As the name implies, a stakeholder is someone who holds a stake (an interest or a concern) in something. In business, it is important to do a stakeholder analysis for a project so you can determine the appropriate amount of engagement and communication they should receive. It can also help ensure your project receives the proper support from leadership.
By not doing a thorough stakeholder analysis, you are simply asking for trouble. Imagine you realize you left out an entire group within the organization half way through a project because you decided to skip or breeze through the analysis.
Solution – don’t skip the stakeholder analysis.
Stakeholder analysis can also be thought of as stakeholder management. You will need to not only identify all the stakeholders, but also manage their needs throughout the project.
Steps in the Stakeholder Analysis
The first step is to identify your stakeholders. You can start by brainstorming who might be affected by the project. Don’t try to do this on your own, bring in colleagues familiar with the project and its audience to brainstorm. Don’t forget that it is not just internal people who may be affected, external people, e.g., customers might also be affected. Use all data collection tools you feel would help you do a comprehensive review, including surveys, focus groups, etc.
Note: Both individuals (e.g., VP of Marketing) and groups (e.g., the Technology Training Team) can be stakeholders.
The second step is to prioritize your stakeholders. You want to consider their amount of influence and interest for the project. You can think of the grid below when prioritizing stakeholders. Keep in mind that influence can be formal or informal. Formal influence is typically someone with a high ranking position in the organization. Informal influence is typically someone a respected person who people listen to, without a high ranking position.
Stakeholders with High Influence and High Interest
This is the most important stakeholder group. They have a lot of interest in the project and they can influence its success, so you can expect them to be very visible. It is essential to properly inform these stakeholders and involve them to ensure they are always up to speed. You want to include their knowledge and experience in the decision making process, including the project vision, strategy, milestones, etc.
It is important to build strong relationships and gain their trust and support. As they typically have a lot of influence within the organization, they can be an invaluable resource and help you along the way. Consider making these stakeholders ambassadors for the project. They can support you when it comes time for difficult decisions, such as when you need to deal with resistance or push back on other stakeholders.
Although these are valuable stakeholders, they also require the most work. Resist the temptation to make this group too large, and therefore difficult to manage.
Stakeholders with Low Influence and High Interest
These stakeholders have a high interest in the project, but they cannot really influence the process or result. These may include users of a system or external customers. It is important to keep them involved in the project and informed of the strategy going forward.
Maintain regular interaction with this group and collect feedback. Remember that because they have little influence, they should not be placed in a position to dictate the strategy.
Stakeholders with High Influence and Low Interest
This stakeholder group can be tricky, but it should not require much of a work load. These stakeholders don’t not have a lot of interest in the project. The tricky part is that they do have a lot of influence, which can impact you and your team. It is important to keep this group satisfied with correspondence and information.
Although they are not very interested in the overall project, they are concerned with any components that are relevant to them. It is important that those components of the project go well, because these stakeholders have the influence to raise hell if they do not. You can keep it simple with your communications to them. First identify what is important to them and then keep them informed on those components. Keep in mind that this group may be able to help you because of their influence. Build strong relationships with them, but don’t lose sight that they are not the primary target.
Stakeholders with Low Interest and Low Influence
These stakeholders should require the least amount of attention. They have little interest in your project and they can’t have a significant influence on it. It is important, however, to monitor this group.
Things can change, people in this group may need to shift to another stakeholder group due to a promotion, etc. Keep them informed how the project is progressing.
The third step is to understand the needs of all the stakeholders you identified in step 1. You should have answers to questions similar to those below:
Will they be interested in this project?
How are they impacted?
How can we show that we are concerned for these stakeholders?
What information will they need?
Will training be necessary?
How do we get them on-board?
What is their opinion of our team? Have we had success with them before?
Who might resist? What can we do to manage their resistance?
What meetings/events should they be invited to?
Remember that the most important part of a stakeholder analysis is to identify all individuals and groups who will be impacted by the project and to determine how to meet their needs. It is not critical to place every individual or group into the grid, but it should be done for the top players.
Create a Communications Plan
The stakeholder analysis is now complete, however your work has just begun. The next step is to create the communication plan for the project. This plan lays out all the communication touchpoints for each stakeholder, including town hall meetings, email newsletters, project team meetings, etc. It provides the plan by which all stakeholders will receive the information identified in step 3 of the analysis.
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