Summary: Stakeholders provide essential insights about business goals, user needs, and organizational constraints. By involving them early, you align project objectives, ensuring the team designs solutions that address real problems and deliver measurable impact. Their input helps prioritize features, refine workflows, and identify risks before they escalate.

What engaged stakeholders buy you

More Trust: Effective management of stakeholders builds trust and buy-in, which is crucial for successful implementation. Service design projects often require changes to systems, processes, or culture. Stakeholders who feel heard and included are more likely to champion these changes.

Richer Perspectives: You will never know everything. There are perspectives you don’t have or own. Ignoring your stakeholders perspectives adds risks. There’s the risk of a newly surfaced crucial detail. For example, a ‘reorg’ or new management can alter the focus or values influencing how your project articulates its impact. Understanding where people are coming from can surface areas of resistance or derailment that can cause projects to fail.

Aligned problem-solving: Misaligned priorities can derail progress. Involving stakeholders can encourage a ‘silo reducing’ approach to problem-solving. Their varied expertise enriches decision-making, offering a broader view of operational realities. For example, input from finance teams might reveal budget constraints, while frontline staff can highlight operational pain points. These insights can steer design solutions toward the likelihood they are understood and brought to life.

Greater Transparency: Finally, ongoing engagement fosters accountability and transparency. Regular communication ensures stakeholders stay informed and committed to the project’s success. This collaboration creates a shared sense of ownership, helping UX and service design teams deliver solutions that resonate with users and achieve strategic goals.

Improved Collaboration: Engaged stakeholders are needed for cross-functional collaboration. Collaboration is becoming more critical in UX and Service Design than previously appreciated by UX leaders including myself. Check this intro to a masterclass on Collaborating better with UX teams with special guest David Dylan Thomas (author of Design for Cognitive Bias). Note: This recording is available in the UXIC Digital Library.

In particular, Service Design often involves multiple departments, each with its own priorities and workflows. Active management of stakeholder relationships helps break down barriers (silos) and ensures everyone has a shared understanding of the project’s objectives and priorities (business and user). This collaboration can uncover hidden pain points and identify opportunities for innovation that may not emerge otherwise.

Bottom line

Proactive stakeholder management mitigates risks. Early involvement builds trust and minimizes resistance to change. Stakeholders who feel heard and included are more likely to champion the project, helping overcome institutional inertia or skepticism. It also allows teams to identify and address potential roadblocks—such as budget constraints, access to users or technical limitations—before they escalate.

Go Deeper: Join this FREE Masterclass Stakholder Management Tactics on Jan 9th 2025.