Gathering feedback from internal stakeholders in your organization is fundamental to developing a successful product. Remember that team members are also internal customers, and will likely be as or more vocal than your external customers about your product — they have a lot to say, but where and how should they say it? Let's look at some ways to gather feedback from stakeholders.
While product teams rely on a combination of several communication channels to share feedback with colleagues, others find it better to pick one and stick with it. Here are a few common feedback communication channels and a brief look at the pros and cons of each so you can make a considered choice about what works best for you:
1. Email & Chat
Have your team share feedback with you via email and use labels or folders to stay organized, or if your organization uses a chat platform internally, create a room specifically for feedback.
Pros:
- Convenient for customer teams to use.
- Feedback can be shared virtually anytime.
- You can search feedback later.
Cons:
- Neither option scales well for the Product Manager.
- Chat and email can be distracting.
- Does not aggregate data or provides analytics.
- Requires extra manual work to extract the feedback.
2. Team Meetings
Consider holding bi-monthly or monthly feedback meetings with customer teams to let folks share and discuss what they've been hearing.
Pros:
- Opportunity to provide product updates/share what's next on your roadmap.
- Allows you to ask follow-up questions.
- You can clarify feedback with those who have shared it.
Cons:
- Getting everyone in the room at the same time can be hard and inconvenient.
- Can lead to confusion if customer teams have to hold onto feedback for a month before relaying it. [Think of the game "telephone."]
3. Feedback Reports
In lieu of [or in addition to] facilitating a feedback meeting, have every team generate a customer feedback report every two weeks or so and share it with your team.
Pros:
- Contains both qualitative and quantitative data.
- It's a resource you can return to for information when you need it.
Cons:
- Time-consuming and possibly inconvenient for customer teams to produce.
- Does not look at long-term feedback trends.
4. Collaborative Spreadsheets
You can ask customer-facing teams to enter feedback directly into a spreadsheet within Google Sheets or a similar tool.
Pros:
- Customer teams can share feedback at any time.
- Good for gathering and both qualitative and quantitative feedback.
Cons:
- May be inconvenient for customer teams to use, which could result in them sharing less feedback.
- Hard for customer teams to know whether the product team is reading their feedback.
5. Feedback Collection Platforms
You can take advantage of software tools designed to collect user feedback and route it to the correct party.
Pros:
- Highly scalable.
- Can aggregate qualitative and quantitative data from every feedback source in one place, making it easy to access and use to make decisions.
Cons:
- Cost may be a con if your budget is tight.
- Customer teams may require a bit of training to help them understand how the system works.
In Sum
All of these communication channels come with their benefits and disadvantages, and the right approach is probably some combination of several. It's up to you and your team to decide which recipe of channels works best for you.
Ensuring that the right people [such as stakeholders, project team members, project sponsors, etc.] get the right information at the right time for project status and to make decisions on projects requires a great deal of planning. Effective distribution of information relies on the selection of the right tools and methods to ensure you reach the people you need to reach in the manner beset suited for them to evaluate and/or make decisions.
Communication Methods
The method to communicate that you select should be based on:
- The type of information to be distributed
- The audience requirements
- The timeline for a required response
Any or all of the following are acceptable methods for distributing project information to stakeholders and other relevant interested parties:
- Project team meeting
- Individual, one-on-one meetings
- Stakeholder meetings
- Video conferencing
- Conference calls
- Portal or project intranet site
- Collaborative work management tools
The method you choose is based on your audience, the environment, company policies and/or access to software, the size of the project and other factors.
There are pros and cons to different methods of distributing [communicating] project information. It is important to weigh the pros and cons against availability of certain tools/methods, expectations of the individual being communicated to about the project, expectations around formal or informal communication, the need for formal record keeping, etc.
General Categories of Communication
The three basic general communication categories include:
- Face-to-face communications [group or individual meetings]
- Hard-copy communications [letters, memorandum, reports]
- Electronic communications [email, conference calls, web conferencing]
Face-to-face communications can be either formal or informal, one-on-one or in groups. Face-to-face communication allows more easily for gauging others’ reactions to what you are communicating, which allows you to ensure they are hearing what you intend them to hear and understand what you are saying.
Meetings may be costly if you need to bring individuals in from other states and/or countries to participate. However, it may be a good idea, for global projects, to have at least a face-to-face meeting as a project kickoff and another meeting mid-way through or near the end of the project. To ensure your meetings are productive, be sure to plan for them ahead of time and send to all participants an agenda prior to the meeting. If participants are required to have information with them for the meeting, make sure they know they are expected to be prepared for the meeting.
To ensure an effective meeting, you will need to facilitate it or have someone available who is able to facilitate the meeting. This includes ensuring the agenda is followed and the meeting starts and ends on time. Document the notes from the meeting, including any “to-dos” or decisions made or which need to be made and distribute to all participants as a follow up the meeting. If there are “to-dos” or decisions to be made, include a timeline as agreed to at the meeting.
Hard-copy communications can really be combined with the category of electronic communications. In today’s information age with easy access to computers [in nearly all situations] hard copy reports, if desired, could be followed up with electronic version. You may choose to provide a hard copy status report to an executive if he or she prefers that format of communication, but you would want to retain an electronic version for recordkeeping, along with information about the distribution of the hard copy – such as a copy of the memo to the executive with the attached report.
