Coaching Stakeholders

<p>Christian Idiodi sits down with SVPG partner Chris Jones to unpack the often-ignored other half of “empowered teams”: coaching the stakeholders. They dig into why stakeholders often feel like the enemy, what “healthy” actually looks like in the product operating model, and how trust, context-sharing, and outcome-thinking change the relationship. They also get practical about handling “because I said so,” avoiding the stakeholder “black hole,” and shifting finance from funding projects to funding teams and outcomes.</p><p>–</p><p>Today’s episode will discuss:</p><ul><li>What makes someone a “stakeholder” and why product teams can’t pretend they’re optional</li><li>What a healthy stakeholder relationship looks like</li><li>Why stakeholder trust has to be earned</li><li>How to get context when stakeholders tell you “because I said so”</li><li>How to keep stakeholders engaged without hijacking teams</li><li>Predictability without pretending roadmaps are fortune-telling</li><li>How to avoid the stakeholder “black hole” through transparency</li><li>Why postmortems are critical, even when outcomes miss</li></ul><p>–</p><p><strong>References:</strong></p><ul><li>Amazon: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/">https://www.amazon.com/</a></li><li>ChatGPT: <a href="https://chatgpt.com/">https://chatgpt.com/</a></li><li>Google: <a href="https://www.google.com/">https://www.google.com/</a></li></ul><p>–</p><p><strong>SVPG on stakeholders:</strong></p><ul><li>Articles: <a href="https://www.svpg.com/stakeholders-and-the-product-model/">https://www.svpg.com/stakeholders-and-the-product-model/</a></li></ul><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Chris Jones:</strong></p><ul><li><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjonessvpg/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjonessvpg/</a></p></li><li><p>SVPG profile: <a href="https://www.svpg.com/team/chris-jones/">https://www.svpg.com/team/chris-jones/</a></p></li></ul><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find Christian Idiodi:</strong></p><ul><li>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cidiodi/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/cidiodi/</a></li></ul><p>–</p><p><strong>Where to find SVPG:</strong></p><ul><li><p>SVPG’s newest book, TRANSFORMED: <a href="https://www.svpg.com/books/transformed-moving-to-the-product-operating-model/">https://www.svpg.com/books/transformed-moving-to-the-product-operating-model/</a></p></li><li><p>Other books: <a href="https://www.svpg.com/books/">https://www.svpg.com/books/</a></p></li><li><p>Articles: <a hr