Stakeholder Alignment

Preserving Strategic Momentum by Resolving Stakeholder Risk

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Keywords: Stakeholder Engagement, Risk Identification, Technical Concerns, Program Transparency, Cross-Team Collaboration

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Situation:
As part of a broader initiative to improve customer data visibility and enable personalized digital experiences, a key integration depended on securing alignment with the engineering team behind a major customer-facing platform. Although business stakeholders were supportive, the engineering team remained unresponsive, introducing risk to program timelines and blocking progress.

Opportunity:
The situation presented an opportunity to establish greater visibility into stakeholder risk and create a repeatable model for re-engaging platform teams. Early risk identification and structured communication were essential to preserving momentum and preventing disruption.

Obstacles:
The lack of engagement created uncertainty around the platform team’s priorities and technical concerns. Approvals were stalled, yet expectations for progress remained in place. The challenge was to surface and resolve the issue without triggering unnecessary escalation or slowing the broader effort.

Activities:
The integration was identified as a high-priority risk early and logged in status reports before delays materialized. Program-level updates created transparency around potential impact to timelines and outcomes. In parallel, technical documentation was developed to address likely concerns, informed by collaboration with engineering partners. To better understand the platform team’s approach, insights were gathered from peers across the organization. When the opportunity to re-engage surfaced, targeted working sessions were held with engineering leads from both teams. During these discussions, the root concerns were confirmed and directly addressed through the preparation completed earlier.

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Results & Impact:
The platform team re-engaged and approvals were secured. The risk was resolved without escalation, and the integration moved forward without further delays. The approach used in this case became a model for future platform engagements, improving consistency and risk visibility across the broader program.