Step 2: Identify Key Business Stakeholders
Once we have identified the targeted business initiative and the metrics against which we are going to measure progress and success, next we want to identify the Business Stakeholders who either impact or are impacted by the targeted business initiative. The stakeholders typically represent 4 to 5 different business functions in order to yield a diverse set of perspectives on how the organization plans to address the targeted business initiative.
Ideally, we want can create a Persona (a Design Thinking tool) for each potential stakeholder to help us better understand their individual as well as the overall organizational challenges, roles, responsibilities, pain points, and key operational decisions for the targeted business initiative (see Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2: Stakeholder Personas
As you build the Stakeholders Personas, be sure to ask and understand "Why is this business initiative important to them?" and "What is their personal win condition or personal benefit from the successful execution of this business initiative?"
DEAN OF BIG DATA TIP:
It is critical to give all the key stakeholders a "voice" in exploring, ideating, and defining the criteria against which progress and success will be measured. While it is important from a data science perspective to have a diverse set of criteria against which to optimize, organizationally it's even more important that everyone feels aligned and committed to moving forward together. More digital transformation journeys die due to "passive aggressive" behaviors than inadequate technology.