Manage your stakeholders to fight a war for you
During WWII, the US department of war produced the most well-succeeded marketing campaign ever. What can a Product Manager learn from it?
This is an iteration from an article I wrote back in April. Although the message is pretty good, It’s one of my least seen pieces. I’m republishing this in the hopes that more people get to read it this time.
Managing stakeholders is one of the toughest, if not the hardest, parts of being a Product Manager. There is no framework, no method, no template that can easily transform you into an effective diplomat inside your company.
Juggling demands, expectations, and promises, the Product Manager is always remembered by their clients for saying too much “No” and by their teammates for saying too much “Yes”. It seems impossible to please everyone.
Back in 1941, as WWII raged on, the USA found itself in a similar situation. Split between increasing international pressure and an unwilling population, the war department hired Frank Capra to create the best stakeholder communication plan in history.
The 7 part propaganda film “Why We Fight” not only convinced a recluse nation to fight and die for Chinese, Russians and Europeans across the world, but it kickstarted the birth of the biggest military power to date.
“Why We Fight” has a lesson or two for the modern Product Manager that needs to deal with tough stakeholders. If you ever see yourself needing to convince an inconvincible audience, I hope the following tips might help you
Be concise in your communication
Each movie had about 50 to 65 minutes, and they were focused on telling who the bad guys were and why they were bad. There was no debate about ideologies, political backstabbing, or uncertainties about victory. All of that worked against the main message to be delivered: we have to join the fight.
Similarly, Product also has a lot of nuances to it. Most of the time, we have way more doubts than certainties. If this “noise” is passed on during your communication with stakeholders, you will hurt your ability to get buy-in. Especially from those that are far from the discovery process.
Stakeholders want to feel secure, and they expect you to be secure on their behalf. Persuasion is a delicate art, and there is a fine line between being convincing and being manipulative. Most times than not, you’ll have to sacrifice full transparency on behalf of objectiveness.
Sometimes, risks that need to be taken have yet some unclear or unmapped consequences that you have no time to assess. In other occasions, the prioritized feature is not the best value open for grab, but it’s the easiest to be delivered. As long as you are sure that you are not omitting anything that might pose an existential threat to you, your team, or your company later, prefer to tell a concise story rather than a complete story.
Know whom you are talking to
The motivation behind the documentary was very simple: increase conscription and avoid desertion. The US Army had to make clear to its soldiers and to their families why they were putting their lives on the line.
Notice that the movies were not targeted at the academia, the government, or business owners. That clarity on their target audience produced films that were grounded, easy to understand, and spoke about the very survival of the American way of life.
Nobody mentioned trade impacts, scientific breakthroughs that would come from entering the war, or the geopolitical consequences of not doing so. Capra was successful, amongst other reasons, because he knew whom he was talking to.
Adapting your storytelling is adamant to rallying support around your ideas. Managers want to leverage their position with strong results, the Tech Lead doesn’t want an unmotivated team doing dull tasks, founders want their vision made real… Everybody you’ll talk to have a different expectation from you, and you must understand that in order to communicate with them.
It’s “Why We Fight”, not “How We Fight”
The films had a lot of context on why the war was happening and how people was suffering from it. There were no mentions of American battle plans, how many ships were to be used, or how many men were drafted.
That would definitely be relevant information, but it wouldn’t make anyone more inclined to fire a gun on the beaches of Normandy.
Very often, we lose ourselves to the amazing work we have done. We want to praise engineering, the MVP devised by the UX specialist, to show off our intelligent decision-making, brag about results…
The cold and harsh truth is that your stakeholders couldn’t care less about what happened during your sprint. They want to hear about how you’re going to make their life better. More importantly, they want to know why they should listen to you.
More than 60 years after Why we Fight, Simon Sinek comes up with the famous Golden Circle and encapsulates the core concept behind the success of the documentary series. In his words:
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Managing Stakeholders might be tiring, but the payback is always worth it. Being surrounded by people that support you and trust in you is key to be an empowered PM. It’s not just about company culture, it’s about building a reputation also.
If stakeholders have faith in you and on your work, you’ll see how much easier it is to elevate the discussion from “what” to “why” and deliver great value while they fight for you.
If you are a history nerd like myself, all the 7 parts of the documentary are available at multiple channels on YouTube. They are not only interesting to watch, but they portray how people saw the development of WWII before History was written.
To know more about types of stakeholders, watch the funny yet pretty relevant Dangerous Animals of Product Management video series from Productboard
Teresa Torres is the mother of modern Product stakeholder management, It would be unethical not to recommend one of here most famous articles, The Art of Managing Stakeholders Through Product Discovery. Not only she covers part of what I’ve just said but she goes beyond. Check it out.
