Stakeholder Analysis A0 (47" x 33") synthetic paper (EN)

Why Stakeholder Analysis?

Those who want to successfully sell new products and services need to know who decides who pays and who benefits from the product or service. Decision makers, buyers and users are not always the same person. Especially in B2B sales (ie in the distribution of companies to companies), the persons differ in their roles: for example, the marketing manager is the user of a marketing analytics solution, the decision maker is the CEO and the marketing director is the buyer because he makes the budget available. Incidentally, this applies equally to internal projects: for example, a data science department has internal users from the marketing department and must "sell" the project to the managing director as a decision maker. And even in B2C sales, ie distribution to consumers, there is the distinction between decision makers, buyers and users: in one family, one parent makes the money available (buyer), the other parent selects the product (decision maker) and the Children use the product (user).

What is Stakeholder Analysis?

With the Stakeholder Analysis Canvas, teams can visually and collaboratively find out who the relevant people or roles are in their own or a foreign company in order to convince them of a project or product. The Stakeholder Analysis Canvas distinguishes six different types of persons or roles:

• decision-makers make the final decision on whether to buy a product, commission a service or release a project. Decision makers include managing directors, department heads or the owners of a company.
• buyer Provide the budget for the purchase, commissioning, or project cost, for example, in their role as department heads or purchasers.
• user are the actual beneficiaries: they use the product, use the service or are users of a project.
• influential participants are objective instances that inform and advise decision-makers, buyers and users. They do not make any decisions themselves, but influence the decision with pro-contra analyzes, for example. Influencers can be both internal experts and, for example, external consultants.
• supporter are positive towards a product, service or project and support the business. They do this from personal experience or because they (indirectly) expect it to have positive effects on themselves.
• saboteurs are the opposite of proponents: they oppose the product, the service or the project because they themselves have had negative experiences or expect personal disadvantages.

The respective fields, thus types, can be occupied several times, if there are for example different users (types). It is also possible that one and the same person can appear in several fields: if the sales manager presents the budget and decides on the purchase, it is both Buyer and decision maker.

The mentioned stakeholders come from the book Business Model Generation from Strategyzer.

How to use Stakeholder Analysis?

How to start.
First define for which company (a customer or your own) or which consumer group (for example, family) you and your team want to fill the Stakeholder Analysis Canvas. It's easier for you to look at an example of a concrete business that you and your colleagues know well.

Start with the user.
Then work field by field: Start with the users and then go over the buyers to the decision makers. Ask your team who, for example, will be the future users of your solution. Write the names, roles, or positions on the Stattys Notes and place the Notes in the appropriate fields. Finally, dedicate themselves to the influencers, advocates and saboteurs.

Filtering, grouping and prioritize.
After you've gone through all the fields, you filter and group the notes as needed: Which people have the same role or position? Which roles are very similar so that we can summarize them? Who is the main user, who gives the biggest budget, who makes the final decision, who has the most hearing, who is the biggest supporter and who is the biggest predator?

Analyze the needs of stakeholders.
Finally, focus on the key players and try to find out what you need to do to convince them to oppose or prevent them from sabotaging your offer or intent. To better understand the needs of stakeholders, use that Value Proposition Canvas.

Links

More information you will find at Datentreiber.