Mapping Stakeholder Engagement Needs in Early-Stage System Development Process

Abstract

Companies design, develop, and market new systems of products and services, through the process of translating beneficiaries’ needs into design specifications, where beneficiaries are those who generate value when using the new product or experiencing the new service enabled by the product. Successful new systems of products and services attract potential beneficiaries. This study explores how to identify the stakeholder engagement requirements of a new system at its early stage of development.The study proposes a procedure and a tool - a new visual representation called the stakeholder-value map - to show the system development team how stakeholders are to interact with the system's key elements, and hence inform the timing of stakeholder involvement, for realising the value proposition of the new system. A working theoretical construct is also emerged from the study: for a new system to have a higher chance of market adoption, one can first visualise the ‘route’ of value-creation, from the lowest value-level product/service elements to the highest value-level service elements; then, identify the requirements for stakeholder engagement in the new system development.