Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Scale-up Fieldnote, mapping who matters for the Integrations squad launch. Karim and Élise, one hour.
What the team took away
Nadia moved from "informed" to "manage closely" once the team saw she was the one promising integrations to prospects.
How to run it
Preparation
Do it with the sponsor only, or the sponsor plus one trusted lead. Nobody wants to be rated 'low power' in front of colleagues.
List every name that has appeared in an email about the project, plus the people who own the systems or budgets you touch. Aim for 15 to 25 names.
Prepare one sticky per name before the session, so the hour is spent placing, not brainstorming.
Agenda
10 min
Complete the list Read the names aloud. Ask 'who can stop this project with one email?' and 'who will complain last minute?'. Add the missing ones.
20 min
Place on the map One name at a time, place on power and interest. Say the reason out loud in one sentence. Disagreements go on a parking sticky.
10 min
Settle the parking lot For each contested name, ask 'what did this person do last time a similar project ran?'. Place them based on behavior, not title.
15 min
Decide the treatment Manage closely: named owner, 1:1 every two weeks. Keep satisfied: monthly written update. Keep informed: newsletter or demo. Monitor: nothing, and say so.
5 min
First three moves Pick the three people who need a conversation this week. Put the name, the owner and the date on the board.
Pitfalls
Do not place people by their org chart title. A quiet architect who owns the data model has more power than a VP who has never opened the product.
'Manage closely' with eight names means nobody is managed closely. Cap it at four; the rest move to Keep satisfied.
The map is a snapshot. Put a 30-minute revisit in the calendar after the first milestone, or it will be wrong within a month.
Afterwards
The four treatments turn into calendar entries and a distribution list, owned by the PM. High-power skeptics get a 1:1 before the kick-off, and the map decides who is invited to the Pre-mortem.