Articulating Design Decisions, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6. Building Influence with Stakeholders

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Up to this point, we’ve been thinking about stakeholders as the primary people whose support or approval we need. In reality, there are often many people involved who can influence the outcome. Building influence with one stakeholder usually means building influence across a broader group.

This is why influence starts before the meeting. It’s something we build over time, through conversations, alignment, and relationships. Most of the work happens before you ever walk into the room. By then, you should already have some momentum. The meeting becomes less about making decisions for the first time and more about reinforcing them and moving forward.

To do this well, we need to:

• Identify the people who influence decisions.

• Build a network of support.

• Make it easy for others to advocate for our work.

• Maintain those relationships over time.

Identifying Key Stakeholders

Every project has a variety of people who influence its outcome. To keep it simple, ...