Identifying stakeholders: who has an interest in your product?

Who are stakeholders?

Stakeholders are all individuals or groups who influence your product or are influenced by it. This goes far beyond just the paying customer or your boss: also consider employees who need to work with the product (e.g., support, sales, financial administration), external partners, end-users, and even regulatory bodies. A clear understanding of your stakeholder landscape is crucial to know whose interests you need to consider in decisions.

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Internal vs. external stakeholders

• Internal: Management, sales, support, developers, marketing, finance.
• External: Customers, end-users, partners, suppliers, regulators.

It's useful to group everyone so you know who you can approach directly and who is indirectly involved.

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Identification process: start broad, then filter

1. Broad brainstorm: List all possible stakeholders. Think 'user, buyer, influencer, sponsor' – each can play a different role.
2. Use categories: Internal/external, direct/indirect, user/sponsor, etc.
3. Check for 'forgotten' stakeholders: Sometimes people who don't seem directly involved still have influence (e.g., the security officer).
4. Create a list: For each stakeholder, note their interests and needs, and the extent to which they can exert influence.

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Analysis Tools

• Onion Diagram: Visualize in rings who uses the product directly (core) and who uses it indirectly (next ring). This reveals 'layers' of influence.
• Power-Interest Matrix: Although more focused on analysis, it also helps during identification. You check who has higher/lower power and who has higher/lower interest.

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Pay attention to less visible stakeholders

It's not just the final decision-maker who matters: also people who will work with the solution later (support department, compliance or IT management). Or end-users who are not the buyer (e.g., teachers and students for an educational app, while management signs the contract). If you overlook these groups, obstacles or resistance may arise later.

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Example of what can go wrong

If you only discover after launch that the support department has no idea how to support new features, you'll get complaints, slow responses, and unhappy customers.

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Stakeholder identification is continuous

Organizations are dynamic: a new manager might be appointed, or you might expand to another country with additional laws and regulations. Therefore, stakeholder identification is not a one-time exercise. As a Product Owner, it's useful to:

• Regularly review the list.
• New stakeholders quickly identify (via gossip, email announcements, Slack channels).
• Document changes in a shared location, so your team also knows who is involved in decision-making.

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Conclusion

Thorough and continuous stakeholder identification lays the foundation for effective stakeholder management. Start broadly, use structured methods such as an Onion Diagram or Power-Interest matrix, and be alert to hidden stakeholders. This prevents you from encountering surprises at a later stage and encourages everyone to contribute positively to your product, rather than working against it.