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Add your stakeholders and set their power and interest — see instantly who to manage closely, keep satisfied, keep informed, or monitor.
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How this works
Stakeholder mapping is the practice of identifying everyone with an interest in a project or engagement, then plotting them by how much power they have to affect the outcome and how much interest they have in it. It turns a flat list of names into a clear picture of who needs your attention and how.
The power/interest matrix — also known as Mendelow's matrix, after academic Aubrey Mendelow — is a 2x2 grid that sorts stakeholders into four groups: manage closely (high power, high interest), keep satisfied (high power, low interest), keep informed (low power, high interest), and monitor (low power, low interest). Each quadrant implies a different communication strategy.
Power is their ability to help or block the outcome — budget authority, veto power, organizational influence. Interest is how much the outcome actually affects them or how closely they're paying attention. Neither needs to be precise; the value is in the relative position between stakeholders, not the exact number.
High power, high interest stakeholders need direct, frequent engagement — they can significantly help or hurt the outcome and are already paying attention. Don't let communication with this group lapse; they're usually the people whose support determines whether the work succeeds.
"Keep satisfied" is for high-power, low-interest stakeholders (like procurement or legal) — give them enough to stay comfortable without overwhelming them, since they're not deeply engaged but could block you if unhappy. "Keep informed" is for low-power, high-interest stakeholders (like end users) — they care a lot but can't unilaterally change the outcome, so regular updates keep them supportive without requiring heavy engagement.
Yes. The same power/interest logic applies to consulting client accounts — sponsors, champions, economic buyers, and end users all sit in different quadrants, and the strategy for each is the same. Retainer builds this kind of stakeholder mapping directly into each client account, so it updates as the relationship evolves instead of staying a one-time snapshot.
Retainer keeps stakeholder mapping attached to every client account automatically — not a one-time snapshot you redo from scratch each time.