Hey, Ashwin here! Welcome to edition #11 of the Tech Lead Compass newsletter!
In the last edition, we talked about status reports and better ways to get information to your stakeholders.
Today, we will talk about stakeholder maps – a visual way to list down and understand your stakeholders. Understanding them is the first step towards meeting their expectations – isn’t it?
Understanding your Stakeholders
A stakeholder is someone who has a vested interest in the outcome of a project or a program.
Not all stakeholders are the same.
They come with a variety of needs and expectations.
As a tech leader, you must:
Identify them
Analyze and learn about them
Map them based on their interests
Prioritize and manage
One useful tool to do this is a stakeholder map.
What is a Stakeholder Map?
A stakeholder map is a visual matrix that identifies and categorizes stakeholders based on 2 dimensions – influence and interest.
Influence is the degree to which a particular stakeholder can impact the execution and outcome of a project. For example, a project sponsor is someone with a high influence, who can drive key decisions.
Interest, on the other hand, is about how much a stakeholder is impacted by the project outcome. For example, if you are building an HR application, the end-users in the HR team have high levels of interest.
Once you have established this, the stakeholders can be mapped on a matrix.
High influence, High interest – stakeholders that must be managed closely, as they can steer the direction and outcome of the project
High influence, Low interest – these are key leaders in the organization who may not be directly interested in the outcome of the project, but must be kept happy (no escalations, firefighting, etc.)
Low influence, High interest – these are folks usually part of the project team or the intended end-users. They have a high interest as the outcome with have a direct impact on them but often their influence is limited
Low influence, Low interest – these are enablers or other enterprise bodies, who are not directly involved in the execution or outcome. But they may expect to be “kept in the loop”
Here’s a sample stakeholder map for a project. Do note the categorization is highly opinionated, it can vary for every project or initiative.
How do you create a Stakeholder map?
There is no single way to create a stakeholder map and it highly depends on your organization culture and operations.
However, here is a 5-step blueprint that works in most cases.
Start with the purpose of your map
Brainstorm and build the stakeholder list
Determine each stakeholder’s level of involvement
Determine their interest and goals in the project
Create a stakeholder map and establish an engagement plan
In summary, a stakeholder map helps you understand the landscape, know the stakeholder interests and create an engagement plan that works.
Now on to the must-read news from the past week…
5 “Must-Read” Tech News for the Week
In a special event last week, Apple launched a new line of iPads, including the iPad Pro powered by M4 chip. New Magic Keyboard takes the iPad experience one more step closer to a Macbook
Google Cloud recently announced a significant advancement in cybersecurity with its Google Threat Intelligence offering. Unveiled during the RSA Conference 2024, this offering aims to enhance threat protection and provide a simplified user experience for security professionals
The Chinese state is accused of hacking the Ministry of Defence (MoD), targeting service personnel. The breach occurred through a third-party payroll system that handles current service personnel and some veterans. The exposed information primarily includes names and bank details.
OpenAI is coming for the search engines (Reuters)
OpenAI is apparently developing a search product, pretty much like Google, that can search the web and site the resources in its results.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and rival KuCoin became the first offshore crypto-related entities be approved by India’s anti-money laundering unit, months after being banned for “operating illegally.”
That’s it for now and I will be back next week. Goodbye, until then!
In case you missed the past articles, feel free to read them from here:
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