What is a stakeholder analysis?
A stakeholder analysis is a structured method to identify which individuals, groups, or organizations have an interest in a project, change, or decision. The goal is clear: to understand who has influence, who is affected by your plans, and how best to involve those parties.
The term 'stakeholder' refers to anyone who has a direct or indirect interest in what you do. These can be internal stakeholders, such as your management, colleagues, or shareholders, but also external parties such as customers, suppliers, regulators, or the local community. A stakeholder analysis helps you to systematically identify and prioritize all these parties.
In practice, managers, project leaders, and consultants use stakeholder analysis for virtually every major initiative. Whether it concerns a reorganization, the launch of a new product, or the implementation of an IT system: without good stakeholder management, you run the risk that crucial parties feel unheard, offer resistance, or simply do not cooperate.
Why is stakeholder analysis important?
Projects rarely fail due to a lack of technical knowledge. They stall because the right people are not involved at the right time. A thorough stakeholder analysis prevents this. It gives you insight into three essential questions: who are your stakeholders, what do they want, and how much influence do they have?
With that knowledge, you can communicate in a targeted manner. A board member concerned about costs needs a different conversation than an end user wondering whether the new system works well. By aligning your message with the interests of each stakeholder, you increase support and reduce resistance.
In addition, a stakeholder analysis helps assess risks. Stakeholders with high influence and little enthusiasm pose a potential problem. By identifying them early, you can proactively address their objections instead of putting out fires after the fact.
The stakeholder matrix: mapping influence and interest
The most commonly used tool in a stakeholder analysis is the stakeholder matrix, also known as the power-interest matrix. This is a simple yet powerful model that categorizes stakeholders along two axes: the degree of influence (power) and the degree of importance (interest).
The matrix yields four quadrants, each with its own approach:
High influence, high importance. These are your most important stakeholders. They can make or break the project and have a significant interest in it. Think of the client, the management team, or a key customer. The approach: collaborate closely, coordinate regularly, and actively involve them in decisions.
High influence, low importance. This group has the power to influence your project but does not feel directly involved. Think of a board member who does not follow the project daily but does make budget decisions. The approach: keep them satisfied, inform them of the main outlines, and ensure they do not encounter any surprises.
Low influence, high importance. Stakeholders who are highly involved but have little formal power. End users are a typical example. The approach: inform them well, listen to their input, and take them seriously. Their support is valuable, even though they have no decision-making power.
Low influence, low importance. This group requires the least attention. Keep them informed via standard communication, but focus your energy primarily on the other quadrants.
Knowledge of the DISC model helps to tailor your communication style to different types of stakeholders.
Conduct a stakeholder analysis in 5 steps
A stakeholder analysis does not have to be a complicated process. With these five steps, you will arrive at a usable result.
Step 1: Identify all stakeholders. Start broad. Write down everyone who is even remotely involved with your project. Use brainstorming sessions with your team, review organizational charts, and consider external parties as well. It is better to list too many names at this stage than too few.
Step 2: analyze interests and expectations. Determine for each stakeholder: what is their interest in this project? SWOT analysis Understanding the broader context can help with this. What do they hope to gain from it, or what do they fear losing? Try to put yourself in their position. A financial director views a project differently than a team leader on the shop floor.
Step 3: Determine influence and importance. Score each stakeholder on the two axes of the stakeholder matrix. Who has formal decision-making power? Who has informal influence? And who is most affected by the outcome?
Step 4: plot the stakeholder matrix. Place all stakeholders in the matrix. This visual overview immediately clarifies where your priorities lie. Stakeholders in the 'high influence, high importance' quadrant receive the most attention.
Step 5: Create a communication and engagement plan. Determine for each quadrant (or even per stakeholder) how you communicate, how often, and via which channel. Document this so that it does not become a non-binding exercise.
What exactly are stakeholders? Internal vs. external stakeholders
The question “what are stakeholders?” sounds simple, but the answer is more nuanced than you might think. A stakeholder is literally someone who has an 'interest' (stake) in a particular activity or decision. That interest can be financial, but also emotional, strategic, or operational.
Internal stakeholders are located within your organization. Think of employees working directly on the project, management making decisions, the works council considering personnel implications, or shareholders with a financial interest.
External stakeholders are outside the organization but are affected by what you do. Customers, suppliers, partners, government agencies, trade associations, the media, and the local community can all be external stakeholders.
The distinction is relevant because internal and external stakeholders often have different interests and communication needs. An employee wants to know what changes for them. A customer wants to know if the level of service remains the same. A regulator wants to know if you comply with the rules.
Stakeholder management: from analysis to action
A stakeholder analysis is not a one-off exercise. It is the starting point of ongoing stakeholder management. During a project, interests shift, new stakeholders emerge, and the dynamics change. Good stakeholder management means regularly updating your analysis and adjusting your approach.
