itk-stakeholder-identify

name	itk-stakeholder-identify
description	Ideate a more comprehensive & representative set of relevant stakeholders to your project.
intent	Identify a more comprehensive set of stakeholders (including groups who may benefit or become burned). Consider the needs and priorities of the larger community. Encourage a diverse and inclusive approach to collaboration.
type	component
phase	scope
outcome	generate
difficulty	beginner
group_size	2+ people
time_required	60+ minutes
best_for	["Early discovery when you need to map who benefits or gets harmed before committing to a solution scope","Pre-engagement planning to surface marginalized or non-obvious stakeholders before building a stakeholder engagement strategy","Kicking off a new initiative where conflicting priorities require an inclusive, equity-aware view of who matters","Designing for regulated or public-sector products where indirect and downstream impacts carry real consequences","Re-scoping a project that stalled because key affected groups were overlooked in the original requirements"]
sources	["MITRE Innovation Toolkit (ITK)","https://itk.mitre.org/toolkit-tools/stakeholder-identification-canvas/"]

Stakeholder Identification Canvas

What Is It

Ideate a more comprehensive & representative set of relevant stakeholders to your project.

Why Use It

Identify a more comprehensive set of stakeholders (including groups who may benefit or become burned). Consider the needs and priorities of the larger community. Encourage a diverse and inclusive approach to collaboration.

When to Use It

When you need to consider the people involved, interested, or impacted by your project or initiative. Use this before you develop your stakeholder engagement strategy.

How to Do It

1. Begin on the left. In the “Who are all the stakeholders” area, quickly write down potential stakeholders for the topic. Once you’re done, take a look through and begin categorizing & marking stakeholders into groups. If you’re stuck, one common marking to use is those who provide resources (R), permission (P), and/or are decision makers (D). TIP: Don’t spend too much time in the initial “Who are all the stakeholders” area because you can continue to add stakeholders throughout the canvas and categorizing will help to expand your list.
2. Now move to the top right half of the canvas. Categorize your stakeholders by moving them to the customers, connectors, and audience of focus areas.
3. Next, move to the middle right half of the canvas. Answer the prompts in the “Build Empathy” and “Notice Bias & Assumptions” areas. TIP: When Building Empathy, it helps to think about who might experience a difference or consequence from the effort.
4. Evaluate whether this is the full set of stakeholders that need to be considered for this effort. If not, continue to ideate until you can answer “yes” with confidence or have identified a strategy for determining how you might determine whether it is the full set or not.
5. Lastly, move to the bottom portion of the canvas. Based on the prior discussion, narrow down your list to 2-3 stakeholders that the team needs to understand better. Capture any actions that have arisen in the discussion TIP: Considering primary, secondary, and tertiary effects of the effort will help you recognize a comprehensive list of stakeholders and vice versa.

Key Concepts

Customers, Connectors, Audience — A categorization scheme separating direct users (customers), intermediaries who spread or influence (connectors), and those observing or affected (audience). Sorting stakeholders this way clarifies engagement priority and influence pathways.

R/P/D Marking — Tagging stakeholders as providers of Resources, Permission, or Decision-making authority. This quickly reveals who can fund, block, or approve your initiative versus who is merely interested.

Build Empathy — Deliberately considering who experiences a difference or consequence from your effort. It shifts stakeholder thinking from org-chart roles to lived impact, surfacing needs that requirements would otherwise miss.