| name | stakeholder-map |
| description | Use when mapping all actors in a service ecosystem — who serves whom, dependencies, interest alignment and conflict, power dynamics |
Stakeholder Map
Core principle: The blueprint shows one actor's path; the stakeholder map shows how all actors connect. Staff experience drives customer experience — the service-profit chain is not optional.
Identify All Actors
Scan code, org charts, interviews, business docs. Code reveals roles/permissions. Org charts reveal reporting. Interviews reveal informal structure.
| Type | What to look for |
|---|
| Customer | User roles, signup flows, segments |
| Frontline | Customer-facing staff, support agents, account managers |
| Backstage | Operations, fulfillment, moderation, internal tooling users |
| Support/Ops | Engineering, finance, legal, HR — enabling systems |
| External | Partners, vendors, payment processors, regulators |
Map Relationships
For every actor pair, capture four dimensions:
| Dimension | Question |
|---|
| Serves | Who delivers value to whom? |
| Depends on | Who blocks whom when they fail? |
| Information flow | What data/signals pass between them? |
| Handoff risk | Where do things drop? |
Trace from code (API calls, queues, mailers, webhooks) and operations (escalations, emails). Code shows designed flows; interviews reveal workarounds.
Surface Interest Alignment and Conflict
Identify where interests align and where they conflict (metrics rewarding one actor at another's expense). Misalignment is where failures originate — a frontline team measured on handle time cuts corners, creating backstage rework and customer frustration.
Map Power Dynamics
Document decision authority, veto power, and affected-but-voiceless actors. Services optimize for the most powerful actor by default. Name who benefits and who bears costs.
Connect the Service-Profit Chain
Map actors to each link: internal service quality (tools, training, autonomy) → employee satisfaction → service delivery quality → customer satisfaction → revenue/growth. If internal quality is poor, no customer-facing design fixes it. Tag each link.
Build from Mixed Inputs
Accept code, org charts, transcripts, support tickets, business docs. Cross-reference — a code role absent from the org chart is a finding; an interview actor absent from code is a gap.
Confidence Discipline
Tag every claim [confirmed], [hypothesis], or [gap]. For each hypothesis, note what would confirm it.
Output
Write to docs/service-design/<slice>/stakeholder-map.md using the template at service-design/templates/stakeholder-map.md. Use project-wide when mapping the full ecosystem.
Sequencing
Run AFTER service-design:actor-profile (needs actors defined). Run BEFORE service-design:service-blueprint (informs backstage/support lanes) and service-design:service-diagnosis (misalignment causes failures).