A few practical tips for effective stakeholder management:
Be proactive. Do not wait for stakeholders to come to you with complaints or questions. Take the initiative yourself to inform and involve them. This builds trust and prevents minor concerns from escalating into major objections.
Really listen. Stakeholder management is not a one-way street. It is not just about broadcasting, but specifically about listening. What is on the minds of your stakeholders? What are their concerns? By actively listening, you show that you take their input seriously. Focus on matters within your circle of influence and spend your energy where you can actually make a difference.
Document and share. Keep track of what you discussed with each stakeholder and what was agreed upon. Share this information with your project team so that everyone is on the same page.
Adjust your style. Not every stakeholder communicates in the same way. Some want an extensive presentation, others a short phone call. Adapt your communication style to the stakeholder's preference. Also check out our guide on feedback models for effective dialogue with stakeholders.
Common mistakes in stakeholder analysis
Although the concept is simple, things regularly go wrong in practice. The most common mistakes:
Thinking too narrowly. Many project teams identify only the obvious stakeholders, such as the client and the project team. They forget parties that are indirectly affected, such as the IT department that has to manage the system or customer service that receives questions.
Analyze once. Conducting a stakeholder analysis at the beginning of a project and then never looking back at it. Stakeholder relationships change. Someone who had little interest at the start can suddenly become crucial halfway through the project. Especially in projects of change management relationships are constantly shifting.
Treat all stakeholders equally. It makes no sense to spend as much time on a stakeholder with low influence and low importance as on your most important client. The stakeholder matrix is there precisely to prioritize.
Ignoring interests. Some project managers view stakeholder management as a communication exercise: inform and done. But it is also about weighing the interests of stakeholders in your decisions. Stakeholders who find that their input leads nowhere disengage.
Stakeholder analysis in practice: an example
Suppose you are the project manager of a new CRM implementation. What would your stakeholder analysis look like?
You start by identifying stakeholders. The management (client), the sales team (daily user), the IT department (technical management), marketing (wants data from the system), finance (funds the project), external supplier (implementation partner), and customers (indirectly notice the transition).
Next, you plot them in the matrix. The management is in the high influence, high importance quadrant. The sales team has low formal influence but very high importance (they work with it daily). IT has high influence (they have to make it technically possible) and average importance. Customers have low importance and low influence in this specific project.
Based on this analysis, you create your plan: a biweekly steering committee meeting with the management, weekly work sessions with the sales team, monthly coordination with IT, and a newsletter for the wider organization.
Stakeholder analysis as a management skill
The ability to effectively analyze and manage stakeholders is one of the most important skills for managers, project leaders, and consultants. It touches upon communication, political awareness, empathy, and strategic thinking. Personal leadership This forms the basis: whoever knows themselves well can also manage others better.
At Kenneth Smit, you can further develop this skill in the training. Strategic Account Management with Impact, in which you learn to identify the right stakeholders and build relationships that lead to sustainable commercial success. Also the training From Project Management to Leadership pays extensive attention to stakeholder management as part of effective project leadership.
A stakeholder analysis is a structured method for mapping all stakeholders in a project or change. You identify who the stakeholders are, assess their influence and importance, and determine how best to involve them. This helps managers create support and prevent resistance.
You create a stakeholder matrix by plotting stakeholders on two axes: influence (high/low) and importance (high/low). This yields four quadrants: intensive management (high/high), keeping satisfied (high influence/low importance), informing well (low influence/high importance), and monitoring (low/low). You determine your communication strategy for each quadrant.
Internal stakeholders are individuals within the organization, such as employees, managers, and the board of directors. External stakeholders are outside the organization, such as customers, suppliers, shareholders, and government agencies. Both groups can have a significant influence on the success of a project.
Stakeholder analysis helps managers identify resistance early, build support, and tailor communication to different target groups. Without stakeholder analysis, you run the risk of key stakeholders feeling overlooked, which can lead to delays or even project failure.
A stakeholder analysis is not a one-off exercise. Review the analysis with every new project phase, during organizational changes, or when new stakeholders emerge. In practice, it is wise to evaluate at least every quarter whether your stakeholder map is still accurate.
The most commonly used tool is the stakeholder matrix (power-interest matrix), which allows you to categorize stakeholders based on influence and importance. In addition, the RACI model, Mitchell's salience model, and a communication plan template are frequently used. At Kenneth Smit, managers learn to apply these tools in training courses focused on project management and account management.
A SWOT analysis maps out strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By combining this with a stakeholder analysis, you can determine which opportunities or threats each stakeholder represents. A highly influential stakeholder who is positive towards your project is an opportunity. A highly influential stakeholder who offers resistance is a threat that you must actively manage.
Also read our comprehensive guide on project management for an overview of methodologies and skills that every manager needs.