Stakeholder mapping
A stakeholder map is a diagram of all the groups and people who are involved with, affected by or care about a project.
Whether you are updating a policy, changing a process, creating a new service, or designing a new product, making a stakeholder map is a useful thing to do at the start of a project. It helps you understand which people and organisations you might need to work with to get the best results.
A stakeholder map will help you:
- plan a project
- scope out any research you need to do
- gather existing contacts
- develop new connections
- understand who is involved and how
- spot where you might need extra support
You can make a quick stakeholder map in about 15 to 20 minutes. Or you can take an hour to go into more depth, working collaboratively and allowing more time for discussion.
Setting up
Try to do stakeholder mapping as early as you can in a project. If you have existing research that is up to date and reliable, you can pull from this and do stakeholder mapping on your own. But if you can, it’s best to invite some of the stakeholders you already know about to make the map with you.
Set up 3 concentric circles and sticky notes in 3 different colours. This can be in-person with paper, or online using a virtual whiteboard like Mural or Miro.
Label your concentric circles, for example with:
- Centre = Must speak to
- Middle ring = Useful to speak to
- Outer ring = Nice to speak to if possible
Give everyone a brief description of the activity ahead of time, so they can prepare.
See our guidelines on running accessible sessions in the introduction for tips on making sure nobody is excluded.
Filling in your stakeholder map
Start by clarifying for everyone in the session the question you are trying to answer. This can be as simple as ‘who do we need to speak to during this project?’
For each person, group or organisation you can think of, put a sticky note into one of the circles.
Include people who:
- use the service or product
- are affected by any changes
- you need to keep informed about the project
- make decisions about the project
Use prompts like:
- Which groups should we talk to and why?
- How do they help us meet our project brief?
- How can we make sure we talk to people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse experiences?
Review the map you have created.
- Is anyone or anything missing?
- Think about the map from the stakeholders’ perspective. What do you notice?
- Does anything need to be repositioned?
- Are you unsure or making assumptions about which circle you’ve put any of the stakeholders in?
- Note any insights or questions that arise and use them to help guide your research.
Next steps
Think about exactly how you will engage each stakeholder
- Do they need to be collaborators, consulted, or just kept informed?
- How often do you need to talk to them? Regularly, occasionally, or in one-off events?
- How many people from each group do you need to talk to, to make sure you get a diverse set of views?
This will all feed into your project and research plans.