Friday focus (#3): Navigating stakeholder chaos

Yay! It’s Friday!

If you work in product design, you already know: the work isn’t always the hard part, the people are. Shifting priorities, unclear direction, too many cooks. Stakeholder noise can dilute even the strongest design intent.

This week’s focus: navigating the mess. How to stay effective, stay sane, and still ship good work when the environment isn’t clear, and alignment is more hope than reality.

1. Design isn’t fragile. But your process needs to be adaptable.
   Stakeholders will change their minds. Priorities will move. Build a process that can flex without falling apart. Work in layers. Share early. Expect change, and be ready to respond without losing direction.

2. Get aligned on the problem, not the solution.
   When opinions clash, zoom out. What are we actually trying to solve? Agreement on the problem creates space to challenge assumptions and open up stronger solutions. Without it, you’re debating symptoms, not strategy.

3. Be the calm in the room.
   In politically noisy environments, designers who stay steady, thoughtful, and structured stand out. Don’t match the chaos, manage it. People remember the person who brought clarity when things felt murky.

4. Bring stakeholders in early, but with structure.
   Early collaboration doesn’t mean opening the floodgates. Set the context, frame the feedback you need, and guide the conversation. You’re not asking for taste opinions, you’re aligning on direction and constraints.

5. Communicate process, not just pictures.
   A strong design isn’t just a visual, it’s a narrative. What were the trade-offs? The constraints? The rationale? Walk stakeholders through your thinking and show your work. It builds credibility and diffuses noise.

6. Ask better questions.
   When feedback is vague or conflicting, dig deeper. “What are we optimising for?” “What’s the risk if we ship this?” Good questions reveal underlying concerns, and often shift the conversation entirely.

7. Not every comment deserves equal weight.
   Treat all voices with respect, but not all input as equally useful. Learn whose feedback is strategic, whose is reactive, and whose is performative. Great design leadership means knowing which signals to act on, and which to let pass.

8. Over-communicate outcomes, not activity.
   Stakeholders don’t always need to know what you’re doing, they need to know why it matters. Frame updates in terms of impact, risk reduction, or clarity added. This keeps interest high and micromanagement low.

9. Use artefacts to drive alignment.
   Docs, maps, design briefs, these aren’t just documentation, they’re alignment tools. When chaos rises, written artefacts keep everyone anchored. Refer back. Point forward. Let the work speak for itself.

10. Protect the vision, but don’t die on every hill.
    You’re here to shape great products, not win every debate. Know when to hold your ground, when to compromise, and when to let go. The long game is influence, not control.

If you’ve spent the last five days deep in stakeholder dynamics, I hope something here helps you navigate it a little more clearly.

Back next Friday.

Have a great weekend.