Stakeholder Map

Stakeholder Map

Description

Identify business and customers critical to success

Reading Time

4 mins

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What is this for? This activity is used for early identification of business stakeholders and customers that could be crucial to success. Mindset and core principles At the core of collaborative innovation is the concept of identifying and including different people and different perspectives.

Overview

This is a quick activity that can be done in 20-45 mins on a whiteboard (in-person) or digital whiteboard (e.g. Mural)

The exercise should be done with the core project team and should be done near the very beginning of a project (but can also be useful later).

The basic steps are:

  1. Prepare a draft before going in to the group activity
  2. The group brings more input and suggestions
  3. The facilitator ties information together and helps to highlight key stakeholder focus areas

Step 1: Start with a draft (optional)

  • The Facilitator/Guide prepares a simple draft version
  • During the session they present it to the group as a starting point to be filled in with more information

Step 2: Group adds more stakeholders

  • The facilitator sets a 15 min timer for open discussion
  • While the group suggests roles and people to add to the map the facilitator captures them in the board
An example from a real workshop
An example from a real workshop

Step 3: Highlight key people

  • By now you may have a jumble of words and names on the board
  • The facilitator should then draw lines, arranges the information in a clear way, use different colors to categorise different groups, and generally tidy up the board.
  • Then the facilitator guides the group and highlights the stakeholders and customers that are most relevant and useful to focus on in the upcoming project work

Try it now

Think of a project you are working on or have recently worked on
Use the Stakeholder Map board below and fill in the stakeholders and customers you can think of
(optional) Bring in a colleague and get their input
Highlight the key stakeholders you think are most important and relevant

Practice it now

Use this Miro template to run your own Stakeholder Map activity with a team

Additional Resources

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Recommended reading