Some stakeholders seem like Grinches. Nothing is good enough and you have to make a business case to play with your toys. When the Grinch comes around, try to discover their intrinsic motivations to see if you can turn a negative relationship positive.
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Some Grinches may simply be very passionate about a particular issue, and may not see their behavior as “difficult,” rather as simply the best way to get results. Give them additional attention, understand what drives them, and acknowledge their point of view — even publicly, and even when you disagree. These mission-driven Grinches want to know that you “get it.” Once they are comfortable that you do, you can have a much more reasonable conversation.
More tips on the Stakeholder Grinch in Chapter 7, Challenges, in Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders.
I’ll be taking a rest next week, as should you. See you in 2025! More photos from Product Culture are on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Opposite of the Grinch
As the holidays near, co-author Melissa Appel and I would like to thank all the amazing people who made the Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders book launch tour a rousing success. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Boston Book Launch Party
- Product Culture Team
- Ed Arnold (suggested Lamplighter)
Northern California Launch Parties
- DesignMap: Audrey Crane, Amy Chang, Gregory Baker
- Lean Product Meetup: Dan Olsen
London Event - One Knight at the Pub
- Jason Knight
- Phil Hornby (for connecting Melissa with Jason)
Latin America Tour
- Laura Baverman
- Guido Lonetti
- Leo Pabon
- Eric Nogare
- Marcelo Missagia
- Ricardo Villarreal
- João Pinto
- Jonathan Ortiz
Pendomonium Conference
- Erin Wilkinson
- Hannah Robinson
Product Tank Berlin
- Dimitri Page
- Anuka Pokharel
Product at Heart
- Arne Kittler
- Petra Wille
- Bernd Fauler
Business of Software USA
- Jann Urgel
- Mark Littlewood
- Jo Littlewood
INDUSTRY Conference
- Rebecca Feliciano
- Mike Belsito
- Jessica Melton
- Paul McAvinchey
- Peter Sullivan
Cambridge Product Management Network, UK
- Colin Millerchip
- Arthur Meadows
- Carly Eagle
- Liz Robinson
Product Camp Boston
- C. Todd Lombardo
- Shweta Agrawal
- Meihwa Wong
Product Camp Atlanta
- Jerry Odenwelder
- Jason Brett
- Scott Smith
- Emily Holcomb
- Manjish Naik
Lego Collaboration
- Nils Michaelis
1:1 Meetups
- Max Trumpf
- Martin Eliason
- Marcus Bittrich
- Sharon Duan
- Gareth Marlow
- Doron Hallis
- Mo Ladha
- Evgeny Poberezkin
- Peter Hartzbech
- Jorge Alfredo Hurtado Franco
- Mark Goloboy
- Tim Bouhour
- Emily Tate
- Helen Saunders
- Martina Hodges-Schell
Podcasts and Interviews
- Product Collective: Mike Belsito
- Product Talk: Nacho Andrade
- Le Ticket: Kévin Deniau
- TPM Ridge Podcast: Doron Katz, Michael Gotz, Josh Teter
- Fuzzy Math: Mark Baldino
- Intentional Product Manager Podcast: Shobhit Chugh
- Product Coffee: Jason Brett
- Out of Owls: Randy Silver
- Pragmatic Product Chats: Rebecca Kalogeris
- Product for Product Podcast: Moshe Mikanovsky, Matt Green
- The Unstoppable Product Pioneer: Tamar Stolz
- Scandinavian Product Podcast: Afonso Malo Franco, Magnus Lonki
- 100 Product Strategies: Nacho Bassino
- Turning Techies into Leaders: Pier Martin
- Talking Roadmaps: Justin Woods
- ProdPad: Janna Bastow
- How I Tested That: David Bland
Happy Holidays! Bruce