Stakeholder Universe

Map the stakeholders who can influence the core users.

For a solution to succeed, it has to meet the stakeholders’ requirements. Hence at the initial stages itself it is necessary to identify stakeholder’s in the value chain, whose decisions, influence and authority could impact successful solution outcomes. They could be manufacturers, logistic partners, service providers, expert professionals, government bodies, venture funders, etc.

Mapping stakeholders can be broken down into 4 steps

List relevant groups

Understand the stakeholder perspective

Visualise relationship to objectives, other stakeholders and core users

Prioritise stakeholder’s on the basis of their relevance and importance

💯 Tips on Prioritising Stakeholders

Analyse the relationship of the stakeholder to the core user or topic or objective

Map them on the Power (How Influential is the stakeholder to the user) vs Interest Grid (What interest they have in the user)

You might give a Power vs Influence rating to the stakeholder using the example scale below and plot it

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS SCALES

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS SCALES

POWER

INTEREST

All sources of power should be considered (positional, political and personal), but only from the perspective of the stakeholders capacity to cause change to the solution outcome.

High capacity to formally instruct change (i.e. can have the design stopped)

Some capacity to formally instruct change (e.g. must be consulted or has to approve)

Significant informal capacity to instruct change (e.g. a supplier with input to design)

Relatively low levels of power (i.e. cannot generally cause much damage)

An assessment of what the stakeholder seeks or requires from the Solution: understanding what gains the stakeholder seeks from the solution helps in the negotiations to obtain what the solution needs from the stakeholder.

Reputation (Personal)

Career Advancement

Power and Influence

Experience

Reputation (Organization)

Benefits Realization

Customer Satisfaction

Delivery of Solution Outcomes

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STAKEHOLDER POWER V/S INFLUENCE