Stakeholder Map

Understand

Map influence and interest to align stakeholders.

During a rural vaccination campaign, a team used a stakeholder map to figure out who needed to be involved and how. They gave weekly updates to the mayor and the local health director, since both had a lot of influence. A popular local radio host wasn’t very interested at first, but had a big audience, so they invited him to an early vaccination event and answered his questions. Nurses were in charge of rolling out the campaign, so the team shared daily updates to keep them in the loop.

Steps

1. Create a grid with two axes to map each stakeholder’s power (influence over the project) and interest (how affected they are).

2. Label the Quadrants:

   • High Power / High Interest → Manage closely

   • High Power / Low Interest → Keep informed

   • Low Power / High Interest → Meet their needs

   • Low Power / Low Interest → Keep into account

3. List the stakeholders and ask:

   • Who is impacted?

   • Who’s responsible or accountable?

   • Who can support or block the project?

   • Who has prior experience?

4. Position each group or individual based on their relative power and interest.

5. Decide what each stakeholder needs to know, when they need to be consulted, and who is responsible for engaging them.

Based on the ideas of Ronald K. Mitchell, Bradley R. Agle & Donna J. Wood (1997).

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