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Design+ Speculative and participatory stakeholder mapping

futures (the so-called PPPP diagram): Possible, plausible,
probable, and preferable futures. We named our approach
the Stakeholder Mapping Cone, as illustrated in Figure 4.
The Stakeholder Mapping Cone is designed for two
purposes:
(i) Identify stakeholders.
(ii) Predict the future projection of the stakeholders’
impact in terms of values.
The vertical axis represents the level of possibility,
plausibility, or probability, while the horizontal axis refers
to time. When identifying stakeholders, time may indicate
when the organization expects that a stakeholder will
generate value or when the organization will approach the
identified stakeholders. The user of the cone can set a scale
on the timeline for more accurate predictions. The key
aspect to consider when identifying stakeholders with the
cone is the expected creation of value for the organization
(as identified by the organization) and its stakeholders.
The Stakeholder Mapping Cone is both value-based and
future-oriented. When identifying stakeholders with the
cone, three groups of stakeholders emerge:
(i) Possible stakeholders: These are stakeholders that
may potentially create value for the organization, its
Figure 3. Identification of the overarching project values stakeholders, or the IP ecosystem of stakeholders.
Abbreviation: IP: Intellectual property.
The notion of possibility refers to new situations
supported by a credible series of events, which are not
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impossible but difficult to foresee in the present. More
pragmatically, a possible stakeholder is associated with
an event that may happen at an unspecified point in the
future. To explain the difference among the three areas,
participants were invited to reflect on the following
thought exercise: a design school, in general, may be
considered a possible stakeholder. However, if the
organization organizes a demonstration on trademark
and design registration specifically for the school’s final-
year master’s students, the design school shifts from a
possible to a plausible, or even a probable, stakeholder.
(ii) Plausible stakeholders: These are stakeholders that
plausibly will create value for the organization.
Plausibility refers to outcomes that could happen
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with a reasonable degree of likelihood.
Figure 4. The Stakeholder Mapping Cone. Image created by the authors
with Miro (https://miro.com/). (iii) Probable stakeholders: These are stakeholders that will
probably create value for the organization. Probability
5.3. Phase 3: Designing a speculative design indicates what is likely to happen in reality. 37
approach to map stakeholders In the next sub-section, the use of the cone to identify
and map stakeholders is presented. Once stakeholders
In this phase, principles and practices from both have been identified and categorized as possible, plausible,
speculative design and participatory design were used or probable, the cone plays a role in the prioritization
to set up an approach to identify the organization’s process. Stakeholders classified by the organization as
stakeholders. The approach was built upon Dunne and priorities are placed within a fourth area of the cone: the
Raby’s diagram to illustrate different kinds of potential preferred stakeholders, that is, those considered central to
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Volume 2 Issue 3 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/DP025060011