How to use a stakeholder map
A stakeholder map sorts everyone affected by your project by two things: how much power they have, and how much they care. That tells you how to spend your limited engagement energy.
- Manage closely — high power, high interest: your key players.
- Keep satisfied / informed — engage proportionally to power and interest.
- Monitor — low power, low interest: light touch.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a stakeholder map?
- A stakeholder map plots the people and groups affected by a project onto a power/interest grid, so you know how much attention each one needs and how to engage them.
- What is the power/interest grid?
- A 2×2 grid: high power + high interest (manage closely), high power + low interest (keep satisfied), low power + high interest (keep informed), and low power + low interest (monitor).
- Why map stakeholders?
- Projects fail on politics as often as on execution. Mapping stakeholders helps you spend engagement effort where it matters and avoid being blindsided by someone powerful you ignored.
- When should you create a stakeholder map?
- Early in a project or change initiative, and again whenever the cast of stakeholders shifts.