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05-898 Mini HCI for Product Managers

Identify Users: Stakeholders

Sherry Wu

sherryw@cs.cmu.edu

2025/01/29

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You are not the user.

Most of the time, at least.

But…who are the people affected by your product? How do you identify them?

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Learning Objective

To understand the definition of stakeholders.

To learn how to create stakeholder maps.

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In addition to the marketing and technical teams, you also need to manage stakeholders!

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Stakeholder Map

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What is a stakeholder map?

CLASS QUESTION

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Stakeholder Map

A way of diagramming the network of people who have a stake in a given system.

You’ll want to illustrate your system’s broader stakeholders and their interactions with the system and each other.

More formally: visual tool used to identify, categorize, and understand the individuals, groups, or organizations that have an interest in or influence over a project, product, or decision. Helps teams and leaders strategically manage stakeholder relationships, ensuring that their needs and expectations are considered throughout a process.

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Stakeholder Map

A way of diagramming the network of people who have a stake in a given system.

You’ll want to illustrate your system’s broader stakeholders and their interactions with the system and each other.

More formally: visual tool used to identify, categorize, and understand the individuals, groups, or organizations that have an interest in or influence over a project, product, or decision. Helps teams and leaders strategically manage stakeholder relationships, ensuring that their needs and expectations are considered throughout a process.

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Example: Stakeholder Map for a Financial Institute exploring how they might better serve Independent Workers

https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/why-how-you-should-always-build-stakeholder-maps-715195ec89fb

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Why do you think we build stakeholder maps?

CLASS QUESTION

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Why do we need Stakeholder Maps?

The stakeholder map helps you accomplish a handful of strategic tasks:

Helps ensure you’ve considered all the users
Helps ensure you’ve considered your business partners and team members’ needs
Helps visualize how your users interact with each other and the product
Helps visualize the needs of those beyond your main user group. Broadens your perspective.

e.g. Job application exercise: May have been designed for accounting or HR functions, but in our example, it serves as the recruit’s interface for job applications.

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Goals of Stakeholder Maps

Identify all the people and players in the system

Understand who influences the process; where decisions are made

Identify the information, objects, resources or value that flow between stakeholders

Recognize breakdowns or pain points among stakeholders

Prioritize who you should be interviewing to gain a better understanding of how the product is used.

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Stakeholder Map Types

Categorical Templates

Power/Interest Grid

Stakeholder Wheel

Influence Map

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Stakeholder Map Types: Categorical Template

Each box corresponds to a predefined category or stakeholder group.

Encourages users to brainstorm and list potential stakeholders within each category.

Often used in brainstorming or design thinking workshops to identify diverse collaborators or stakeholders.

https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LUMA_Digital-Promise_LISPitt_Session_Summary.pdf

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Stakeholder Map Types: Categorical Template

Tip:

Stakeholders are individuals, not groups: “bank” might be too general, you want to push it to the loan officer or the tax advisor that is involved from the bank

More than one person can be involved from an organization/entity!

https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LUMA_Digital-Promise_LISPitt_Session_Summary.pdf

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Stakeholder Map Types: Power/Interest Grid

Plots stakeholders on a two-axis grid:

Power/influence: The ability to influence outcomes.

Interest: How invested they are in the project.

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/project-management-navigating-the-complexity/chapter/5-2-stakeholder-analysis/

High power – High interest: These stakeholders are decision-makers and have the biggest impact on the project’s success and hence we must closely manage their expectations[2]. We should work closely with them to ensure that they agree with and support the change[3]. The project sponsor, project manager, and the team can be included in this quadrant.

High power – Low Interest: These stakeholders need to be kept satisfied even though they aren’t interested because they yield power. This type of stakeholders should be dealt with cautiously as well since they may use their power in a not desired way in the project if they become unsatisfied. Government and regulatory agencies which inspect the quality of your work in compliance with legal provisions and standards can be included in this quadrant.

