How do you solicit and incorporate feedback from your stakeholders and team members?

Soliciting and incorporating feedback from your stakeholders and team members is a crucial part of preparing a successful business case. Feedback can help you refine your objectives, assumptions, risks, benefits, and costs, as well as align your proposal with the needs and expectations of your audience. However, collecting and managing feedback can also be challenging, especially if you have multiple sources, conflicting opinions, or limited time. In this article, you will learn some practical tips on how to solicit and incorporate feedback effectively in your business case preparation process.

1 Identify your stakeholders and team members

The first step is to identify who are the key stakeholders and team members for your business case. Stakeholders are the people who have an interest or influence in the outcome of your project, such as sponsors, customers, users, managers, or regulators. Team members are the people who will work on the project or support its implementation, such as analysts, designers, developers, or testers. You should map out your stakeholders and team members according to their roles, responsibilities, expectations, and communication preferences. This will help you prioritize and tailor your feedback requests.

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2 Plan your feedback methods and schedule

In order to plan how, when, and how often feedback will be solicited from stakeholders and team members, you should consider the type and scope of feedback needed, the best method to collect it, the timing and frequency of feedback, and the resources and constraints you have. Documenting this feedback plan in a communication plan for your project can help set clear expectations, avoid misunderstandings, and ensure accountability. Additionally, sharing the plan with stakeholders and team members is beneficial in ensuring everyone is on the same page.

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Stuart Webb

Co-creating scale with founders | scientificvaluebuildingmachine.com | Startup fCOO | Business design, scale and operations | expert speaker - "sustainable innovation" | podcaster | author | #opentofractional
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I always advise my mentee managers to spend at least 30 minutes each week with each person in their team. This period is broken into threee equal portions. 1. Ten minutes for the reportee to discuss any issues they want to raise. 2. Ten minutes for the manager to provide deep feedback to their report on ways to improve their performance 3. Ten minutes to ensure skills and career is advanced. Ensuring this is done weekly means the feedback can be used immediately and does nor lead to a surprise at end of year reviews.

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3 Solicit feedback effectively

The third step is to solicit feedback effectively from your stakeholders and team members. To do so, you should be clear and specific about what feedback you need and why it is important for your business case. Provide enough context and background information to help feedback providers understand your goals, assumptions, and logic. Open-ended questions, rather than yes-no questions, should be used to encourage constructive and detailed feedback. Additionally, you should use multiple channels and formats to reach out to your feedback providers, such as email, phone, video call, survey, or meeting. Finally, it is important to be respectful and appreciative of the feedback you receive and acknowledge the time and effort of your feedback providers.

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Maximilian Kerscher

Startup Finance Specialist | Building Holistic Financial Operations & Processes
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Don't forget to take notes when receiving the feedback, already try to formulate tasks for you or other team members. If in doubt, read your notes back to the person that feedbacked to ensure you understood them correctly.

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4 Incorporate feedback appropriately

The fourth step is to incorporate feedback appropriately into your business case. It is important to review and analyze the feedback you receive, and identify the main themes, patterns, gaps, and contradictions. Evaluate the feedback based on its relevance, validity, reliability, and feasibility for your business case. Decide which feedback to accept, reject, or modify, and explain your rationale for each decision. Once you have done this, update your business case accordingly and document the changes and their impact on your objectives, assumptions, risks, benefits, and costs. Finally, communicate the feedback results and actions to your stakeholders and team members, thanking them for their input.

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5 Monitor and evaluate your feedback process

The final step is to monitor and evaluate your feedback process, and make adjustments as needed. You should track and measure the effectiveness of your feedback methods and schedule, as well as the quality and quantity of the feedback received. Additionally, it's important to solicit feedback on your feedback process from stakeholders and team members, so that you can identify what works well and what can be improved. It's also essential to review and update your communication plan regularly, adapting to any changes in the project scope, timeline, or environment. Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate and reward the achievements and contributions of your stakeholders and team members in the feedback process. In doing so, you can create a more compelling, credible, and feasible business case that meets the needs and expectations of your audience.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Richard Newton

Delivery & Transformation Director. Award winning writer.
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This shows a nice structured process for getting feedback, but getting powerful feedback is also about the relationship you have with those you seek it from. The best feedback usually comes from people who have a trust based relationship with you and who feel you are seeking feedback because you really value it and not just because you are going through a process.

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How do you solicit and incorporate feedback from your stakeholders and team members?

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1 Identify your stakeholders and team members

2 Plan your feedback methods and schedule

3 Solicit feedback effectively

4 Incorporate feedback appropriately

5 Monitor and evaluate your feedback process

6 Here’s what else to consider

Business Case Preparation

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