A Stakeholder Map is a visual or tabular representation of everyone who has interest in the project: their role, their concerns, their level of influence, and their level of support.
Common framework: Power vs Interest grid (a 2×2 with Power on Y, Interest on X):
- High power, high interest — manage closely. Executives, key business owners. Constant communication.
- High power, low interest — keep satisfied. C-suite who don't care about details but need to know it's going well.
- Low power, high interest — keep informed. End users, daily-affected staff.
- Low power, low interest — monitor. Tangential stakeholders.
For each stakeholder, capture:
- Name and role.
- Stake — what do they gain or lose?
- Concerns — what do they worry about?
- Influence — how much can they affect the project (formally and informally)?
- Support level — strong supporter, neutral, opposed.
- Engagement plan — how will you keep them engaged appropriately?
Why it matters:
- Project failures often have a "stakeholder gap" — someone important wasn't engaged early, surfaces a blocker late.
- Different stakeholders need different communication — execs want summaries; admins want detail.
- Change management — knowing who's resistant lets you address concerns proactively.
A senior consultant updates the stakeholder map as the project evolves — people get promoted, leave, change priorities. Static maps go stale.