Business Thinking for Designers

partners. The basic process of mapping out these cultural 
differences is as follows:
01. Identify stakeholders.
02. Use Post-its to plot the observed styles of each across the 
eight dimensions.

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Develop your business perspective
03. Draw a simplified culture line to connect dimensional 
differences.
Figure 3-6: Example culture lines in The Culture Map
By taking a little time up front to understand differing cultural 
styles of stakeholders, you can speak directly to their comfort 
zones. Your colleagues will appreciate your understanding.

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64 
Develop your business perspective
Pro tip
If your colleagues are successful at getting stakeholders 
to make tough decisions, ask them for their presentation 
documents. Rather than reinvent the wheel, reverse engineer 
what has worked previously.
Stakeholder Analysis
Designers need to create, deliver, and capture value for 
colleagues. But introducing new cultures of design and 
modern development practices can be hard, especially when 
your company has done things a certain way for a long time. 
While your ultimate goal may be to help transform a company 
into one that’s customer-led, it’s important to pick and choose 
your partners strategically along the way. You need to find your 
allies.
Stakeholder Analysis is a great way to select strategic