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📋 Frequency: Trigger-Based | Time: 30 min | Trigger: After first 3 sessions with a new client
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Three sessions in, the client's stakeholders have had time to form opinions about the engagement — and those opinions may not have surfaced in the room. Without a deliberate alignment check, misalignment compounds quietly until it becomes a scope conversation or a renewal problem.
Prerequisites
- Engagement Kickoff Prep SOP complete (stakeholder map current)
- Quick-Win Sprint SOP complete or in final week
- Three working sessions completed with documented notes and action items
Procedure
- Open your project management system and pull the stakeholder map from the Engagement Kickoff Prep SOP. Flag any stakeholders you haven't had direct contact with across the first three sessions.
- Run the Stakeholder Map Builder skill again — this time with updated stakeholder information, observed dynamics, and any feedback received in sessions. Compare the output to the original map. Note any shifts in role, influence, or engagement level.
- Review your session notes for signals of misalignment: questions left unanswered, decisions deferred, action items not completed by the client. List any patterns.
- Run the Progress Update Builder skill with the engagement goals, completed quick wins, and current status as inputs. This produces a structured progress summary — use it as the basis for your alignment conversation.
- Deliver the progress update to the primary client contact. If a key stakeholder has been absent from sessions, request a brief alignment check-in with them specifically.
- Document outcomes: confirmed alignment, identified gaps, any scope or expectation adjustments. If stakeholder dynamics suggest mid-engagement risk, queue the Mid-Engagement Review SOP.
Expected Outcome
An updated stakeholder map, a delivered progress update, and documented alignment status — with any identified risks flagged and an action plan in your project system.
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⚠️ Common mistakes:
— Running the alignment check only with the day-to-day contact — the person in the room isn't always the one who controls renewal. Map and check in with decision-makers, not just collaborators.
— Treating the progress update as an optional nicety — it's a written record of what you've delivered. If scope expands or a stakeholder changes their mind later, this document is your baseline.
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