A stakeholder map is a practical, strategic tool that helps you analyze and categorize the people involved in, or affected by, your work. It provides a clear visual overview of who holds influence, who has interest, and how each stakeholder should be engaged.
Typically, it’s built as a two-by-two matrix, plotting stakeholders based on:
Influence: How much power they have to affect outcomes.
Interest: How invested they are in the success or direction of the project.
You can use a stakeholder map to tailor your message to the right people in the right way. It enables more focused communication, better collaboration, and smoother decision-making. It’s especially useful when you prepare presentations, pitch ideas, or manage change.
In this video, Morgane Peng, Head of Product Design & AI Transformation at Societe Generale, explains how you can use stakeholder maps in your own work.
No project succeeds in isolation. Multiple parties—clients, end users, colleagues, executives, and sometimes regulators—can shape the direction and outcome of your work. If you don’t understand and manage their interests, your project risks delays, misalignment, or outright failure.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
A stakeholder map gives you a clear picture of the “human landscape” you are working within. It highlights potential champions who can accelerate progress, as well as potential blockers who might resist change. They also reveal influencers who may not be decision-makers but shape the conversation.
When you map these relationships early, you can plan your communication strategies proactively and focus on what matters to each person. This way, you can make decisions that are more likely to gain support and move forward.
Stakeholder maps use a standard two-axis matrix to guide communication strategies based on a stakeholder’s level of influence and degree of interest. Here’s how to approach each quadrant:
High Influence, Low Interest (Keep satisfied): These individuals may not be deeply involved, but their opinions carry weight. Keep them informed at a high level so they remain supportive and don’t become barriers later.
High Influence, High Interest (Manage closely): These are your key stakeholders. They care deeply and hold power. Engage them regularly, invite their input, and build a strong working relationship. Their support is critical to your success.
Low Influence, Low Interest (Monitor): This group requires minimal effort. You can keep them informed through general project updates, but you don't need to dedicate significant resources to them. Your primary action is simply to monitor them in case their position changes.
Low Influence, High Interest (Keep informed): These people may not control outcomes, but they care about the work. Keeping them informed shows respect, and they can become advocates, allies, or sources of insight.
A stakeholder map is more than just a theoretical exercise; it helps you navigate workplace dynamics with more clarity and confidence. Here’s what they offer:
Strategic communication: It forces you to think about what each person needs from you. Instead of giving a one-size-fits-all presentation, you can provide the right level of detail and context to each group, making your communications more efficient and effective.
Build trust: Addressing individual concerns shows empathy and professionalism. It helps you earn trust and build credibility with decision-makers and collaborators.
Problem-solving: You can spot risks early and identify potential resistance or conflicting goals before they surface in meetings or derail your progress.
Saves time: You invest energy where it counts (on people who influence outcomes) rather than spreading yourself thin trying to involve everyone equally.
Here’s how to create a stakeholder map that’s practical, easy to maintain, and effective in real work situations, especially when preparing for meetings or presentations.
Gather information
Start with brainstorming sessions, stakeholder interviews, or input from project sponsors. Ask: Who is affected? Who has influence? Who makes decisions?
Prioritize stakeholders
Use the influence-interest model to decide how much time and energy to allocate to each person or group.
Visualize the map
Choose a format that’s easy to update and share—mind maps, quadrant charts, or network diagrams are common options.
Plan engagement strategies
Define how and when to communicate with each stakeholder. Consider their preferred channels and what kind of information they value.
Review and update
Stakeholders’ roles and priorities can change. Keep your map current to reflect shifting dynamics or new stakeholders.
You can use our free stakeholder map template to quickly map out your own project.
Get your free template for “Know Your Audience: Stakeholder Mapping”
The Skill Behind Great Presentations and Stronger Careers
Stakeholder mapping may seem like a behind-the-scenes task, but it’s one of the most valuable tools you can use when preparing to present your ideas. Whether you're pitching to executives, leading a workshop, or updating your team, stakeholder maps make the difference.
When you understand who’s in the room (or behind the decisions), you present with more clarity, relevance, and confidence. You anticipate concerns. You speak each stakeholder’s language. And as a result, you’re more likely to persuade, gain support, and move your work forward.
But the impact goes beyond one presentation. Over time, consistently applying this thinking helps you:
Build stronger working relationships.
Influence more effectively across roles and departments.
Get recognized as someone who thinks strategically, and not just creatively.
Stakeholder mapping is about credibility. It helps you deliver presentations that resonate, decisions that stick, and careers that grow.
Want career growth? Take our course Present Like a Pro: Communication Skills to Fast-track Your Career.
Read Atlassian’s guide Stakeholder Mapping: Definition, Benefits, & Examples to learn more about what stakeholder maps are, how they categorize groups by influence and interest, and how these tools support strategic communication and decision making.
Dive into ProjectManager’s article Stakeholder Mapping 101: How to Make a Stakeholder Map to see examples of stakeholder map matrices, the common four-quadrant approach, and tips for managing key players, blockers, and supporters during project rollout.
Read KnowledgeHut’s overview What is Power Interest Grid? How to Use, Benefits, Examples to understand how the power-interest grid works, why it’s widely used, and what practical benefits and engagement strategies stakeholder maps enable for presenters and project managers.
Review Change Adaptive’s post Power vs. Interest: Master the Stakeholder Matrix for Success for a step-by-step explanation of building and updating a stakeholder matrix, including prioritizing engagement and planning communication strategies for each quadrant.
