One of the hardest things to do on any project is to keep everyone happy. A useful way to map this at the start of the project was shown to us by Daniel Mosforth from Bay Digital. We’ve adapted his in-person approach for a digital setting.
This activity allows a group to come together around a Whimsical board to map the interest and involvement of each project stakeholder. A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in the success of the project.
Start by making a copy of this template. Change the pre-populated sticky notes for ones that are relevant to your organisation. The ones containing dots are there for participants in the activity to add their own stakeholders.
Target Group: project teams
Time: 20-30 minutes
Material: Whimsical Template
Goals: find the interests of different project stakeholders
Go round everyone taking part in the activity in turn. On their go, they can either:
- Add a new sticky note to the board (i.e. the orange rectangle)
- Move an existing sticky note to a new location
If they perform the second of these operations, they have to explain to the group why they are moving it. Someone can move it back, or to a different place on their go.
Go around each person a few times, until there isn’t much movement left on the board. Ask if the way it currently stands is “good enough for now”, given that you can always revisit it later in the project.
If everyone agrees, then do the big reveal! The background image can actually be deleted to reveal another background behind it which divides the large rectangle into four quadrants.
If there are any sticky notes on the border between two quadrants, have a discussion about which they should be moved fully into. Once everyone’s happy, then have a further chat about what it means for stakeholders to be ‘managed closely’, ‘kept informed’, etc.
The value of this activity is that it prioritises which stakeholders should be listened to, and how the project team should interact with them. We find that it tends to allay the fears of people who don’t know who to listen to once a project has started!
Click here to make your own copy of the stakeholder mapping template