Initiation 3 - Working Effectively with Stakeholders

Google Project Management Certificate · Course 2: Project Initiation - Starting a Successful Project

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Who stakeholders are and why they matter

Stakeholders are the people who hold a stake in a project - anyone invested in its success, interested in it, or affected by how it lands. “The stakes are high” is a useful reminder: stakes are the parts of a business or project that are at risk if something goes wrong, and to hold stake means you are personally invested in the outcome.

Because several parties usually have a stake, and each is invested to a different degree, a big part of the PM’s job is knowing who they are, what they need, and how to communicate with each of them.

Note

Primary vs. secondary stakeholders

• Primary (key) stakeholders - directly affected by the outcome; they benefit directly from the project’s completion. Typically team members, senior leaders, the customer, and the sponsor.
• Secondary stakeholders - indirectly affected; they play an intermediary or supporting role. Examples: contractors, a partner organization, a legal point-of-contact, investors, or a receptionist who will field customer questions.

Both groups help the PM define project goals and outcomes.

The core project roles

Some roles are fixed; others flex - in a small company or with limited resources, one person may be project manager, designer, and marketer at once. Whether fixed or not, most projects have the same five roles.

Role	What they do
Project sponsor	Accountable for the project; ensures it delivers the agreed value to the business. Initiates the project, makes the business case, signs the charter, releases resources, and often funds it. A primary stakeholder - communicate with them frequently.
Team members	The heart of the operation - they do the day-to-day work that makes the project happen. Also counted as primary stakeholders.
Customers	The buyers of the project - they receive value from the landed result, and their needs usually define the requirements.
Users	The people who actually use the end product (not always the same as the customer).
Project manager	Plans, organizes, and oversees the whole project; accountable for the overall success of the team and the project.

Tip

Customer vs. user is a favourite quiz distinction. If a corporation buys a messaging app, the corporation is the customer; the employees who open the app every day are the users. The customer pays; the user uses.

Building the “dream team”

Deciding who does what comes down to four building blocks. The PM first lists the roles needed for each task, then decides how many people, then matches people to roles.

1. Team size - driven by project complexity. Too many people makes communication harder and details get missed; too few and the work can’t get finished.
2. Skills - both technical skills (specific to the task, e.g. landscape design) and interpersonal / soft skills (patience, conflict mediation), plus problem-solving and leadership. Skills can be taught, so a great attitude can outweigh a missing skill - as long as training happens in time to avoid delays.
3. Availability - a strong candidate already staffed on another project may have no time. In a matrix organization (team members answer to multiple bosses) people are easily pulled away. Sometimes you don’t choose at all - a pre-assignment is when the sponsor assigns members to you.
4. Motivation - people who volunteer often bring extra drive, but pre-assigned people aren’t automatically low-interest. Keeping the team engaged is the PM’s leadership job.

Caution

You won’t always get to pick your resources - sometimes another manager assigns people to roles. When that happens, the challenge is to deliver the best work with what you’re given. Also value diversity early: dedicate time up front to build trust so people feel safe sharing competing perspectives.

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Stakeholder analysis

A stakeholder analysis is a visual representation of all the stakeholders on a project. Done well, it helps you avoid surprises, build the partnerships you need, spot opportunities and risks, show who owns which responsibilities, and include the right people in the right conversations at the right time - which is how you secure the support the project needs.

Note

Two dimensions being measured:

• Influence (power) - how much power a stakeholder has, and how much their actions affect the project outcome.
• Interest - how much the stakeholder’s own needs are affected by the project’s operations and outcomes.

The three steps

1. List every stakeholder the project impacts. Ask: Who is invested? Who is impacted? Who contributes?
2. Determine each one’s level of interest and influence - this reveals who your key stakeholders are. The higher both are, the more you must prioritize their needs.
3. Assess each one’s ability to participate and find ways to involve them. Some are active (many opinions, frequent touchpoints); others are passive (prefer high-level updates only). Low participation ≠ low importance - factors like physical distance and existing workload play a role.

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The power/interest grid

The power grid is a two-by-two grid that plots each stakeholder’s influence (vertical axis) against their interest (horizontal axis). Where a stakeholder lands determines the engagement strategy - and the higher their combined interest and influence, the more important they are to the project’s success.

↑ High power / influence

High power, low interest - Meet their needs

• Consult them; keep them satisfied
• Executive summaries + periodic updates on major milestones
• e.g. a senior leader / sponsor not in the day-to-day

High power, high interest - Manage closely

• Your key players - partner closely
• Involve in decisions; communicate often (often daily)
• e.g. sponsor, key executives, regulators

Low power, low interest - Monitor

• Least central to this project (still matter)
• General updates only; minimal engagement

Low power, high interest - Show consideration

• Keep them informed and up to date
• Address queries; seek their feedback
• e.g. a customer-success team working with clients

Low interest ← → High interest  ·  ↓ Low power / influence

Quadrant	Position	Strategy	What that looks like
Manage closely	High influence, high interest (top-right)	Partner closely; involve in decisions	Frequent, tailored communication; keep them engaged and supportive
Meet their needs	High influence, low interest (top-left)	Consult and satisfy	High-level executive summaries; periodic briefings on big milestones
Show consideration	Low influence, high interest (bottom-right)	Keep informed	Regular progress updates; invite feedback
Monitor	Low influence, low interest (bottom-left)	Keep in the know	General updates; don’t overwhelm with detail

Tip

Watch the axes on the exam: vertical = influence/power (upper half high), horizontal = interest (right half high). Memorise the corner names - top-right manage closely, top-left meets their needs, bottom-right show consideration, bottom-left monitor.

