How to run a stakeholder mapping session that surfaces the hidden decision-makers.
Short answer
A stakeholder mapping session runs 60–90 minutes and plots every person who can influence or be affected by your project on a power/interest grid. The four quadrants determine your engagement strategy: Manage Closely (high power, high interest), Keep Satisfied (high power, low interest), Keep Informed (low power, high interest), Monitor (low power, low interest). The map is only useful if it leads to a concrete communication plan.
Stakeholder maps produced in isolation are useless. The value comes from building them together — in a room where people can name the stakeholders they know that others have overlooked.
Prepare the grid. Draw a 2x2 on the whiteboard: Y-axis is Power (ability to impact the project), X-axis is Interest (level of active engagement with the project). Label the quadrants: Keep Satisfied (top-left), Manage Closely (top-right), Monitor (bottom-left), Keep Informed (bottom-right).
Phase 1 — Brainstorm stakeholders (15 min). Silent sticky-note writing. Everyone lists every person or group they can think of: internal (executives, legal, IT, affected teams) and external (customers, regulators, partners, vendors, press). One name or group per sticky.
Phase 2 — Plot and debate (30–40 min). Place stickies on the grid one at a time. For each one, the facilitator asks: "Where does this person sit?" Disagreement is valuable — if half the room thinks the CTO is high-interest and half thinks low, that's a real data gap. Make a note next to ambiguous placements.
Phase 3 — Identify hidden influencers (15 min). Ask: "Who has power through informal relationships rather than titles?" And: "Who do key decision-makers listen to when we're not in the room?" These names often appear after the obvious ones are plotted. Place them and re-examine their quadrant placement.
Phase 4 — Communication plan (20–30 min). For each Manage Closely stakeholder, define: engagement frequency (weekly? monthly?), preferred channel (1:1? written update?), and what they need to feel confident. For Keep Satisfied: what trigger would move them from satisfied to unhappy, and what's the mitigation? Keep Informed stakeholders get regular written updates. Monitor stakeholders get a single contact person who checks in quarterly.
Output. A completed 2x2 grid with all stakeholders placed, plus a communication matrix: stakeholder name, quadrant, owner, frequency, and format. This is the document you update every month — stakeholders move quadrants as projects progress.
Snap the whiteboard with BoardSnap. The AI reads the grid layout, names, and any annotations and produces a structured list sorted by quadrant — ready to paste into your project doc or stakeholder tracker.
Frequently asked
What is the power/interest grid?
A 2x2 matrix that classifies stakeholders by their power to affect the project (Y-axis) and their level of interest in it (X-axis). Developed in the 1990s by Mendelow, it's the standard framework for stakeholder analysis. The four quadrants determine how much time and energy you invest in managing each group.
How often should you update the stakeholder map?
Monthly for active projects. Re-map at every major project milestone — stakeholders' power and interest shift as the project moves from planning to execution to delivery. A map created at kickoff is often wrong by month three.
Should every project have a stakeholder map?
Any project with more than one decision-maker benefits from one. Small, autonomous projects don't need a formal map. Anything involving budget approval, cross-team dependencies, or external parties almost always does.
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