Stakeholder surgeries

Tackling common stakeholder challenges together

Content designers face a range of stakeholder challenges every day. These are not unique to content designers, but I believe no other profession faces this level and range of challenge from stakeholders.

On a day-to-day basis, you will deal with:

Conflicting priorities: your marketing team might be focused on brand; your legal colleagues may want you to stick to pre-determined language; your policy experts may just want you to publish the text as they've developed it. They all have good reasons - but these can be difficult to balance with the requirement to meet user needs.
Late-stage involvement: it is really common for content design folk to be invited to work on a project once the design and goals have been agreed. But this brings its own risks and hazards.
Subjective feedback: it's easy to confuse opinion with fact, and it's a challenge we all face - but for content designers, this presents you with difficult interpersonal challenges
Lack of UCD awareness: we face this one wherre stakeholders either have no interest in or knowledge of user-centred design, and can lead to content designers being seen as blockers.

About the surgery

I want to empower content designers to meet the challenges that face them.

This is a bespoke workshop where I work with your content designers to analyse and come up with strategies and tactics to deal with specific challenges. Ideally, this would be done once your team has completed stakeholder management training, but this can be a stand-alone workshop.

Contact me

Get in touch if you're interested in exploring this with me.

What do clients say?

Kirsty, Senior Content Designer, UK

"This training went beyond the helpful hints and tips that I expected - it made me reassess how I think about the relationship between content designers and stakeholders.

Sophie, Content Designer, UK

"I loved this course so much. I don't think I've ever felt so 'seen' or understood by a training provider before!

"Jane clearly has years of valuable experience and hard-won wisdom under her belt - not just as a content person but outside of work too. I learned a lot. Thank you!"

Alice, Content Designer, UK

"Jane's training has changed my view of stakeholder management. The session made me see that managing stakeholders can be fun - like a strategic board game!"

Neil, Senior Content Designer, UK

"The course was really thought provoking.

"It helped me think more strategically about how to deal with stakeholders - specifically about trying to understand stakeholders' needs and perspectives before diving in with solutions."