Knowledge management (KM) – the process of collecting, storing, and sharing valuable experience within a company – is often framed as a technical task. The thinking goes: install the system, and everyone will start working more efficiently. In practice, this approach rarely works. Why? Because you have to take people into account. Without them, even the most powerful and technically sophisticated system will fail to deliver results.
Stakeholders: Who they are and why they matter
You can reduce the risk of a negative outcome through a systematic stakeholder analysis at the start of a project. In KM projects, stakeholders are the parties interested in the creation, use and development of corporate knowledge. There are five key stakeholder groups:
- Leaders or project sponsors: They make decisions and provide funding. Their support is critical for the initiative to gain resources and legitimacy.
- Experts and knowledge owners: Without their participation, the knowledge base will remain empty.
- Knowledge managers: They systematize, structure and disseminate knowledge by building respective processes.
- End users: They are the consumers of knowledge. Their engagement determines whether the knowledge is actually used in daily work.
- IT Department: It deploys and maintains knowledge management platforms.
Only when each of these groups is involved at the right stages can a knowledge management project deliver tangible results.
The influence matrix: How to keep roles straight
Each group’s degree of influence can be assessed through interviews and by analyzing their level of interest in the project. Based on this information, a stakeholder matrix is created, mapping all participants according to their interest in the project and their actual ability to influence it.
One part of the matrix contains those with the highest levels of interest and authority, while the other part contains those with minimal levels. The remaining stakeholders are distributed in intermediate niches. This ranking helps clearly define the stages at which the involvement of specific individuals becomes critical.
For example, leadership involvement is essential during the launch phase, when the budget and project goals are defined. Leaders are also important at the end, to close the project and ensure business sponsors are satisfied with the outcome. Involving experts is necessary during the knowledge elicitation phase. End users get involved during solution design (e.g., to approve templates or test workflows) and during the implementation and feedback-gathering phase.
Practical advice: How to structure work and avoid sabotage
To prevent the project from becoming nominal and to avoid wasted effort, it is worth adhering to clear rules.
- A dedicated role for the project leader
The project must be led either by a business unit head or a dedicated knowledge manager reporting to a central corporate management unit. Otherwise, the leader’s role becomes a “suicide mission” – meaning plenty of responsibility but zero real authority to influence processes.
- Tailored communication language
The format of regular communications must be adapted for each group. For top management, this means goal-oriented reports expressed in numbers; for experts, workshops; for users, pilot tests and training sessions where they can test and approve templates before large-scale rollout.
- Proactive engagement to prevent sabotage
The main project risks – sabotage and reluctance to adopt the system – can be mitigated from the very beginning. It is important to involve key stakeholders in discussions around knowledge management processes as early as possible, demonstrating their practical value and making it clear that the system is being developed with their interests in mind. This approach helps reduce resistance and prevents situations where decisions are formally approved but not put into practice. For example, including skeptics in working groups can be particularly effective. When potential critics take part in shaping the system, they are far less likely to oppose the final outcome.
- Indicators of tangible activity
Effective stakeholder engagement becomes visible through indirect signs. Participants are actively involved in discussions, contributing early – not just in response to crises. They ask questions and propose changes before the project is launched. Over time, the number of “urgent” change requests decreases, while knowledge base materials start to be actively used – they are referenced, updated, and expanded.
Projects that clarify roles and involve all key stakeholders begin to reshape the company’s everyday operations. Success is measured not by the quantity of knowledge bases created, but by how well knowledge is integrated into daily workflows and supports faster, more accurate decision-making.
By Denis Kucherov, Minerva Result Project Director, Minervasoft