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Practical exercise

Instruction and application
In Progress

Building a stakeholder engagement plan​

In this activity, you’ll step into the role of GreenFin’s ML project team, responsible for developing and aligning a credit risk model under regulatory scrutiny. You’ll identify key stakeholders, map their influence and interests and design a targeted engagement plan that balances competing priorities.

These skills are essential for driving collaboration in complex ML projects. By practising structured stakeholder mapping, communication planning and alignment strategies, you’ll learn how to build trust, manage expectations and ensure project success across technical and business teams.

Practical exercise context​

GreenFin is a fast-growing fintech company developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven credit risk model to assess loan applicants more accurately and fairly. The model uses applicant data, transaction history and alternative financial indicators to predict default risk. The company’s goal is to improve lending decisions, reduce default rates and demonstrate responsible AI use.

As the project progresses, regulatory scrutiny is increasing. Regulators are concerned about transparency, fairness and bias mitigation in automated decision-making. GreenFin’s leadership has made the model a strategic priority — but the project now involves a diverse mix of stakeholders withdifferent interests, levels of influence and expectations.Current situation

  • The model is in late-stage testing, and the compliance team is reviewing outputs for regulatory readiness.
  • The product owner is pushing for faster deployment to meet quarterly business goals.
  • The data science team is refining model features to improve explainability and performance.
  • The legal and ethics teams are requesting more documentation on data sources and bias controls.
  • Senior leadership wants assurance that the model aligns with the company’s public commitments to ethical AI and financial inclusion.

Conflicts have started to surface — some stakeholders prioritise speed and innovation, while others focus on compliance, fairness and risk mitigation. Your team, acting as GreenFin’s ML project group, must build a stakeholder engagement plan to bring these perspectives together.

Download the stakeholder engagement template​

Use the link below to download the stakeholder engagement template. Work with your group to fill it out as you complete each step.

Optional: Download a copy of the workshop slides​

Activity instructions​

Work with your group to complete the following steps:

Review the context​

Start by reviewing GreenFin’s project scenario. Focus on the company’s goal, the credit risk model under regulatory scrutiny and the mix of stakeholders involved.

Identify key stakeholders​

Use the stakeholder engagement template to:

  • List six to eight stakeholders involved in the GreenFin credit risk model project.
  • Note their roles and why they are important to the project’s success.

Map influence and interests​

  • Add each stakeholder to the influence-interest table to identify who has the most power and who cares most about the project outcomes.
  • Use this to prioritise where engagement effort should be focused.

Build the engagement plan​

For each stakeholder, outline:

  • The key concern: What matters most to them (e.g. accuracy, fairness, compliance or return on investment).
  • Engagement frequency and format: How and how often to update them (e.g. briefings, dashboards and reports).
  • Ownership: Who in your team leads communication.

Role-play the alignment briefing​

  • Collaborate with your group to prepare and deliver a two-minute stakeholder briefing.
  • Choose one stakeholder from your engagement plan and simulate a short alignment or negotiation conversation.
  • Practise responding to competing priorities — for example, addressing a regulator’s fairness concern or a leader’s urgency to deploy faster.
  • Focus on clarity, tone and balance — show how structured, empathetic communication can maintain trust and alignment even under pressure.

Regroup and share insights​

Return to the main session after 20 minutes to discuss key insights and recommendations.

Action item: Activity share-out​

  • Which stakeholder was most influential or challenging to align?
  • What was one key choice your group made in the engagement plan?
  • What would you do differently next time to strengthen alignment or communication?