Using storytelling to communicate with stakeholders
You’ve been given a problem to solve.
You and/or your team have completed the research, proposed a new design. The next step? Communicating your findings to stakeholders.
Soft skills are essential in this line of work. You could provide feedback through song and dance — but they might not appreciate that medium. Instead, storytelling is more impactful.
And so our story begins…
Begin with the problem of your story — what is the problem? Put it into context for the stakeholders. They either are the ones driving the solution in the first place, or need to provide input during the meeting. Either way — start from the beginning by bringing everyone onboard.
Next, who are you solving the problem for — is it for a specific user type? If so, identify the persona. Convey to the stakeholders the type of user that will be interacting with the solution. Get the stakeholders into the mindset of the user — bring up their profile, even display it during the meeting.
What research and why?
So you’ve got the stakeholders thinking about the problem and the user — now it’s about the research you did and why you chose that particular method.
Maybe you wanted to discover the correct order of the navigation items — talk about using card sorting. Or you have a design that you want to observe — unmoderated user testing did the trick.
Whatever research you’ve used — give reason as to why you chose it and how effective it was in the pursuit of your solution. This will also help you establish the flow of the solution. If you have data — even better! Stakeholders will take away key points — display the key metrics from your research and explain the relevance of your discovery.
What does it all mean?
At this point provide a mini-summary of things so far.
Remind them of the problem, what research you used, why you used it and what all of that means by presenting your proposed design solution.
If you can show video clips from usability testing — even better. That will justify your design decisions. And again, keeping the personas in mind, talk through each route and possible scenarios that could occur. For complex designs that have multiple different user types using the same interface — you will need to go through the journey for each one and the consequences of each of their actions.
With every beginning, there is an end… for now
You can now conclude your story with the possibility of a sequel through further improvements and future proofing.
Storytelling is a powerful tool in a UX Designers toolbox. It allows for the development of empathy, understanding and alignment. By framing the project in this way — you can orientate the team towards a user centred mindset, keeping the user at the forefront.
