A stakeholder is anyone with interest, influence, responsibility, or authority over a project or system. In an ML project, that includes more than a boss or product manager: budget owners, approvers, executives, domain experts, and the individual contributors who handle the current process. section 2.2
Involve stakeholders while defining the problem, and look for different kinds of knowledge:
- Interview executives for strategic goals and initiative context. section 2.2
- Talk with individual contributors for tactical details, workarounds, and design constraints. section 2.2
- Identify who controls budgets and who approves each system component. section 2.2
- Share measured results with stakeholders using business metrics, not only model metrics. section 12.0
A discovery conversation
An executive may describe the initiative's goal, while an employee handling the current process reveals practical tricks that change the design. Recording both perspectives in the initial problem statement creates a foundation for the design document. section 2.2