Steering committee

You may form a steering committee - a group of high-power, high-interest key stakeholders who act as the most senior decision-making body on the project. They have the authority to change the budget and approve updates to timeline or scope, and because they span multiple departments they can release more resources. The PM is not a member, but is responsible for bringing the right information to the committee so decisions get made quickly.

Caution

Tools organize information - they don’t guarantee success on their own. What actually makes stakeholder engagement work is the PM understanding each stakeholder’s motivations and inspirations, which takes time, interpersonal skill, and insight into the organization’s internal politics. Expect to tweak your approach as the project runs.

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Prioritizing stakeholders, buy-in, and expectations

Once stakeholders are organized and assessed, decide whose buy-in is essential, whose requirements deserve the most attention, and what level of communication each one needs.

Stakeholder buy-in is the process of involving stakeholders in decision-making to reach a broader consensus. Gaining key-stakeholder buy-in is what keeps a project from being deprioritized or starved of resources, and it means your high-impact stakeholders feel looped in and stay supportive if issues arise later.

Note

Tips for gaining key-stakeholder buy-in

• Clearly map the project’s work to the stakeholder’s goals.
• Describe how the project aligns with their department’s or team’s objectives.
• Listen to feedback and, where appropriate, fold it into the project charter.
• Manage expectations by presenting a realistic view of your team’s abilities.

Tailoring communication

Match communication depth to each stakeholder’s needs - over-communicating to some, lightly summarizing to others.

Situation	How to communicate
One main, highly influential stakeholder	Constant communication
Large project, many stakeholders	Less day-to-day involvement per person
A stakeholder who needs time to decide	Over-communicate early - frequent meetings, daily end-of-day emails
A stakeholder who only needs a summary	Don’t dive deep - periodic high-level updates
A key member who needs the detail	Frequent, substantive updates (e.g. weekly check-in on pricing/availability)

Caution

Don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Setting expectations you can’t meet damages trust faster than an honest, realistic plan.

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The RACI chart

A RACI chart defines roles and responsibilities for each task so work gets done efficiently and there’s no confusion over ownership. You may also hear it called a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), RACI diagram, or RACI matrix. The four letters are four types of participation:

Note

• R - Responsible: who does the work to complete the task. Every task needs at least one; limit the number where you can.
• A - Accountable: who makes sure the work gets done and has authority to approve the deliverable. Exactly one per task - this is what clarifies ownership.
• C - Consulted: who gives input or feedback - subject-matter experts and decision-makers, in two-way communication with the responsible party.
• I - Informed: who just needs to know the outcome or that a task is complete. No feedback expected.

How to build one

1. Write the roles or people across the top row. Use roles, not names, if someone holds more than one role.
2. Write the tasks / deliverables down the left column - keep them simple and not overly specific.
3. For each task ask: Who is responsible for doing it? Who is accountable if it doesn’t get done? Who has strong opinions and should be consulted? Who needs to be informed? Fill in R, A, C, or I.

Worked example - pricing an Office Green package

Task	Financial Analyst	Head of Finance	Director of Product	Sales Team
Set price points for packages & delivery frequencies	R	A	C	I

The Financial Analyst does the pricing work (Responsible). The Head of Finance owns the outcome - keeping it on budget and profitable - and approves the analyst’s work (Accountable). The Director of Product, who oversees the offerings, gives input (Consulted). The Sales Team needs the final prices to sell, but gives no feedback (Informed).

Tip

There can be many people in the consulted and informed columns, and the same person can be both A and R on a task - but there is never more than one A. If the “informed” list gets large, keep them updated cheaply (e.g. view-only access to the project plan or meeting notes) rather than writing separate updates.

Why it prevents confusion

A RACI chart heads off the common causes of role confusion:

Cause of confusion	How RACI fixes it
Unbalanced workloads	Tally the R’s per person to spot anyone overloaded
Unclear hierarchy	The single A shows who to escalate to
Unclear decision ownership	The A makes the final call
Overlapping work	Each task has clearly assigned owners
Excessive communication	Cuts information overload by scoping who needs what
Silos / single points of failure	Distributing R’s lets you delegate and avoid burnout

Caution

Put it into practice: share the RACI chart with sponsors and stakeholders to get buy-in and sign-off, then document that acknowledgment (charter, meeting notes, the chart itself). Skipping buy-in leaves people doing work they don’t agree with or aren’t clear on.

Note

When to use one: larger projects, or any project with many stakeholders, benefit most. A tiny team with clearly defined roles and a short timeline may be slowed down by one - though even building it as an exercise deepens your understanding of the project.

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Revision summary

1. Stakeholders hold a stake in the project: primary (directly affected - team, leaders, customer, sponsor) vs. secondary (indirectly affected - contractors, investors, legal).
2. Core roles: sponsor, team members, customers, users, project manager. Build the team on four blocks - size, skills, availability, motivation.
3. Stakeholder analysis = list stakeholders → rate interest + influence → assess ability to participate.
4. The power grid plots influence (vertical) against interest (horizontal): manage closely / meet their needs / show consideration / monitor.
5. Secure buy-in by mapping work to stakeholder goals; tailor communication and never over-promise.
6. A RACI chart assigns R / A / C / I per task - one A only - to clarify ownership and prevent confusion.

Tip

The through-line of this whole section: know your people. Analysis grids and RACI charts organize the information, but successful engagement comes from understanding each stakeholder’s motivation and communicating with the right person, at the right depth, at the right time.