Given the shortage of time, tight budget controls, the need for project managers to manage multiple projects, and project team members spread out over the country or in different countries, electronic communication methods are quite common. There are various methods of electronic communications and you may deploy a certain method depending on the communication need. For example, email may work best for short, brief updates on project status or to ask a question or get a decision made.
A project portal or intranet site is also a viable method of getting project data out to others and of sharing information via discussion forums or through chats to make decisions or get input. Tools such as Microsoft SharePoint® enable collaborative sharing of documents to make revisions – such as building of a project plan.
If you need to pull a large group together, and a face-to-face meeting is not possible, you may choose to use a collaborative meeting tool, such as GoToMeeting®, or a similar tool, to communicate with the team. Such tools allow for collaboration as video can be an option – if individuals are able to see each other there is a higher likelihood of collaboration. Many such tools also provide white boards and other collaboration options for document sharing, editing, etc. Similar to face-to-face meetings, follow up such meetings with document meetings notes, with “to-dos” or decisions to be made.
Communication Management Plan
Your communications management plan may include any or all of the following information, depending on your project’s needs. [Reference: Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition, Chapter 10: Project Communications Management, Section 10.2.3]
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Communication Management Plan Template
The communications management plan template below provides you one template option for your project. You may add or delete fields depending on your specific project needs. Your company may also have specific templates that are used for all projects, regardless of the project size or complexity. The template below has been partially completed to provide you an example.
Project Name: | Office Holiday Party | |||
Project Manager: | John Smith, | |||
Project Sponsor: | Jane Doe, VP of HR, | |||
Date: | October 26, 2009 | |||
Objective | ||||
The objective of this plan is to identify all communication needs of the Office Holiday Party stakeholders and to ensure the project team is able to carry out a coordinated effort to meet the stakeholders’ varied communication needs. The following is included in this plan:
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Project Stakeholders | ||||
Internal Stakeholders | ||||
Name | Title | Responsibility | Contact Information | |
Jane Doe | VP of HR | Project sponsor | ||
Jack Brown | Finance Manager | Project budget control, all financial decisions | ||
External Stakeholders | ||||
Name | Title/Organization | Responsibility | Contact Information | |
Spouses/Children | N/A | None | Through employees | |
Alison Jackson | Caterer/ABC Catering | Catering of party | ||
Stakeholder Information Requirements | ||||
Group/Individual | Information Requirements | |||
Project Sponsor |
| |||
Jack Brown |
| |||
Requirements for Distributing Information | ||||
Communication Component | Due Date | Audience | Responsible Person[s] | Distribution Methods |
Project plan | October 30 | Project sponsorProject team | Project manager | Email and posted on portal site |
Project budget | November 2 | Finance managerProject sponsor | Project manager | Email and posted on portal site |
Initial communication of holiday party | November 5 | All employees | project manager and project sponsor | Email and posted on company intranet |
Requirements for Information Gathering and Reporting | ||||
Information Input | Person[s] Responsible for Collecting and Reporting | Person[s] Responsible for Submitting Information | Due Date | |
Change requests | Project team, Project manager | Project manager | When applicable | |
Project budget status report | Project manager | Project manager | Bi-weekly – first due date is Nov. 20 | |
Guidelines for Gathering and Distributing Information | ||||
Storage of Project Information All project documentation must be stored on the project portal site and via hard copy in locked file cabinets for the duration of the project. Upon project completion, only final project documentation – such as final reports, budgets, etc. – may be retained in the project portal site in the archive section and hard copy of final reports kept in the appropriate locked file cabinet. Use of Communication Methods and Technologies Approved communication methods include:
See detailed communication methods and technologies document available on company intranet site in knowledge base for further details. | ||||
Issue Escalation | ||||
The project manager is responsible for managing all project issues which arise and the project team should see the project manager for disputes, issue resolution, problem solving, etc. Issues the project manager cannot resolve will be brought to the attention of the project sponsor for decision making and resolution. | ||||
Communications Plan Update | ||||
The project manager is responsible for monthly review of the communications plan. Any changes to the communication plan must be approved by the project sponsor. | ||||
Glossary of Terms | ||||
Term | Definition | |||
Change Requests | Change requests include any deviation from the original project plan, scope, budget, timeline, team members, etc. | |||
Issue | Any problem or dispute which arises in the course of the project and may impact the final outcome of the project. | |||
Revision History | ||||
Version Number | Date | Originator | Reason for Change | Approved – Yes/No and Date |
1.0 [original] | Oct. 26, 2009 | John Smith | N/A – original communications plan | Approved: Yes Oct. 26, 2009 |
Summary
Bottom line – choose the appropriate method for distributing information for the project based on a number of factors, such as:
- The audience with which you are communicating
- The environment in which you work – for example, do individuals expect formal or informal communications
- Company policies around communications
- Size of the project and number of individuals involved, project complexity
- Project alignment to organizational goals
- Other factors relevant to your project, company, stakeholders, etc.
Please share your experiences with information distribution on projects and communicating with others in the Comments field below. What have you found to be successful? What stories can you share?