Four important stakeholders you’ll meet on your analytics journey

Hello, young data leader. You’re about to embark on a noble quest to bring data-driven decision making to your realm.

It’s an exciting path, with twists and turns and new insights lurking around every corner.

But wait! It’s dangerous to go alone.

Let me share my guide to four important stakeholders you’ll meet along the way.

Data Stakeholder #1: The Historian

There’s always at least one Historian in your company. Someone who people casually refer to when discussing processes, technology, and projects. You should know who this person is within a few days of onboarding. This is one of the first stakeholders you should identify and meet with. They probably aren’t an executive, a director, or even a manager. You may be surprised where in the company you find them.  

The Historian has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the company and how things have “gone down” over the years. They have an intimate knowledge of the informal power structures and are very well-regarded. When you sit down with them, really listen. This is your opportunity to learn about potential pitfalls or hazards others encountered before you. Even if you have a different approach in mind, don’t let your ego tell you that there’s no way you’ll suffer the same fate.

Strategies for The Historian: engage early. Let the conversation flow beyond data. Remember you’re cultivating a relationship. You won’t learn everything you need to know from a single sixty minute 1:1. Eventually, The Historian can be one of your most trusted advisors.      

Data Stakeholder #2: The Watcher

Most of the stakeholders you meet are Watchers. Watchers are neutral to your data program. They don’t care whether you or your program exist. Some may actually be lightly annoyed by your presence and constant peppering of data requests, but see them as a necessary part of work. Others are truly neutral, still others don’t mind hearing about your program but they’re not about to stand on a soapbox on your behalf.

The biggest danger of The Watchers is alienating and pushing them into hostile behaviour. This can be done in one of two ways: neglect or abuse.

It’s very easy to neglect neutral stakeholders. Neglecting The Watchers tells them that they aren’t important. Have you got a big data steward meeting coming up? Have all the non-neutral stakeholders been consulted and informed? What about The Watchers? When The Watchers come to your big meeting and feel uninformed and uninvolved when everyone else is engaged, resentment can start brewing. They start devolving from neutral about your program to thinking it’s a waste of time.

Don’t abuse The Watchers, either. It’s very likely your team has some level of transactional engagement with them: they might feed you data, or you publish some of their metrics on a report. One way to really piss off this group is by throwing them under the bus when bad results or bad data result from their inputs. Picture this: you’ve received some data from a Watcher team, and they show a huge discrepancy from a previous period. Instead of approaching them to contextualize it, you present the bad news data to executives who immediately swoop down on them to ask questions. This is a surefire way to erode goodwill very quickly, and it’s so hard to build it back after a misstep like this. Always, always, always consult the team first.

Strategies for The Watcher: Inform and involve. You don’t need to have a long touchpoint but you do need to keep them included. Here’s an IRL tip – if you’re in the office, swing by The Watcher’s workspace and say hello. Cultivate the relationship in small doses.

Data Stakeholder #3: The Cynic

The Cynic is framed as a hostile stakeholder but they don’t have to be an antagonist.

The Cynic has some reason to doubt or mistrust you or your data program. Hopefully, it isn’t because of something you’ve done (see above: abusing The Watchers). Most likely, there’s some kind of baggage that is keeping The Cynic from trusting you.

How do you know you have a Cynic on your hands? They will likely tell you. You might hear things like “That’s been done before”, “I don’t trust your data”, or “KPIs are useless”.

If you’re very lucky, you’ll hear from The Cynic themselves their reasoning behind these statements.

Maybe they were around when someone developed KPIs that SOUNDED GOOD but had no true link to the business, resulting in a lot of busywork for teams and leadership demanding results from irrelevant KPIs.

If The Cynic doesn’t share, check in with The Historian and get some context.

There are a lot of reasons why someone may be doubtful of a data program. As data leaders, we constantly see the value of using data to make decisions. But in the wrong hands, data can be used in a punitive way on people and teams.

Scars from this kind of misuse of data can last decades in someone’s career.

Strategies for The Cynic: The key with The Cynic is to actively listen and learn from them. Building trust will be an uphill battle and could take years. Be genuinely curious about their context, their business, and their approach.

Can you embed yourself or someone on your team as an observer in their data meetings, so that you gain a truer appreciation for their work? Do you need more leader-to-leader relationship building? Is there a pain point or easy win that you can find that starts building the road toward trust? Do it.

This is a hostile stakeholder but you don’t have to approach them as such. The best first strategy is to be open, curious, and willing to listen.

Data Stakeholder #4: The Champion

If you come across The Champion, you’re in luck. The Champion has bought into your data vision and is willing to shout its praises for all to hear.

For the really lucky, The Champion appears at the beginning of your journey and stands alongside you as you forge ahead. They are respected in your company, due to their formal (i.e. position in leadership) or informal (highly sought after veteran employee) power – or both.

The Champion can be cultivated! Someone may start out hostile like The Cynic or neutral like The Watcher. Over time, you may earn their trust and buy-in on your data program. Someone you have worked with to become your champion can be your strongest ally yet.

Strategies for The Champion: keep informed and involved, elicit opinions and feedback, and ask them to keep telling your story.

Conclusion

With these stakeholders in mind, you’re ready to start your quest! Remember that stakeholders can be fluid. Someone who is a Champion today may turn into a Watcher or Cynic. The key is to continuously work on your stakeholder relationships in a positive, genuine way.

Good luck!

Do you want the PDF quick reference for this blog post? Head over to the Portfolio page.

Need help with stakeholder engagement in your data program? Book a discovery call with me and we’ll figure it out.