Low power – High interest: We should keep these stakeholders adequately informed and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. They are likely to be very concerned and may feel anxious about a lack of control. They can often be very helpful with the detail of your project. Our customers or end-users who are willing to purchase the outcome of the project (e.g., a product or a service) can be included in this quadrant.

Low power – Low interest: We should monitor these stakeholders, but do not bore them with excessive communication. The public and the customers who are not willing to purchase our products can be included in this quadrant. We can send them newsletters once every month, but not every week. We should monitor their interest and power level in case they may change.

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Power/Interest Grid Example

Case:

Redesign a booking system for a vehicle rental company

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/project-management-navigating-the-complexity/chapter/5-2-stakeholder-analysis/

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Power/Interest Grid Example

Case:

Grocery LLC’s Mobile-Commerce Project

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/project-management-navigating-the-complexity/chapter/5-2-stakeholder-analysis/

High power – High interest: These stakeholders are decision-makers and have the biggest impact on the project’s success and hence we must closely manage their expectations[2]. We should work closely with them to ensure that they agree with and support the change[3]. The project sponsor, project manager, and the team can be included in this quadrant.

High power – Low Interest: These stakeholders need to be kept satisfied even though they aren’t interested because they yield power. This type of stakeholders should be dealt with cautiously as well since they may use their power in a not desired way in the project if they become unsatisfied. Government and regulatory agencies which inspect the quality of your work in compliance with legal provisions and standards can be included in this quadrant.

Low power – High interest: We should keep these stakeholders adequately informed and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. They are likely to be very concerned and may feel anxious about a lack of control. They can often be very helpful with the detail of your project. Our customers or end-users who are willing to purchase the outcome of the project (e.g., a product or a service) can be included in this quadrant.

Low power – Low interest: We should monitor these stakeholders, but do not bore them with excessive communication. The public and the customers who are not willing to purchase our products can be included in this quadrant. We can send them newsletters once every month, but not every week. We should monitor their interest and power level in case they may change.

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Power/Interest Grid Example

Case:

Redesign a booking system for a vehicle rental company

https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/project-management-navigating-the-complexity/chapter/5-2-stakeholder-analysis/

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Stakeholder Map Types: Stakeholder Wheel

Displays stakeholders in concentric circles based on proximity to the core project team or their role.

Allow growing the map like a tree structure.

Note: Stakeholders can be composed of resources and not just people.

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

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Stakeholder Wheel Example

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

Case:

Stakeholders for the Glasgow Film Festival ticketing service

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Stakeholder Map Types: Influence Map

Focuses on relationships and influence among stakeholders, showing connections and the flow of influence.

Tips:

Relationships go both ways!

Use chat bubbles for painpoints

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

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Influence Map: Stakeholder Map for a Financial Institute exploring how they might better serve Independent Workers

https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/why-how-you-should-always-build-stakeholder-maps-715195ec89fb

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Stakeholder Map Types

Categorical Templates

Power/Interest Grid

Stakeholder Wheel

Influence Map

No single form…You don't do this so you have the map, you do this so you understand.

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How to Create a Stakeholder Map?

Start with a whiteboard or large piece of paper or Miro.
Write all of your stakeholders down on sticky notes and put them on the board/paper. Be exhaustive.
Cluster the stakeholders together into similar groups Label these clusters.
Under each individual stakeholder, label their role or "stake" in the process. How are they involved? What do they contribute?
Now draw a line between stakeholders who interact. What do they exchange? Information, money, objects, data, thoughts, etc.?
From here you can draw insights about pain points or opportunities that may exist in this ecosystem.
You can also use this to create a list of people who you should interview in order to further your project.

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How to Create a Stakeholder Map?

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for

People that are affected by this class session,
People that are affected by how I take information from this class session and present it differently next year.
People that want to take what is presented in this class and use it for a different class or a similar similar class.
…

Let’s build a stakeholder map for this class – HCI for Product Managers. Who has stake in this class?

(No need to send anything to slack!)

CLASS CHALLENGE

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Tool demo: Miro Board

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When do we build Stakeholder Maps?

