Introducing Identity Verification - Communicating and Influencing Stakeholders

Stakeholder Communication

New legislation was introduced, requiring individuals who transact against companies, to prove they are who they say they are via a digital verification process.

This was a step in change in commercial legislation, and the operating model of the organization as a service provider. Historically the focus had been on documents and electronic filing methods, this new ruling switched the focus to people.

I very quickly understood that this was a significant change which bought with it complexity and “fear of the unknown”. I recognized clear and concise communication, and gaining the confidences of people would be a key principle that would need to be adopted throughout the evolution of the service.

Tasked to resource and lead the product development of the service, I need to have clear insight of the legal and legislative requirements that we would be asked to meet. I engaged policy colleagues, ensuring they understood the ask and what outcomes we were looking to achieve. At the same time, I compiled a list of policy “intent” which comprised the agreed policy rulings that were to be implemented as business rules within the service design.

These were continually evolving so I met with the governing board that compiled the legislation, presenting an overview of our methods and explaining the “Why” of our development approach. Gaining the buy in needed we continued to work in collaboration feeding in business requirements and using scenario-based outcomes to influence decisions.

The impact of change would affect the whole span of our services across the organisation, and the project evolved into a much wider program with work-streams established to focus on specific service areas. The resource requirement grew, and I soon had to provide forecast models and costings to exec boards for approval.

I presented business wide updates through showcases and show and tell events, demonstrating success and highlighting key activities that were taking place. This was to ensure people across the organisation felt included and in control of a constantly changing picture.

Requirements from legal teams and other areas of the business led to the scope of work becoming too big to deliver within the time we had available. I needed to change the way work was allocated to teams and define what’s achievable within the constraints we had.

To do this I listed all the work on the current road map, separating in to sub sections of – In Progress – Known about and Unknown about. This allowed project sponsors and interested parties to see straight away the volume of work and the work we had allocated but not yet planned in.

Combing all the above approaches ensured we adopted a very complex and changeable set of outcomes, and I was able to communicate the steps taken, manage the risks involved and forecast costs. Key stakeholders outside of the project felt included and understood what was happening. Decisions could be influenced using models based on real world scenarios and outcomes.