How to Build Trust with Clients and Showcase UX Value in a Short Time
Work in the UX business for any length of time, and you will undoubtedly encounter clients who don’t understand what UX can do. These clients often see UX’s role as beautifying apps and websites, and they think UX professionals can magically know what needs to be fixed without talking to users. For them, UX is more of a buzzword.
During my 4 years working as a UX designer, I have been in this situation many times and found several effective ways of working with new clients, growing their knowledge of UX, and building trust. In this article, I will share them with you, my fellow UXers, and expand UX influence together.
Understanding the Project
Learn the Language
It’s important to have a basic understanding of any project I accept before I start working on it. I need to understand the overall project roadmap, where the project is on that roadmap, along with the stakeholders, users, current workflow, and what the journey has been like. To get up to speed, I generally do the following things:
1. Have 1:1s with clients to get an overview and review the project goals, scope, history, target user(s), timeline, and expected UX engagement.
2. Collect and review existing project materials, such as the project roadmap, existing research on the problem to solve, key performance indicators (KPIs), and user task workflows.
3. Ask for subject matter expert (SME) contacts, their background, their responsibilities, and their level of involvement in this project.
4. If it’s a brand-new domain, I would reach out to SMEs for a domain 101 or search for quick introductory training online.
During this process, I like to write down new knowledge and create diagrams to help me visualize and internalize the information.
Getting up to speed quickly enables you to:
1. Speak the language of clients and users early. This instills trust in the hearts of my clients and users as they see UX professionals can understand them and are here to learn, especially in industries with high barriers of entry like oil and gas.
2. Understand where UX can bring value. Stories clients tell about the project and their experiences could reveal numerous difficulties they encountered in the past and may currently be facing.
3. Uncover client knowledge gaps that UX can help bridge. Some challenges could result from a lack of knowledge or awareness, especially for new users.
4. Define research direction. Many questions may still be unanswered after initial background reviews and may require further research to unravel.
Identifying Misalignments
Unveil UX Opportunities
Stakeholder interviews are a great way to learn about the project background and build relationships with the team, understand stakeholder relationships, and unveil misalignment that may represent both obstacles and opportunities. Interviews are the perfect time to ask good questions that help stakeholders think through their differences in perspectives and help them find common ground.
For example, on a recent project, I interviewed the Product Owner and all the subject matter experts (SMEs). I learned that there was a discrepancy in the features that each stakeholder wanted to build. Even though everyone was trying to support the user community, they all had different ideas on how to do that. This guided my research, as it was clear that in addition to what my client asked for, I should also collect data from real users about their desired features and their values, present a more realistic picture of the user group, and bridge the gap between stakeholders.
Establishing a Positive Impression
Give Them What They Want
One thing I learned over the years is that no matter how much I want to perfectly follow the UX process, that doesn’t always fly with my clients, especially when they are under a tight budget or timeline. Instead of fixating on doing things the “right” way, taking a detour and giving them what they want might be a faster way to persuade clients to prioritize UX going forward.
When clients are under a lot of pressure to deliver, asking them to do things outside of their plan is often difficult because it’s seen as slowing down the project. In situations like this, I like to give my clients a quick taste of what they are looking for within their constraints. This way, I increase my clients’ confidence in me by providing what they were looking for, which makes it easier to negotiate for additional UX activities.
During a previous design project, my client wanted me to mock up the interface of a new tool with no time for research or testing. I took their requirements and mocked up something quick, in a week, based on the requirements given. When I showed it to my client, they were very happy. I followed up with a series of questions regarding user behavior: questions my client couldn’t answer. I showed them how not having those answers would negatively affect the design. That was the key to getting agreement on the importance of user research. They now understand how the lack of understanding of users hinders design progress and can cause unnecessary rework.
Building Trust
Educate Clients on User Experience
Don’t get me wrong: don’t just do whatever your clients tell you to do. In fact, I think having the right understanding of what UX is and how UX helps clients build a better product faster is essential for building client trust. When clients say “no” to UX activities, try to figure out the logic behind it. Then showcase how UX can tackle their concerns. Don’t just talk about how UX can help, show them. Take your clients through the UX journey.
