Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders are the people or organizations that have a direct or indirect stake in your innovation topic, apart from the target audience. You need to understand the network of interests around your innovation topic because solutions that ignore it will not last. This tool helps you to grasp the system of stakeholder's interests that your innovation topic involves.

Identify Stakeholders and Priorities

Think about the people and organizations that affect or are affected by any change within the scope of your innovation initiative. You can ask your target audience, but don't rely on what they say, because they may not be aware of them. Often, this happens for organizational needs. In large organizations, there may be too many people and functions that influence how the need is solved, and the people who actually use the solution may not know about this chain of influence.

Once you have identified the stakeholders, think about how each stakeholder has a vested interest in your topic. Write down the first objective statement that comes to your mind, then find higher objectives by asking "Why?" questions. If possible, talk to stakeholder representatives to verify your assumptions about their priorities. Some stakeholders may have similar priorities. Later you can also group them together.