Understanding Your Digital Stakeholders

Before taking on any kind of digital transformation, it is important to consider who the change is affecting. Digital stakeholders are “the people inside or outside of your company who have vested in the product and its success” (J. Hensley). There are many digital stakeholders both inside and outside any company, examples of both can include customers, employees, partnering organisations, teachers, students, and educational institutes. 

  Image Source: https://www.consultationmanager.com/7-tactics-to-maintain-positive-stakeholder-relationships/

Why Must We Understand Our Digital Stakeholders? 

While it is important to know who your digital transformation decisions affect, knowing why you should understand and empathize with your stakeholders must be a top priority. There are a couple ways in which one could map the importance of their digital stakeholders, sorting them in the appropriate categories is a simple way to do it. This can be done as such. 

1)    1) Power & Interest.

2)   2)  Importance & Interest.

3)   3)  Impact & Influence 

A stronger alternative is by using a simple ‘Impact and Influence 2 x 2 matrix’. 

 

                           Image Source: https://mosaicprojects.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/for-stakeholders-2x2-is-not-enough/

 

Consulting or gathering data on your stakeholders needs and wants before implementing digital transformation can exponentially increase internal employee work efficiency, morale, workplace/company reputation, as well as external customer satisfaction, brand reputation, supplier satisfaction, investor satisfaction etc. 

 

When it comes to implementing digital change and empathising with your digital stakeholders, there is no silver bullet, there is no “single way of building digital capability and positioning your organisation for success in a digital world. Each approach outlined above has its merits and its shortfalls, the key is to understand which best suits the context facing your business” (D. Rowles, T. Brown, Ch. 8). This philosophy underpins the importance of gathering stakeholder data and really understanding their needs and wants. Understanding your digital stakeholders will perfectly aligns Digital Ability & Culture within your workplace or organisation.      

References: 

1) Hensley , J. (2022) How to identify the right digital product stakeholders, Identifying The Right Stakeholders to Increase Digital Product Success. Available at: https://www.emergeinteractive.com/insights/detail/identify-digital-product-stakeholder-involvement-alignment/#:~:text=They%20are%20the%20people%20inside,the%20product%20and%20its%20success. (Accessed: 22 June 2023). 

2) Rowles, D. and Brown, T. (2017a) ‘Chapter 8’, in Building Digital Culture: A practical guide to successful digital transformation. London: Kogan Page Limited.