are not clear on the nuances of this difference.

Don't get me wrong; there is a very thin line between being impacted by your product (stakeholder) and an actual user. Separating both, in particular for products used within your organization, can be challenging...but very much needed.

Considering stakeholders as users can take you to places where you are not focusing on real outcomes but rather on strategic & business constraints. Pure stakeholder-led prioritization can take you out of the route.

Priorities should be driven by the outcome of solving real problems for users. Your probing and discovery efforts should be focused on them, hearing and empathizing with people actually using your product.

Does this mean stakeholders are out of the equation? Surely not. They play a key role in bringing inputs on the constraints, assumptions, and risk assessment. They are just not the main source you should use to deeply understand a problem your user is facing.