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Design+ Speculative and participatory stakeholder mapping

stakeholders, or for and with stakeholders (joint value for projects where identifying, mapping, or engaging
creation), while offering limited consideration of value stakeholders is important. In this article, participatory
creation for the stakeholders and the firm. Although design is understood as a process of collective creativity
filling this gap is beyond the scope of this article, it throughout the entire design process, in which designers
is acknowledged as a relevant research challenge. As and people with no education and training in design
stakeholder management practices that establish a fair collaborate creatively in the design development process. 31
relationship between the firm and its stakeholders – where Over the years, scholars and practitioners in marketing
interests are mutually considered and balanced – have been and business have endorsed participatory design as a practice
shown to positively affect organizational performance, 23-25 that empowers firms to co-create value with customers.
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value creation for the firm should be included in more The emergence and affirmation of participatory design
mature stakeholder management theories. within both design and business practices indicate that the
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Given the strong connection between stakeholder scope of design practices extends beyond product design.
management and values, stakeholder identification should What legitimizes the use of the term “design” in a project
be value-driven. The identification of an organization’s is not solely the outcome of the creative process, but also
stakeholders should create value for both the organization the application of a design – and thus creative – mindset
and its stakeholders. However, before identifying specific and way of thinking throughout the process. Participatory
stakeholders, a firm should determine the common design can be effectively implemented to address business
values it plans to create for or with them. In the research problems and challenges, which legitimately become
presented in this study, this step involved specific work design problems and challenges.
with the organization to assess the values supporting the Some scholars suggest using the expression “co-creation”
stakeholder identification process. These are the most or “co-design” instead of participatory design. However,
important values that stakeholder identification (and, at a this article sticks to participatory design; not only because
later stage, management) should create for the organization the expression participatory design has been commonly
and its stakeholders collectively. 20 used for more than 50 years, but also for semantic
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Following the most common managerial approach in reasons. The term participatory design highlights with
the literature and practices, stakeholder identification is particular strength that creation happens in a participatory,
typically done by a research team following a top-down thus democratic, way. Democratic participation is one of
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approach (which relies exclusively on the team perception, the key pillars of participatory design. For Manzini, the
thus potentially reflecting biases and with no involvement process of co-designing means that everybody brings their
of stakeholders) or a bottom-up approach (where the ideas, regardless of the problems and tensions they may
assessment of potential stakeholders by the research team potentially generate, together with an attitude to listen to
involves research methods, such as interviews and surveys each other, change opinions, and converge toward a shared
with stakeholders, requiring a substantial investment of view on the results.
time and resources). 26,27 In both cases, the research team The importance of listening and exchanging ideas
identifies stakeholders using the most appropriate criteria between co-designers implies that workshops play an
and delivers the results of their work to their supervisor(s) extremely important role in participatory design, together
or client, who is not directly involved in the process. with collective prototyping and prototypes, iterative
However, as suggested by Mitchell et al., static maps of an development, and mock-ups. The project described in
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organization’s stakeholders are useful as heuristics, but one this study relied extensively on participatory workshops
should also consider stakeholders’ impact and relevance – because they can help elicit valuable insights for
change. This consideration was one of the foundations of creating interventions and fostering collective thinking
the project described in this article to support the adoption among participants from diverse organizational units
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of participatory and speculative design to identify – and on the iterative development of the stakeholder
stakeholders. identification. The involvement of direct stakeholders
The participatory design emerged in the 1970s in within an organization can empower them, resulting in
Scandinavia – and concurrently in England, with a more more coherent and resilient strategies that enable greater
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multidisciplinary agenda – to engage workers in the readiness for future and speculative outcomes.
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development of new systems for their workplace, merging On the other hand, speculative design emerged in
the methodology and system knowledge of the designers the 1990s as a form of critical design practice focused on
and the experience and expertise of the workers affected socio-scientific and socio-technical concerns. It evolved
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by the new systems. 29-31 Participatory design is well-suited as a reaction against the neoliberal model of capitalism,

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2025) 3 doi: 10.36922/DP025060011