Explore Canva’s resource What is Stakeholder Mapping? (How-tos, Examples, Tips) for practical examples and templates to visualize stakeholders by influence and interest, and learn how to apply the technique for team presentations, pitches, and change management.
Stakeholder mapping helps you design smarter by showing who truly matters to your project. When you know who holds influence, who has interest, and who gets impacted, you can avoid costly surprises and keep your work aligned with real needs.
It is about making sure the right people shape your product from the start. You will define hidden influencers, surface unspoken expectations, and prevent late-stage conflicts. That means fewer redesigns, faster feedback, and better outcomes.
If you want to lead with impact, use stakeholder mapping to: Prioritize who you engage based on their power and interest, update your map as projects evolve, and co-create with the people who count most.
A stakeholder map helps you move from just identifying stakeholders to actually managing them effectively. Here’s how each quadrant works:
High Influence, High Interest (Manage Closely)
These are your most critical stakeholders—such as product owners, investors, or lead clients. Engage them frequently, involve them in key decisions, and maintain strong collaboration.
High Influence, Low Interest (Keep Satisfied)
Think of executives or regulators. They hold power but may not care about day-to-day details. Update them occasionally to keep them aligned and supportive.
Low Influence, High Interest (Keep Informed)
These might be enthusiastic users, support staff, or junior team members. Keep them in the loop—they often become passionate advocates.
Low Influence, Low Interest (Monitor)
These stakeholders require the least attention. Stay aware of them, but don’t overinvest unless their influence or interest grows.
Stakeholder mapping and user journey mapping serve different—but complementary—purposes in the design process.
Stakeholder mapping helps you identify and manage everyone who influences or is affected by your product. It focuses on relationships, power dynamics, and communication strategies. You use it to align priorities, reduce friction, and ensure buy-in from decision-makers, users, and other key players.
User journey mapping, on the other hand, zooms in on the experience of a single user type. It visualizes each step a user takes—from discovering your product to completing a task—highlighting their emotions, pain points, and needs. This helps you design seamless, user-centered experiences.
Internal and external stakeholders differ in their relationship to your organization and the way they influence your design projects.
Internal stakeholders are people within your organization who shape, support, or depend on your design decisions. They include executives, product managers, developers, marketers, and customer support teams. Internal stakeholders influence priorities, allocate resources, and ensure your work aligns with business goals. For example, a developer might flag technical constraints, while a marketing manager ensures the design fits brand strategy.
External stakeholders, on the other hand, exist outside your organization but still impact the project. They include customers, partners, suppliers, regulators, investors, and even industry bodies. Their perspectives bring essential context—like market needs, compliance requirements, or funding conditions. For instance, a regulator may enforce accessibility standards, while customers reveal usability issues that drive innovation.
You should do stakeholder mapping at the very start of the design process, ideally during project initiation or discovery. Early mapping ensures you identify who has influence, who cares about the project, and who might create roadblocks before you invest significant time in design.
However, stakeholder mapping is not a one-off activity. As projects evolve, new stakeholders may emerge, or existing ones may shift in influence or interest. Revisit and update your map during key milestones—such as after user research, during prototyping, and before launch—to keep communication strategies relevant.
You identify the most influential stakeholders by assessing both their formal authority and their informal influence in the project. Here’s how:
Map power and interest: Use a two-axis stakeholder matrix. Those in the high influence, high interest quadrant are your key decision-makers.
Look at roles and authority: Executives, product owners, or department heads often have final say on budgets, priorities, and approvals. Their decisions directly shape your project’s scope and direction.
Uncover informal influence: Some stakeholders lack official authority but hold strong sway through expertise, relationships, or reputation. For example, a senior developer might shape what’s technically feasible, or a passionate customer advocate could influence adoption.
Ask guiding questions: Who controls resources or funding? Who sets strategic priorities? Whose approval is required for launch? Who influences the opinions of others?
Validate through conversations: During discovery interviews or kickoff workshops, listen for recurring mentions of people who others defer to—these are often hidden power players.
By combining formal structure with social dynamics, you reveal who truly drives decisions. Engaging these stakeholders early ensures smoother alignment and fewer last-minute surprises.
Stakeholder Analysis for UX Projects (NN/g, 2024) is a practical and evidence-backed guide on using stakeholder mapping in UX (user experience) design to analyze influence, priorities, and the relationships between design teams and project stakeholders.
Influence, stakeholder mapping and visualization (Walker et al., 2008) offers two influential stakeholder visualization tools used broadly for identifying and prioritizing stakeholders and has been cited extensively across project management and organizational studies literature.
Dynamic Stakeholder Analysis Through Process Mapping examines stakeholder analysis from a process perspective to enhance the identification of stakeholders and capture the dynamic nature of stakeholder networks in ongoing projects.
Stakeholder Mapping: Methods, Benefits & Examples (Simply Stakeholders, 2025) includes detailed case studies on how design teams in healthcare and leadership contexts use multi-dimensional stakeholder maps to directly inform decision-making and project direction.
Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation by Lynda Bourne. This classic text offers a comprehensive framework for mapping, analyzing, and strategically engaging stakeholders across projects and organizations.
Stakeholder Engagement Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Michelle Bartonico. A practical, up-to-date guide with clear models on stakeholder mapping and actionable strategies for working with diverse audiences across sectors.
Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders by Markus Andrezak. This volume specifically targets product leaders and managers, showing how stakeholder mapping can be used to manage relationships and drive impactful product outcomes.
Practical People Engagement: Leading Change Through the Power of Relationships by Patrick Mayfield. This readable guide lays out a structured approach for using mapping and engagement to drive leadership, especially through change.
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