Did you know, 60–80% of project managers report changing stakeholder expectations as one of their top three challenges.
You're not alone. If I'm honest, I don't think I've ever worked with a PM who hasn't had challenges and problems related to stakeholder management. I know I've had many over the years.
This isn't only one challenge when it comes to managing stakeholders, but this is an important one, as sharing the wrong information or to much can result in:
- Frustration with you or whoever is sharing the info 😤
- Lack of engagement, e.g, they're looking at their phone again 📱
- Longer meetings 📆
Here are some tips to help 👇🏼
🍔 Sort your stakeholders by "info appetite" Not all stakeholders need the same level of detail. Think: who needs to know everything, who needs just headlines, and who just wants reassurance things are on track. Tailor your updates accordingly. If you try to send the same level of detail to everyone, the people who need less will tune out and the people who need more will still chase you.
🫸🏼 Use Pull, not just Push Instead of always sending updates out, make it easy for people to pull what they need when they need it. This could be a shared project dashboard, a simple roadmap link, or a status update page in your collaboration tool. Then you can still send nudges for critical updates, but they always have somewhere to check for more if they want it.
📠 Don't communicate everything, communicate what matters Filter by value. Is this update helping them make a decision? Reducing risk? Giving reassurance? If it’s not, skip it or simplify. People care about progress, risk, impact, and decisions. Focus there.
"Most stakeholders don’t want a novel—they want clarity"
👀 Visual Beats Volume Instead of a 2-page email, can you show it in a single chart or a quick screen-grab with callouts? If they can “get it” in under a minute, they’ll stay engaged. Remember: less is more.
🥁 Use rhythm to reduce anxiety If stakeholders know they’ll hear from you every Friday at 3pm (or whatever suits), they won’t chase. It builds trust. You can always send urgent stuff separately, but a consistent rhythm reassures people more than any volume of updates.
Bonus tip 🏆
At the start of the project, ask each key stakeholder, “How do you like to be kept in the loop?” and “What kind of updates do you hate getting?” It takes 2 minutes, saves hours later.
I hope you find these tips helpful.
Have a great week 💪🏼
Ben.
