# stakeholder-alignment

Guides cross-functional alignment without formal authority. Uses frameworks and interview tactics from Lenny's Podcast to map incentives and handle pushback.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 2100 installs · ★ 1434
- Author: RefoundAI
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/stakeholder-alignment

## What it does

This skill coaches users on driving project momentum across teams without relying on executive mandates. It draws on insights from 30 guests and articles across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter. The agent helps map stakeholder concerns and quarterly OKRs before proposing project plans.

It bundles structured tools such as the Silver Burrito Alignment Test, six 1:1 discovery questions, and Tamar Yehoshua's PM-engineering operating model. To keep teams aligned, it insists on maintaining a single canonical document instead of splintered project briefs.

Chasing unanimous agreement on every decision stalls projects and waters down quality. The skill specifically flags when you confuse consensus with collaboration and helps clarify decision-making modes.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill stakeholder-alignment -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/stakeholder-alignment/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill stakeholder-alignment -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill stakeholder-alignment -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills stakeholder-alignment
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill stakeholder-alignment -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills --path skills/stakeholder-alignment
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill stakeholder-alignment -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- map stakeholder incentives and quarterly OKRs
- neutralize pushback using discovery scripts
- differentiate between consensus and collaborative decision-making
- evaluate shared project understanding with the Silver Burrito test

## Example prompts
- Help me map the incentives of our marketing lead using the stakeholder questions
- Apply the Silver Burrito Alignment Test to check if our team agrees on project success
- Draft a response to engineering pushback using the Improv Mindset technique

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 5d6119c422c4b39d.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 5d6119c422c4b39d
```text
---
name: stakeholder-alignment
description: Help users master the art of leading without formal authority by identifying stakeholder incentives, neutralizing conflict through connection, and using co-creation to build shared ownership.
---

# Stakeholder Alignment

Drive cross-functional momentum by mapping incentives and co-creating solutions

Help the user with stakeholder alignment using insights from 30 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Incentive Mapping** - Guidance on how to identify the goals, fears, and OKRs of key stakeholders to tailor your messaging.
2. **Conflict Neutralization** - Practical scripts and mindset shifts for moving from defensive pushback to collaborative discovery.
3. **Co-creation Strategy** - Frameworks for involving partners early in the design process to ensure they feel like authors rather than reviewers.
4. **Communication Standardization** - Methods for creating a single source of truth that prevents information drift across functions.

## Core Principles

### Adopt an Improv Mindset
Adam Grenier: "If you approach it with that 'Yes, and...', it's often still true. It's like, oh, both of these things can be true at once. You could have a different goal than I have, or you have a system problem local to you that is important to you and it's not important to me."

Use the Yes and technique to validate a collaborator perspective before adding your own constraints. This allows competing priorities to coexist without stalling progress or damaging the rapport between teams.

### Assume Information Gaps
Ami Vora: "It means that every meeting you walk into, you're probably not going to get bored and I get bored a lot, but if you assume that every person there knows something that you don't know, then it's not just wait to get to the right answer, it's like, discover the thing that they know that you don't know and it becomes just a little bit of uncovering."

Approach disagreements by assuming your colleague possesses unique information that you lack. Transform potential conflict into a discovery process by responding to opposing opinions with curiosity rather than defense.

### Build a Bridge of Connection
Dr. Becky Kennedy: "He kind of joins my world where I'm embedded in my own priorities and by doing that forms a bridge, that's what connection is. So I can kind of walk back over to his world with him to do something that's a priority in his world."

Cooperation is built when you acknowledge and join another person reality before asking them to join yours. Establish this connection bridge to ensure partners feel heard before you attempt to redirect their behavior.

### Manifest the Visual Future
```
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First 2715 of 7640 bytes. © RefoundAI · MIT · https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/stakeholder-alignment/SKILL.md

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