Stakeholder Mapping

3.3 Stakeholder Mapping

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Number two stakeholder mapping. So the first question that we need to ask is who is a stakeholder? Well a stakeholder is anybody who is involved in your business. Anybody who stands to gain from your business or to contribute to your business both ways, so anybody who becomes a part of your business either directly or indirectly.

So let’s actually look at a live stakeholder mapping so that we understand what is the main importance of this particular mapping. So I will take the example of my online ice-cream delivery store. I will put it in the middle now in the next step. The first and the most important stakeholder are the customers because customers are ordering the ice-creams hence the customers are actually paying for this particular brand.

Next, the delivery executives are a very very important aspect of the company. The delivery executives are responsible for bringing the product to the customer without the delivery executives this online delivery store will not work.

Third, well the brand itself. The brand will not be able to function with a lot of different types of employees but the brand itself has a separate set of mission, vision, and these three actually become their direct stakeholders.

Now we will also look at some indirect stakeholders in the next step, so the first one is the government. The delivery executives are picking up the product form the store and taking it all the way to the customers, they are directly involved in the traffic laws of that particular space. The online ice cream delivery store is actually preserving, stocking up perishable goods so they need certain certification for example in India they need certification of fssai that is provided by the government, the government controls this particular organization and hence the government definitely needs to be thought about when one creates the features list and the navigation flow.

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Next are the suppliers, the suppliers supply the raw materials to the ice cream store, without the raw material you will not be able to create or make the ice cream hence suppliers are the very important part of the network.

Next, the employees of the brand, the employees work on many different fields, I am sure there would be finance team, there would be logistics team, there would be a marketing team, they are all involved, their contributions needs to come together to make this particular brand a success and hence when a designer designs a UX journey of this particular online store the employee consideration needs to be taken care of.

Lastly, banks and payment systems. Customers are paying through UPI, debit cards, credit cards, and the ice cream store's account is kept in the bank and hence the bank  forms a very important part of this ecosystem. The UX researcher and designer needs to look at the terms and conditions, dos and don’ts, rules and regulations of the brand so that when you actually create a list of features those features do not violate the rules of the bank or any other organization for example the government.

So stakeholder mapping is actually very important because stakeholder mapping gives you the first list of features when you know who you are designing for? Who is involved in the process? Who is affecting the process? And who is getting affected because of the process?  You know your target audience for the first time, you also get to know the list of features that you need to incorporate.

Let’s say let’s take the example of a bank. From a bank I know I would have to have a set of terms and conditions which the user would have to accept before making payment, for the suppliers I would have to make sure I create a back end channel for the suppliers to see when a particular raw material has gotten over and the supplier could easily supply that raw material so that the production process does not get compromised….

Delivery executives. I need to make sure I create a separate digital space for the delivery executive where they would be able to see what kind of order they need to pick up? Where do they need to drop? How much money do they need to collect? When is an order coming in? What are the best routes from going from point A to point B? All these things need to be considered when you are actually creating an entire UX journey.

Finally we come to the discussion time, click on the discussion button below and connect to fellow learners, I am really curious to hear your take on UX design and research. It is also important for you to learn and understand what others have to say about UX research and design.

(video duration- 7 minutes 8 seconds)