TOPIC: How do you handle vague stakeholders in exam scenarios?

Hello! Some practice questions throw in stakeholders who barely give input or change their minds halfway. Any tips on how to approach those? I’m used to managing clients IRL, but the exam logic feels different.

Would love a quick framework or mindset shift that helps.

Hi David,
could you please post an example of that type of questions?
In general, I'd say the exam rewards answers where you anticipate issues (like a stakeholder being vague) and address them through planned engagement strategies, rather than reacting ad hoc.
-Elena

Elena,

There is a general prohibition of posting actual questions from the simulator here on the forum.

There is also a huge prohibition of posting questions from other copyrighted sources here in the forum and in the past, it has been viewed as an ethics violation.

Harry

Hi David,
My understanding is that questions like these would like to test your understanding of stakeholder management in general - right from the creation of your stakeholder matrix, categorizing certain stakeholders as low / high in influence or engagement, etc.
And the question would test your approach in engaging with each stakeholder group in the manner and frequency that is beneficial to the project overall.

E.g.: stakeholder who keeps changing their opinions but whose inputs/ sponsorship are not really valuable would warrant a strategy of "inform but do not waste time with getting their wholehearted support".
However, a stakeholder who is stand-offish but who has a great deal of influence on the outcome of your project would warrant intensive effort in engaging with them using means of communication that they prefer (could be 1-1 presentations and status updates rather than mass-emails communicating status which might work for other stakeholders) - and so on.