CLASS QUESTION

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A direct next step with Stakeholder maps: Persona

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Personas

“User archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions and even visual design” - Kim Goodwin

Synthesis of facts and observations about real users that leads to a memorable character

Goal = gain familiarity and empathy with users

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Personas based on

Stakeholder Maps

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

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Personas based on

Stakeholder Maps

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

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Personas based on

Stakeholder Maps

https://kozawska.com/portfolio/ticket-return/

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When do we build Stakeholder Maps?

Every project has people who have a direct stake in the outcome of a project. But circling back to people you've forgotten to include can set a project back and slow it down.

This is why it's important to identify and engage with your stakeholders as early as possible. Stakeholder mapping brings your team together to capture what you collectively know about your stakeholders and their interests, helping you ensure you have the right representation of voices in the room.

Though, sometimes you do refine the map after interviews, etc.

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Assignment #3 Preview — User Interview

Full details on Canvas

1. Create a map of stakeholders

2. Develop research questions

3. Develop interview and observation guide

4. Select a participant

5. Conduct an interview

6. Note-taking and documentation

7. Reflect and summarize experience

HOMEWORK

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1. Create a map of stakeholders

List out the different types of people associated with this system and the relationships between them.

This map does not have to be complete, or a complex diagram, etc. (simple list is OK). However, it should reflect different people involved with the system or activity you are focused on. You can include other contextual considerations such as organizational affiliations, etc.

HOMEWORK

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2. Develop research questions

Based on your original project topic document and the general domain of your product or service, what do you want to learn through your interviews? Frame a set of questions specific to your product to help you understand the activities and goals associated with its use.

Here are some basic questions you can tailor towards your product:

What do people do? And how do they do it?
What do they value?
How does the environment or social context influence their behavior?
What challenges do they run into?

HOMEWORK

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3. Develop interview and observation guide

Use the readings from class (specifically Goodman et al Chapter 6) alongside provided example interview guides to develop your interview and observation guide.

You should adapt and customize the template and example guides to your specific product and problem.

Course webpage

HOMEWORK

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4. Select a participant

Finding a good person to interview and/or observe for a given project is an important and difficult part of your job.

Make sure that an important stakeholder is represented.
Be respectful of their time and privacy.

You are not allowed to interview your fellow students in this class!

HOMEWORK

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5. Conduct an interview

Be sure to take notes during your interview, record audio (and video if possible), and document the participant’s context through photos.

If it is not be possible to observe an ongoing process, conduct a retrospective interview about things that happened.
After the interview, be sure to take notes about the key insights, aha moments, and successes and difficulties of the interview process.

HOMEWORK

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6. Note-taking and documentation

Create a profile: job function, organization, and demographic information.

Summarize what happened: what they said, how the participant responded, what the subject did, what time of day they did it, where they did it, etc. Use your rough notes.

Record insights: A good note is a sentence that:

has real concrete data,
makes sense by itself,
includes some insight or implication,
about one thing, and
is the basis for a design idea.

HOMEWORK

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7. Reflect and summarize experience

Write a paragraph or two reflecting on the interviewing process.

What important decisions did you have to make?
What issues or challenges did you run into?
What worked well and what didn’t?
What would you do differently next time?
What insights did you discover about your user and their needs?

HOMEWORK

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What to submit

One-page summary (50 points):

User insights, interview takeaways, and lessons learned during the interview process. Include an overview of your product and the tasks the user is being asked to perform. This summary will be shared with the class.

Additional documentation:

Stakeholder map (10 points)
Motivation and research questions (10 points)
Interview protocol to give context to your notes (10 points)
Recruitment plan, process and participant overview (10 points)
Interview notes (10 points)
Link to a recording of the interview. (20 points deducted if not included)
Additional sources of help

HOMEWORK

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5 minutes. Individual work.

Create some post-it notes of your stakeholders and start arranging them.

15 minutes. Group work. Debrief with your neighbor group (~3 people).

Ask questions about their maps.
Do they look similar or different?
How did you each derive it?
Anything missing?

Regroup as a class.

CLASS CHALLENGE