Start Your Data Project With A Bang: Engage Stakeholders
Like sprinters, how you start matters. Effective stakeholder engagement is key.
The start of a sprint race can make or break a sprinter’s finish. Correctly starting is vital, from how one lines up at the start line, positioning arms and legs, to the propulsion off the block. Most sprinters learn to perfect their Crouch 4-Point Start during the “On Your Marks, Get Set, Go” command. The start of data projects is no different.
Key Take-Aways
- Getting the right people on board and acting on your data initiatives is key to success.
- Make sure to understand stakeholders’ perspectives and needs to get engagement.
- Tools to use: design workshops, change acceleration process, and project trackers.
Most data teams know how to start a project — secure resources and headcount, get funding, clean the data, etc. But all too often, in our desire to dive in right away, we miss a crucial step in the project: stakeholder engagement. You won’t push off the starting block correctly if you haven’t considered your stakeholders.
Stakeholder engagement, the act of getting the right people on board and acting on your data initiative, is key to success. Stakeholder’s perspective and their unmet needs matter more than any single-minded vision. Once you’ve gotten the signals to start on a data effort, there are a few tools you can use to get product stakeholder engagement and set you up at the starting line:
Teams that will build your solutions. Facilitate design workshops with the product owners and project teams to build the roadmap and budget for the use case developers. Google Venture’s Design Sprint or AJ&Smart Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) are great ones to leverage because they provide structure to the brainstorming process and get to clear thinking faster.
Business partners that will enable your data solutions. Involve other functions and partners in the data solution through a cross-functional change acceleration process. Getting buy-in from critical executive sponsors ensures we agree on the effort, operating mechanisms, expected business results, timing, and success measures. GE’s Change Acceleration Process (CAP) is a great framework to ensure you are managing and communicating change effectively.
All stakeholder partners. Continuously report progress against the committed roadmap through a transparent tracker. A project tracker allows shared understanding and expectations. Tools like Jira, Smartsheet, and Asana help track moving parts of a complex initiative. Watch out for these tools’ garbage-in-garbage-out and complexity traps; they are only as good as how your team leverages them.
Lastly, the signals I expect to see at the “On your marks” command are cross-functional alignment in the form of a written project charter and incorporation into the organization’s scorecard. This level of acknowledgment by all impacted functions and teams helps ensure the priority data initiative aligns with company goals.
Now that you have your toes at the starting line with the proper stakeholder engagement, you’re off to the races!
Share Your Starting Lineup Tips:
What tools have you used to engage cross-functional stakeholders and partners?
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