Another example: My clients asked me to help assess if a new cost analysis tool was user-friendly as well as collecting additional user requirements. I proposed to do usability tests with new users, but my clients wanted to do training before testing because they didn’t understand how anyone could use a tool without training. They were thinking testing was a way to assess user knowledge. Even after extensive explanations, they still didn’t understand the importance of a usability test.
I knew I needed to stop talking and start showing. Since one of the clients was a user of the tool, I asked them to give me a walkthrough of how they use the tool. During the process, I asked them to share what took a long time to get used to, things they didn’t like about the tool, and feedback on usability issues I noticed. With this exercise, they realized they became habitual to bad designs and understood why it’s important to have a cold-eye review to truly understand usability issues.
Finding Balance
Find the Right Level of Client Involvement
Getting clients involved in the research process is a double-edged sword, and it goes true for both generative and evaluative research.
Positives
1. This can help us better define our research direction and align with the overall project objectives.
2. Clients will feel more involved and be able to hear user inputs firsthand.
3. It’s a great way to educate clients on the importance of user research.
Risks
1. A lot of times clients only have time to listen to a couple of interviews or tests. They only hear a small piece of the story, often developing bias based on incomplete information.
2. When clients participate in a small portion of research, some clients jump to conclusions without understanding the whole picture.
3. Clients can be passionate and want to get into the driver’s seat, attempting to dictate the research process.
To find balance with overly excited clients:
1. Set up frequent standing meetings with clients to provide updates and don’t worry too much about not having something polished to show. Show your process!
2. If clients persistently ask for research findings before your analysis is complete, you can share a few interesting things you learned, but make sure you let them know that it is only one person’s opinion, and more research is needed to validate it as a true pattern/concern/pain point.
3. When inviting clients to attend usability testing, make sure to communicate participation etiquette ahead of time. If they can’t follow the etiquette, consider removing them from testing invites.
Showcasing Value
Answer the Unanswered Questions
Often, we encounter clients who think UX exists to “make things pretty”, but UX can do so much more. When working with clients who aren’t familiar with or are doubtful of what UX can do, I like to be an “overachiever” and put in extra effort to go beyond the expected work scope so that I can demonstrate UX capabilities.
During stakeholder interviews and day-to-day interaction with your clients, it’s easy to find unanswered questions that will help make better product design decisions, from adoption concerns to technology limitations. Answering these questions will show clients that UX is more than just pretty icons but also a critical piece for problem-solving and expanding our influence.
In short:
1. Align client expectations before starting research.
2. Make sure final deliverables clearly address client concerns.
3. Take note of other unanswered questions that could benefit the client.
4. Go the extra mile to fill your clients’ knowledge gaps.
Maintaining Relationships
Provide Transparency and Keep Your Ears Out
Communication is the foundation of a good client relationship. Set up regular touchpoints with clients weekly, bi-weekly, or whatever works best for the intensity of your project. Sometimes, clients are not necessarily looking for quick turnarounds: they just want to know that you are making progress in the right direction and that the budget they allocated for your service is well spent. Having quick touchpoints not only provides the opportunity for you and your clients to stay transparent and aligned, but it also gives you the chance to slowly influence your clients.
Even after a project is over, low-frequency touchpoints with your clients are still beneficial. After my projects are over, I like to have monthly or bi-monthly checkpoints with my clients so that I can keep track of project progress after my roll-off, listen for opportunities to rejoin the projects or learn about clients’ new projects that could use UX support. A lot of times, clients who are new to UX don’t immediately recognize that certain projects can take advantage of UX involvement.
Lastly, remember that Rome was not built in a day. It takes a long time to build our influence and educate others on UX. With each interaction we have with clients, we are “planting seeds”, as my supervisor would say. What we feel might be a disaster project experience could blossom into more opportunities later if we are willing to invest time in understanding and building trust with our clients. You never know when a former client might call you out of the blue asking for UX resources because of the work you have done previously.
