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How do product key stakeholders from other departments change as your company grows?

Linh Lam
Lattice Group Product ManagerFebruary 16

I find that the list of stakeholders tends to be roughly the same across company size, with the key difference being how many "support" functions you can rely on as a PM. For example, bigger companies tend to have dedicated people or teams to help with internal communications, training, research, and data analysis. Roughly speaking though, I always walk into any company trying to keep an eye on the following teams, and will add or subtract folks based on the organizational model of the company: Customers, other Product teams, Engineering, Data, Design, UX Research, Product Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Customer Support, and Enablement. 

Another difference as a company grows - there are more people and levels you have to account for, which typically means you need to spend more time on creating alignment and awareness in the work you are doing. This means in practice:

  • Spending more time creating documents and sharing them out
  • Setting aside time for quarterly / bi-annual planning 
  • Agreeing further in advance on the work you plan to do and what support you'll need from other teams 
  • Taking into account go-to-market teams needs and coordinating internal comms and training
  • More meetings to make sure people have opportunities to provide feedback and are aware of the work your teams are doing 
  • Establishing roles and responsibilities upfront (RACIs can be a helpful framework)
  • Being more cognizant of downward, upward, and horizontal communication and alignment 
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