We all know that stakeholder mapping is an essential element of the project planning process, but where do you start, and how can you effectively visualize your stakeholders for the benefit of your project team and organization as a whole? Of course, in today’s workforce, pulling out a giant sheet of paper is no longer convenient, especially if you’re collaborating with a project team remotely.
It’s more efficient to use software tools, and it’s easier to get concepts that you’ve been brainstorming, out of your head and into something tangible, so they make more sense. Thankfully, you don’t need to be a pro designer or have any design skills at all for that matter, to create a complex stakeholder map. There are plenty of software tools available for you to choose from, many of which also provide stakeholder management capabilities so you can maintain engagement and uncover data for analytics to inform your stakeholder engagement strategy.
While some only offer stakeholder mapping capabilities (such as with Canva below) others provide the facility to be a one-stop, centralized solution for all stakeholder engagement, actions tracking, analytics, and reporting. A few of the stakeholder management tools you should consider using include:
Canva
Canva is every designer and non-designer’s favorite resource for creating marketing content in the form of graphics, marketing images and videos, presentations, and other visual forms of content. But did you know it can help you build a stakeholder map as well? Canva hosts a Stakeholder Map Maker tool, which allows you to either start from scratch or customize one of their 20 available templates to suit your project’s needs. You can then embed your graph into reports and presentations.
StakeholderMap.com
StakeholderMap.com is another fantastic resource for project managers. It hosts a library of project management templates for almost every aspect of the lifecycle that you can think of, including risk management templates, RACI templates, project initiation templates, requirements gathering templates, and of course, stakeholder management templates.
Smaply
Smaply is another stakeholder visualization tool that features drag and drop templates that you can easily move around. It also offers customer journey maps, and you can integrate your stakeholders with your journey maps for a seamless workflow, in addition to exporting.
Simply Stakeholders
Simply Stakeholders offers a software that takes your stakeholder mapping beyond the initial visualization, through AI-powered stakeholder sentiment insights, detailed reporting and analytics, and real-time collaboration for stakeholder management. It can be integrated with your existing communication tools such as email or CRMs, and even social media.
StakeWare
StakeWare is another stakeholder mapping solution that also facilitates live insights and intelligence, and helps you as you map out your engagement strategy. It also comes along with a handy mobile app and provides you with in-depth insights to help you understand how stakeholder sentiments change over time, tracks stakeholder interactions for institutional memory, and possesses stakeholder profiling capabilities.
These resources equip you to better understand your internal and external stakeholders, engage with them effectively, and work smarter in your role as project manager. Remember, the success of any project hinges on the trust and relationships you build with your stakeholders.