Intro to Stakeholder Management

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Brief Overview

Stakeholder management is the process used to monitor and manage relationships throughout the company for those central and tangential to your digital adoption program.

A strong digital adoption stakeholder management strategy can provide the following: 

• Clarification between strategic, tactical, and technical roles and activities  
• Foundation for hiring, outsourcing, or reallocating plans to fill competency gaps 
• Operational efficiency for digital adoption activities with shared responsibility 

How This Impacts Your Program

The following are potential outcomes of choosing or not choosing to operationalize your stakeholder management strategy.

✅ Benefits of operationalizing

• Maximized resource efficiency 
• Stronger value narrative
• Higher stakeholder satisfaction/NPS
• Accelerated scale/reach/growth

❌ Risks of not operationalizing

• Efficiency loss 
• Negative sentiment 
• Loss of executive sponsorship
• Low predictability 
• Slower time to value for business stakeholders

Two Primary Tools

There are two primary artifacts you should have for an effective stakeholder management strategy: 

• Stakeholder Map: Depicts the relationship of the stakeholder to the Center of Excellence (CoE) and to one another + their level of influence and interest in the CoE.
• Stakeholder Communication Plan: Outlines the activities, communications, frequency and more for easy communication management.

Stakeholder Map

Step 1a: Basics

Create a list of the primary people involved in your Digital Adoption strategy. Include the following:

• Name 
• Email
• Job Title
• Organization
• Relevant software applications

Step 1b: Interest/Influence

What is each person’s level of interest and influence in Digital Adoption? This will help inform your communication strategy. Include the following: 

• Needs/Wants
• Concerns
• Influence (High/Low)
• Interest (High/Low)

Step 1c: Digital Adoption Role

Note each person’s role and responsibilities specific to Digital Adoption. Include the following: 

• Digital Adoption Role
• Description of responsibilities

Stakeholder Communication Plan

Step 1: Review the Interest & Influence documented in your stakeholder map

This provides the foundation for how often and through what channels you communicate with your people.

Step 2: Map out your Stakeholder Communication Plan

Include the following in your plan:

• Types of communication (Email, Newsletter, Meeting)
• How they intersect with the quadrant of the influence/interest matrix (High Interest/High Influence, High Interest/Low Influence, Low Interest/High Influence, and Low Interest/Low Influence)

For example:

• A quarterly Digital Adoption newsletter, as it is lower effort and personalization than a status meeting, may be a good candidate for all four quadrants
• An invite to a bi-annual strategic planning and goal cascading meeting may be reserved for only the audience of the High Interest/High Influence quadrant 

Step 3: Document and roll out a strategy for team adherence to the Stakeholder Communication Plan

The Digital Adoption Program Manager is in charge of this. 

Get Started

Review the steps in the Stakeholder Map section.

Mapping Common Digital Adoption Roles

See DAP Roles & Responsibilities for more detail on the common DAP disciplines and responsibility combinations.