Identifying people to participate in the Concept Mapping process is one of the most important tasks.

Concept Mapping is most valuable when it includes a wide variety of relevant people. There is no strict limit on the number of participants. It is feasible, with some process modifications, for fewer than 10 people to achieve a sensible concept map. At the other extreme, we have worked with groups as large as 1000 participants.

It is not necessary that all participants take part in every step of the process. For instance, a relatively small group may complete the generation (i.e., brainstorming) step, a much larger group may perform the structuring (i.e., grouping and rating), and a small group may be responsible for interpretation and utilization. In general, however, we have found that concept maps are better understood by people who have participated in all phases of the process than by those who have only taken part in one or two steps.