Welcome to Excel Highway! 🚗💨
In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to create a dynamic and interactive Stakeholder Map in Excel – no VBA required!

This visual tool helps you position stakeholders based on their influence and interest, so you know exactly how to manage each one. Perfect for project managers, analysts, or anyone working with teams and external partners.

Let’s dive in. 👇

🧩 What Is a Stakeholder Map?

A stakeholder map helps you classify stakeholders based on two key dimensions:

• Influence (how much power they have over the project)
• Interest (how involved or affected they are)

We place each stakeholder into one of four quadrants:

• Manage Closely (High Influence, High Interest)
• Keep Satisfied (High Influence, Low Interest)
• Keep Informed (Low Influence, High Interest)
• Monitor (Low Influence, Low Interest)

🛠️ Step-by-Step: Build It in Excel

1. Prepare Your Data

Start with three columns:

• Name
• Influence Rank (1–10)
• Interest Rank (1–10)

To make the tool error-proof, we limit inputs to integers between 1 and 10 using data validation.

2. Insert a Scatter Plot

• Go to the Insert tab → Scatter Chart → start with a blank one.
• Right-click → Select Data → Add Series.
• Use the Influence as the X-axis and Interest as the Y-axis.

Voila! The basic chart is ready.

3. Label Your Stakeholders

• Right-click one of the data points → Add Data Labels → Value From Cells.
• Point to the stakeholder names.

Now your names appear right on the chart!

4. Add Grid Lines to Create Quadrants

You’ll need two extra lines:

• A vertical line at X = 5
• A horizontal line at Y = 5

You can build these using two extra data series with just two points each (e.g., from 0 to 10).

Once added, format them as dashed lines with no markers to clearly separate the quadrants.

5. Lock Your Axis

Make sure your X and Y axes always show 0 to 10:

• Right-click the axis → Format Axis → Set Minimum: 0 and Maximum: 10.

This ensures your chart doesn’t shift when new stakeholders are added.

6. Add Meaning to Each Quadrant

Add text boxes labeled:

• Manage Closely
• Keep Satisfied
• Keep Informed
• Monitor

You can color them for clarity, remove borders, and position them in their respective quadrants.

7. Optional: Add a Project Title + Sheet Duplication Logic

• Use a merged cell for the project name at the top.
• Use a simple formula that picks up the sheet name (or the project title).
• Want to reuse for another project? Right-click the tab → Move or Copy → Create a copy → Rename the project. Done!

💡 Bonus: Auto-Classify Stakeholders

I included a dynamic formula using FILTER() to automatically assign the stakeholder type (like “Monitor” or “Keep Satisfied”) based on their influence and interest rank. This pulls from a small table mapping values to quadrant types.

It’s clean, dynamic, and updates in real time.

🔗 Download the Template

🎥 Watch the Tutorial

🙌 Wrapping Up

This Excel Stakeholder Map is: ✅ Visual
✅ Interactive
✅ Easy to scale

You can customize it, duplicate it for different projects, and adapt the logic for different use cases.

Thanks for stopping by,
– Elad @ Excel Highway