- How you collaborate with stakeholders
ends up making a really big difference.
I'm gonna run through some tactics that you can use
to bring your stakeholders on board.
The first is evangelize user research.
Dispel the notion that you're the graphic design syrup
on the top of the product stack.
Point out that you're actually gonna save time
and rework for developers
by helping as early as possible
with research, design, validation.
Make sure everyone knows
how deep user experience design needs need to be
and how you can accomplish them.
Explain UX concepts, terms, and capabilities
by having UX practitioners openly discuss their skills
and their typical methods and outcomes.
And then next is collaboration.
Make time and space for it.
Schedule regular UX office hours and design clinics.
Keep the chat channel open with your team
so you can really listen and share information.
Invite everyone regardless of their role
to use you as a resource for insights and solutions.
Create an actual physical space
for team members to interact
with you and information.
And then there's a big education piece.
You have to start to educate everyone
about the benefits of participation in user research.
Teach upper management about the benefits
of stakeholder participation.
Find a champion who can encourage other people
with their own participation stories.
And then we have alignment.
Align your research goals with your stakeholder goals.
Run strategy meetings with stakeholders
to understand their goals
and establish the best ways to measure your success.
And then set a design vision that aligns with them.
Before development even begins.
So everyone has a good understanding
of what it means to be usable.
Later on towards the end of our project
even give credit back to those stakeholders.
They'll be more likely to help projects in the future.
The next point is around proving.
Demonstrate utility with small pilot projects.
Start small and easy and track the success.
Schedule key UX activities
such as site visit, testing, participatory workshops
when stakeholders are actually available
and plan time in the development cycle for them.
Personally go and invite each person
and emphasize why they should be there.
And then we have to think approachably.
Create approachable deliverables
that reflect our audience's interests
and actual technical understanding.
Share user research, process, and prototypes widely
and in-person if you can.
Share data insights as soon as you have them
using a lightweight system like bulleted lists
and screenshots in some kind of shared document.
Annotate those higher fidelity prototypes and designs
right there rather than something separate.
And then useful.
We have to make what we create useful for other people.
Create design patterns that we can reuse.
Maybe living style guides for issues that recur.
And then we have a point about visibility.
Increase the visibility for user research
and design artifacts
such as personas that actually change other's insights,
a customer journey map that everyone can align behind.
Post these artifacts on walls in public locations
so remote team members can actually contribute.
In conclusion we're really doing three things.
First we are involving our stakeholders
early and often.
You wanna load then on your train
before we take off for our destination.
Second, we're gonna speak their language.
What terms and technology and language do they use
that makes sense?
And we're gonna align our insights to them.
Third, we're gonna develop empathy for them.
What does it mean to be successful?
What makes them tick?
Doing these things ensures that our work
actually sees the light of day.