Stakeholder Analysis
Use when asked to run or explain a stakeholder analysis — identifying stakeholders and mapping their interest and influence (a power/interest grid) to plan engagement — as the analytical step that typically precedes formalizing responsibilities in a responsibility-assignment-matrix.
Stakeholder analysis identifies everyone with an interest in, or influence over, a project or initiative, and maps them to plan how to engage each appropriately — distinct from simply listing who's "involved," since it explicitly considers both interest and influence, which aren't the same thing.
The power/interest grid
A common technique maps stakeholders on two axes:
- High power, high interest — manage closely; these stakeholders need active engagement and can significantly affect outcomes.
- High power, low interest — keep satisfied; enough engagement to maintain their support without over-investing their attention.
- Low power, high interest — keep informed; they care about the outcome and can provide useful input, even without significant influence over decisions.
- Low power, low interest — monitor with minimal effort.
Process
- Identify — list everyone with a stake in the outcome: sponsors, users, teams affected, regulators, partners, and others.
- Assess — for each stakeholder, estimate their level of interest and influence/power.
- Map — place stakeholders on the power/interest grid (or a similar framework).
- Plan engagement — decide the appropriate communication frequency, channel, and depth for each quadrant.
- Revisit — stakeholder positions can shift as a project progresses; the map should be updated, not fixed once at the start.
Relationship to formal responsibility assignment
Stakeholder analysis identifies who matters and how; a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (or its common RACI variant, see RACI Matrix) then formalizes who does what for specific tasks. Stakeholder analysis is often the earlier, broader exercise that informs which stakeholders need to be explicitly named in the later, more granular responsibility assignment.
Common pitfalls
- Treating the stakeholder map as static — stakeholder power and interest can change significantly as a project evolves; a map drawn at kickoff and never revisited can miss important shifts.
- Engaging every stakeholder identically — the whole point of mapping interest and power separately is to differentiate engagement approach; uniform engagement wastes effort on low-priority stakeholders while potentially under-serving critical ones.
- Missing stakeholders with low visibility but real influence — informal influence (a respected team member, an external advisor) doesn't always show up on an org chart but can matter as much as formal authority.
Learn more
- Responsibility Assignment Matrix, RACI Matrix for formalizing responsibilities once stakeholders are identified.
- Statement of Work for a document that often names key stakeholders explicitly.
- Crucial Conversations for engaging a high-power, high-interest stakeholder in a difficult conversation.