Designing with your stakeholders, not for them
As UX and Product Designers I am sure we have all had a conversation like this:
PM: We need to add alerts as a new feature in the product, can you UX it?
Designer: What is the problem it is solving for our users?
PM: They need to be alerted to new content into their emails.
Designer: We will need to do some research to identify the users journey and their needs…
PM: We just need to do what our competitors are doing
The PM needs this complete asap to meet the needs of a big revenue income customer and the Designer needs to fully understand the problem and needs to be able to design the best experience.
Often in big companies the Kick off to a project starts with the ‘How do we make this?’ instead of the ‘Why should we make this?’ As Designers we naturally want to go back to understand more about the “why” and “Who”
As Designers how do we bring together the rest of the project team and stakeholders to focus on the ‘Why’ from the beginning?
Firstly, every project should start with some form of Problem or Need and that can be identified through analytical data, Customer Service Reports, User Research, mail or any customer touch point.
Once the Need or Problem has been identified, there are some questions that need answering before the ‘How do we build this?’ can be answered.
Why is this a problem or a need?
A good technique is to try the Five Why’s, if we use the alerts as an example for let’s say a group of users who are Stock Fund Managers (Someone that buys and sells stocks for their investors)
Our Stock Fund Manager user group need to be able to set up alerts… Why?
So, they can receive updates of the companies they invest in instantly… Why?
So, they are constantly up to date as possible on company behaviours… Why?
So, they can react to instant news which will inform their buying and selling stock decisions… Why?
So, they can capitalise on information as soon as it happens.
We started off with we need Alerts and ended up with a load more information about what the information is used for and what the users end goal is. This allows everyone to visualise the scenario more clearly and understand what success could look like for a project.
How could we solve this problem?
I can’t stress enough here the word ‘could’ in this question. The goal is not to create the final solution here but instead rapid prototype up ways in which the users need or problem could be solved. Here is a good time to share lots of designs with your users to learn quickly and often.
A good method to follow is Google’s Design Sprint (AJ Smart is a great agency that can teach your teams), its short and rapid approach of testing designs with all stakeholders is tremendously valuable. When speaking to users you may find out that the need or problem you are trying to solve is meaningless to your users. You may think this has been a waste of time but think of all the money saved from the weeks of work for an entire project team building something that is destined to fail. You might Pivot with your project or draw a line in the sand and move onto one of your next Bets(In your Lean Value Tree).
Can we actually build this?
As Designers we can get carried away and create the best experience regardless if it is actually realistic to build, for example we could create a fantastic experience, but it requires content that is not available for us to obtain. This is why it is so important for your Development Teams (usually Tech leads) to be brought along the journey. Don’t underestimate your Development teams input as they can help generate fantastic ideas with you.
You may find that your Development teams are more invested into solving the users problem if they are brought on the journey. This in turn could make them more passionate about solving the user problem and increase their satisfaction and shorter development times.
Do your stakeholders have appetite to develop this?
It might be that you have identified the problem, identified a concept that meets the users need or solves the problem and it is feasible to develop it. If your stakeholders have been excluded from the journey, then they will likely not buy into developing it. A good way to prove the benefit to your stakeholders so to invite them to user sessions, share insights and catch up regularly with them as a team.
The Lean Value Canvas is super helpful to always see what Success looks like to the project. This success metric should always feed into the business strategy. Stakeholders love to have numbers they can use to calculate their ROI and a clear success metric will help you with this.
An example…
Let’s say the business mission is to be the Google for Stock Fund Managers… a business wide Success metric that comes from that might be to increase revenue for our Stock Fund Managers by 10%. Now your project Success metric should fall in-line with your business Success, so your project Success Metric might be to increase new users by 10%.
Conclusion
As the UX role is shifting towards us being Product Designers, it is forcing us to better understand how the business works and this article aims to help you extend your process and get more involved earlier on to prove business need.
Tools mentioned:
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Recommended reading INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love — Marty Cagan
