What is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is someone who has an investment whether it is money, time, or any sort of claim to something. In the world of the web, a stakeholder can be the owner of a company who has to answer for all dealings of the company, the legal department who has to answer to the law, or the financial department who has to answer to the bank.

It is important to identify who these stakeholders are in order to properly gather information for a website. As a designer or developer, you may work with a project manager or the owner of the company, and though they may have an idea of what they want or need, you are the expert in this field and it is up to you to help drive them to the right decisions that help them meet their requirements.

Gathering information by using tools like the Internal Stakeholder Questionnaire is one way of accomplishing this, but you may find face-to-face interviews, strings of emails, mood boards or even wire frames may be what work best for you. Without knowing who your stakeholders are, these methods are obsolete.

Stakeholders Are Designers/Developers Too

Not really. But they like to think they know a thing or two about websites. Browsing websites and building websites give you two different perspectives on what makes a good website tick. So don’t discount what they have to say, because chances are, they’ve been doing a lot of browsing in order to gather what sort of features they like or don’t like. You may have to educate them on what it takes to get the sort of effect they like.

Insert Reference Here: I love A List Apart, and they always have great articles. Here is a good article regarding educating your stakeholders.

Who Are These Supposed Stakeholders, and How Do I Know If I’ve Met One?

We’ve covered who a stake holder can be (owner, project manager, financial director, creative director, etc.), but how do you know if this person is the RIGHT stakeholder?

There are no right or wrong stakeholders, only stakeholders with more or less to lose. Determining which stakeholders you should spend your time with could be determined by how much they have at stake if this website does not go well. Keep in mind, that there are people who may not have a lot to lose, but know a lot more about what they need than the stakeholders who have a lot to lose.

For example, the owner of a company may have a lot to lose, but his marketing director may know best what sort of website is needed, and which audience they are trying to reach.

So, What You’re Saying Is…

So, what I’m saying is, if you cannot identify out-right who the stakeholders are, then you have to ask. It may be up to you to help your client identify who these stakeholders are, and you may end up being the driver in the conversations that follow.

Just don’t lose sight of the fact that there are usually more stakeholders than are initially presented. Be sure to seek out the rest in order to cover your requirement bases. This also helps save on scope creeping later on.