Navigating Internal Stakeholder Dynamics and Process Optimization

Topics Covered:

• Internal product teams often fall into the trap of collecting requirements through meetings, leading to solutions that don’t fully address user needs.
• The key challenge: Blurring the lines between stakeholders and end-users.
• Story-based interviews are crucial for understanding real user behavior and uncovering hidden pain points.
• Petra emphasizes the importance of stakeholder mapping: Identifying users, informed stakeholders, and sponsors.
• Teresa explains why internal teams have a unique advantage—proximity and access to users—and how to leverage it for continuous discovery.
• Process optimization is sensitive territory. Who owns the process? Who’s responsible for improving it?
• Outcome thinking can help navigate stakeholder opinions, focusing on results rather than prescribed solutions.
• Internal teams must rethink how they approach product discovery and avoid assuming their situation is “different” or exempt from best practices.

Resources & Links:

• Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org
• Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Mentioned in the episode:

• Story-Based Customer Interviews Uncover Much-Needed Context
• Assumption Testing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
• Stakeholder mapping, as covered in Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders by Bruce McCarthy
• Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Discovery to Stay Aligned and Drive Outcomes
• Continuous Discovery Habits Community
• Shifting from Outputs to Outcomes: Why It Matters and How to Get Started