Engage the Sponsor

When to use it

Use this tool to help you define the focus of your challenge together with your stakeholders.

What’s the purpose

Stakeholders have a responsibility for the project challenge and therefore need to provide input and be aligned on the focus before you begin working on it. This template guides you through the engagement and opportunity framing process.

How to do it

Start by making a list of the key stakeholders in your project. Is there a main business sponsor? Who are the influencers, the implementers, the gatekeepers?
Arrange to interview these people, starting with the main sponsor if there is one.
Use the ‘Frame the challenge’ in step two to guide your discussion, agree on what they'd like to focus on and why this is important. Not all questions will be relevant to all stakeholders.
Now use the ‘Opportunity Framing’ process to help you distil what you heard into a focused challenged you can work on.
For continuous engagement ideas to keep your stakeholders actively involved and updated on project progress, use the ideas in step four as a starting point, and add more of your own.
Do not hesitate to create an action after agreeing on engagement ideas.

Helpful tips

Instead of interviewing each stakeholder separately, you might also bring them everyone together to frame your opportunity collaboratively.
Try to soften your own views and sharpen your focus on how others think. Finding alignment requires collaboration and compromise from everyone involved.

Using this method in your day-to-day work

Finding alignment within a team can be challenging, so having a structured approach to guide you will make it much more manageable. When you are working to align with any group of individuals, this template walks you through engaging everyone involved in a collaborative way to drill down to what matters and arrive at an opportunity area that everyone is equally curious to explore.