A Stakeholder Map plots everyone with a stake in your product by interest and influence. It guides communication planning and prevents being blindsided by powerful stakeholders whose needs were overlooked.
At the start of any major initiative, and revisited before large decisions. Essential in regulated industries where regulators are de facto stakeholders.
- Brainstorm all parties with a stake: internal and external
- Plot on a 2x2: Interest (low-high) vs. Influence (low-high)
- High interest + high influence: MANAGE CLOSELY
- High influence + low interest: KEEP SATISFIED
- High interest + low influence: KEEP INFORMED
- Low / low: MONITOR with minimal effort
- Define a communication and engagement strategy per quadrant
High influence + high interest: record labels (control catalogue), advertising partners (revenue). High influence + low interest: Apple and Google (control app store distribution). High interest + low influence: independent artists. Label relationships require the most active management — a single dispute can remove millions of tracks overnight.
Please contact the author for more information on these examples at linkedin.com/in/kshitijrege
- Confusing the buyer with the user — in B2B they often have conflicting needs
- Forgetting regulators in regulated industries — they shape requirements without being customers
- Creating the map and never using it to guide communication planning
- Inspired — Marty Cagan
- The Art of Business Value — Mark Schwartz