The first step in the Stakeholder 360 is to define which organizations should be interviewed. Then the leaders of the organizations are interviewed about their relations with other organization and their interests in the focal issues or focal organization. The interview data is converted into graph showing the socio-political network among the stakeholders and the issues. These graphs immeditately suggest strategies for moving towards a pattern of social capital that better promote collaboration towards sustainable development.

The Stakeholder 360 focuses on the group level. People have more socio-political impact when they work in groups. The groups do not necessarily have to be formal organizations. For example, in a study in Papua New Guinea, we treated clans as stakeholder groups and interviewed the elders as the representatives of the clans. However, we would not treat "citizens" as a stakeholder group for a city council, nor "customers" as a stakeholder group for a consumer products company. The reason is that they are not organized into a group that articulate a collective stance.  At times, a single individual can be treated as a stakeholder, with the implicit assumption that they have a high level of influence potential in a socio-political sense.  For example, sometimes experts, politicians, or celebrities fall into this category.

People familiar with public opinion research sometimes question the small number of interviews involved in Stakeholder 360 studies. They forget the difference between a sample and a population census. The Stakeholder 360 does not involve a random sample survey of stakeholders. Instead, it attempts a census of them. The "sample size" is irrelevant because there is no sample. Instead, there is a census. In terms of the number of interviews conducted, what is important is that the census includes all of the members of the stakeholder network.¹  

Samples and censuses each have their strengths.² It is often a good idea to use the Stakeholder 360 in conjunction with a random sample survey of some unorganized population like customers or citizens. Stakeholder group leaders tend to be mass opinion leaders. Sample surveys can tell you how broadly legitimate the views of different groups are perceived to be. Elected government stakeholders are especially interested in these kind of findings. The Stakeholder 360, by contrast, gives insights into where public opinion is headed next. It also taps into more highly articulated versions of each opinion tendency and trend.