What is an Agile Stakeholder?

Reviewed by Madhur Kathuria, CST®

If you're working on an agile team, you generally have two customers—the people who buy your products and services and the stakeholders inside your company, and it's your job to deliver value to both groups effectively.

Many teams define an "agile stakeholder" as someone with a vested interest in the product or outcome of an agile team's work. They influence the product's direction, benefit from its success, or are affected by its performance, but they are not part of the agile team doing the work.

In practice, the stakeholder may or may not actually be an agile practitioner themselves. The stakeholder could be from a division in your organization or from an outside organization that doesn't consider itself agile, but as an agile team, your focus is on providing all of your stakeholders with transparency, early delivery of value, and continuous improvement based on feedback.

Effectively communicating the value of your product and the timelines, budget, and any factors that may impact them is essential to working in an agile team. When you understand how to keep stakeholders engaged throughout the project lifecycle with transparent communication, you'll be a successful team.

What is the role of agile team stakeholders? 

An agile team stakeholder is anyone who can influence the product or is affected by it. Their "stake" may come from different places depending on their relationship to the product. Some stakeholders are internal to the organization and have a direct interest in successful product delivery. Others exist outside the company, such as customers, regulators, partners, or even competitors, who may not have a vested interest in the product's success but can still significantly influence how the product is shaped, delivered, or received in the market. Here are a few typical stakeholder roles:

• A business development leader wants to ensure that the product is something customers will want to buy.
• A product management leader may be more concerned that the product's features are meeting a desired outcome.
• A business executive may be focused on getting the product to market by a specific date to beat the competition.
• A customer or end user is concerned with whether the product actually solves their problem in a usable way.
• A regulator or compliance officer may influence what the product must or must not do based on laws or policies.
• An operations or support team member cares about how easy the product is to maintain, support, or scale after release.
• Even a competitor can influence product direction by introducing alternatives that change market expectations.

Key responsibilities of agile stakeholders—how to support alignment

If you have a product owner on your team, that person may be the primary communicator with stakeholders; however, it's beneficial for everyone on the team and for the team leader to learn how to engage stakeholders effectively. 

Agile stakeholders have business goals to meet, and their job is to communicate them to the team so the team is focused on delivering products that help achieve broader company goals. You may find that stakeholders' goals conflict or compete with one another, so it's crucial to have an open, transparent conversation and reach alignment.

If your team conducts a sprint review, stakeholders with a vested interest in the product should attend. The role of stakeholders in this meeting is to provide the team with feedback on their work. While the team doesn't have to implement all feedback, it should be discussed, and relevant feedback that will benefit the product should be considered.

How agile stakeholders contribute to project success 

Engaging stakeholders throughout the project leads to better outcomes because they can influence the product or are affected by it. Your stakeholders may have valuable insights to share with the team on customer feedback, market conditions, and company goals. By listening to their perspectives, the agile team can make better prioritization decisions. 

An agile team is built on flexibility, so gathering continuous feedback from your stakeholders and collaborating with them regularly will ensure expectations are met, and everyone is on the same page regarding delivery timelines and any changes in product direction.

Let's say that your team is in the middle of building an AI chat feature for a client's website. One of your team's stakeholders is the Vice President of Marketing. She informs you that your biggest competitor recently launched this feature, and she saw customer reviews that found it a negative reflection on the company and made the service feel impersonal.

With this new information, the team can determine whether it's worth continuing to build the feature. Perhaps modifications are needed to improve personalization. Regardless, the stakeholder's feedback early on, rather than after the product launches, adds tremendous value. 

Best practices for engaging agile stakeholders 

If your stakeholders aren't engaging regularly, it's time to get them involved. You want your stakeholders to have real-time insight into the team's work and to provide feedback. Effective engagement is a great way to ensure their buy-in and support of your projects.

Here are a few ways to improve engagement:

• Utilize visualization tools, such as sprint or kanban boards, that are available to all stakeholders.
• Invite stakeholders to participate in backlog refinement meetings (or any meeting where teams define acceptance criteria or requirements)
• Include stakeholders in review meetings and establish a repeatable cadence, such as weekly or bi-weekly, to showcase work and get real-time feedback.
• Proactively communicate any project delays with stakeholders so they're not caught off guard.
• Give stakeholders regular opportunities to share changes in strategy and business goals so the team is working with the most up-to-date information.

Transparency and trust are key factors in building stakeholder relationships, and they go both ways. Stakeholders need to trust that the team has their best interests in mind, and the team needs to trust that stakeholders' feedback is critical to building great products.

Common challenges with agile stakeholders 

While working with stakeholders in agile environments is key to a team's success, there are many common challenges to overcome, such as competing priorities, unclear priorities, limited availability, or resistance to change.

Competing priorities

Most agile teams work with multiple stakeholders, and they commonly have competing priorities. It's best to get everyone in the same room to agree on which priorities will best serve customers who will use the product. If consensus can't be obtained this way, you may need to involve a more senior leader and define the company's goals at a higher level.

Unclear priorities

When stakeholders share priorities but the team is unclear about them, it's best to talk through the situation. Invite the stakeholders to a meeting with the team and encourage everyone on the team to ask clarifying questions. It's the team's responsibility to ensure they are clear on stakeholder expectations and the information needed.

Limited availability

If your stakeholders aren't showing up for review meetings and seem too busy for the team, this needs to be remedied. Here are a few things you can try:

• Clearly state the value the stakeholder has in providing feedback to the team.
• Ask the stakeholder how much time they can make available to the team each week or sprint. 
• If the stakeholder isn't finding value in working with the team, ask what would make it more valuable to them. The team should ensure discussions align with stakeholders' needs and keep meetings on point and succinct.

By overcoming these common challenges with agile stakeholders, teams can build collaborative working relationships, leading to better products that benefit customers.

Agile stakeholders are important people with valuable insights that can help your team achieve business goals. With ongoing transparency and collaboration, you can foster meaningful relationships to ensure your agile projects succeed.

Add stakeholder engagement skills to your toolkit

Learn more about working with agile stakeholders in our microcredential course, Agile Stakeholder Engagement. You'll find out how to build trust and align on paths forward in your work so that you can deliver better results.

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