Who Knows What? Understanding Stakeholders in Product Design
Stakeholders are an important part of any product. As a designer, they are your customer and you’ll want to get to know them. Kim Goodwin covers this well in Designing for the Digital Age in chapter 5. Recently, I’ve worked with another person on my team to find some stakeholders that are often forgotten. A similar brainstorming might be helpful for you as well. Here is my composite list of stakeholders I’ve met and what they’ll know about.
- Product Manager (PM) – Generally, this will be someone you are closely partnered with in any engagement. In my work, the PM builds the business case for a product and then works with engineering and design to bring it to life.
- Engineering Lead – The person responsible for the technical feasibility for a product. Together with the PM and the designer, they form a “balance team” to bring a product to market.
- Executives – Sometimes referred to as “the business side,” these are the people who know the financial case for the product and what the product needs to do to accomplish the business’ objectives. Their titles may vary. Some places may have directors, others some variant of a VP.
- Sales – These people will know some about the users, but most about customers and what they value.
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – Oftentimes, the SMEs are previous users. You might find them as a PM or executive or they may have some other role. They may know the “right” way to use the product, but check against how current users actually perform these tasks.
- Quality Assurance (QA) – This role may not be distinct from the engineering team, though you will find the specialized role at companies in highly regulated industries. They’ll often have a different perspective on the engineering feasibility of the product and also can point to problems with the current solution.
- Customer Support – This team knows what customers call in to complain about. Great source of current problems and also a good way to assess problem-value metrics.
- Legal & Compliance – These teams will help spot potential problems quickly. They usually like to be included earlier as it takes time to sift through potential issues. It is worth running some initial ideas by them and learning about possible pitfalls.
Who should be added to this list?
References
Goodwin, K. (2009). Designing for the digital age: How to create human-centered products and services. Wiley Pub.
