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Module 1 | Know your audience & their needs

Session 1

2 hours

Theme

StakeholderThinking through stakeholder and needs mapping

Methodology
  • Empathy walk + introductions
  • Divide the cohort into teams of 2-3 members each. Each team can choose their own names. It is best to separate members from the same organisation into different teams.
  • Provide each team with cards and sticky notes.
  • Introduce the example of a primary school in a village. Invite each team to think through who could be the different stakeholders for the school, and their needs. Ask them to list out the stakeholders and 3 of their needs on the sticky notes: 1 stakeholder/1 need on each card. 
  • Each team presents the cards with the names and needs of stakeholders. Facilitator can choose one card for all the the common stakeholders mentioned; for instance, students/teachers/school management/support staff. If any team has come up with a stakeholder not mentioned by any other team, this can be kept separately.
  • Needs can be sorted under the stakeholder cards by rearranging sticky notes.
  • Once all the stakeholder cards have been sorted, ask the teams to gather around a large chart paper, with concentric circles drawn on it.
  • Explain what key stakeholders are. Invite the cohort to suggest who could be the primary stakeholder. Participants may need help/prompting in thinking this through. Place that card in the centre of the circles. Ask participants who the next key stakeholder could be. Place the card on the next circle. Similarly, arrange all stakeholders in the concentric circles, with the secondary stakeholders moving towards the outer circle.
  • On a whiteboard/chart paper, draw a four-quadrant graph for decision-making, with Power on the Y axis and Impact on the X axis. Allow teams to discuss and suggest where each of the stakeholders will find a place on the graph.
  • The graph will indicate that the primary stakeholders have the least decision-making power but will face the highest impact of the decisions. 
  • Have a short discussion on making decision-making more accessible to and inclusive of key stakeholders.
Learning outcomes
  • Understanding how to figure out the key stakeholders
  • Understanding the impact of decision-making, and the idea that the key stakeholders need more power in decision making 
Session 2

1 hour

Theme

Thinking through key stakeholders for the website

Methodology

  • Using the same example and stakeholder cards from the first session, ask teams to suggest who they think are the key stakeholders for the school's website. 
  • Help them understand why key stakeholders for the website may be different from the key stakeholders for the school. Take them through how this is often the case for NGO/changemaker websites.
  • Ask each team to write out three key needs each for two of the key stakeholders.
  • Help them think through what this could look like in a website.
  • Each team to discuss and present what the website's home page should be to represent the top two needs.
  • Homework: Participants to think through who are the key stakeholders for their project websites and what their needs are.
Learning outcomes 
  • Understanding that key stakeholders and their needs for the website are unique, and may differ from the NGO's key stakeholders
  • Applying this learning to their own projects
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