Stakeholder communication is crucial
Project managers (PMs) are detail-oriented people. They live in a world of statistics, charts, graphs, timelines, and schedules. With the success of the project on their shoulders, they put all their effort towards managing an on-time, on-budget project. When in this mindset, PMs can minimize stakeholder reports, which seem irrelevant to the project’s completion (Campbell C. and Campbell M., pg. 15). Yet stakeholders will ultimately decide the project’s success or failure and can halt the project or add resources. Wise project managers recognize that they are accountable to stakeholders and see collaboration as a necessary part of the project’s success. The best PMs communicate early about the project’s objectives, submit regular updates, and do so with empathy for the stakeholder’s competing demands.
Consider the fictitious example of an impending release of a VR headset called Firesight by a company of the same name.
Firesight markets the new product for months and generates a buzz of anticipation around its November release. Pre-orders flood in and customers are stoked. Two months before November, the product engineers hit a complex roadblock with one of the components; the headset will catch the user’s hair on fire if the unit is left on longer than two hours. Estimates place the new delivery date after Christmas; over two months late.
The engineers have two options: keep the roadblock a secret in hopes they can fix it by November, or let the rest of Firesight and its customers know what’s happening. The project manager overhears their conversation and has a decision to make.
The PM might be tempted to forego reporting and focus on results. After all, if she can get the project back on track, no one has to know, right?
She decides to report the delay but faces another temptation. If she keeps the update vague leaders at Firesight won’t register the significance of the information. When the delay finally hits them, she’ll point to her report and say “See, I told you.”
The PM opts to push for understanding and confronts her final temptation. She could advocate that not everyone has a “need to know.” Certainly not customers.
Only the PM who shares the complete progress of the project, it’s gains and setbacks, with every stakeholder, will have stakeholders willing to compromise. If she gets the information out early, she prepares her stakeholders for a potential delay and offers them a choice. Firesight’s leadership will have time to search for solutions or plan a new strategy. The company will retain more customers than if, two weeks before the November release, the business announces there’s been an “unforeseen” delay and no new date of delivery.
Customers can be fickle and executives can lose touch with their people. But when my satisfaction comes from crafting the perfect project plan and not from happy stakeholders, I lose sight of the project’s purpose. I empathize with my management, who often needs to give a concise overview of our team’s work but doesn’t have a clear means to gather or present it. The one-page project plan supplies a template for both of our needs.