Stakeholder motivations and priorities

As a product manager, understanding what drives different stakeholders helps you communicate more effectively and secure their support. Different stakeholders care about different things:

• Executives focus on strategic vision and business outcomes
• Engineering teams value technical feasibility and clear requirements
• Sales teams want products with compelling selling points
• The marketing team needs clear value propositions

To identify stakeholder motivations, consider their role, responsibilities, and how your product affects their work. What does success look like for them? What problems keep them up at night? What metrics do they track? Sometimes, motivations aren't obvious, so you'll need to ask good questions and listen carefully.

Once you understand what drives your stakeholders, you can frame your product in terms that resonate with them. When speaking with executives, focus on strategic goals and ROI. With engineers, discuss technical challenges and solutions. For sales, highlight competitive advantages and customer benefits. Remember that stakeholders may have hidden agendas or conflicting priorities. Building trust through consistent, transparent communication makes it more likely that stakeholders will share their true concerns and motivations.