Stakeholders, Your Buy-In For UX Research Is Needed

This article is part of Pensieve AI’s Intro to UX Research series.

The role of a user researcher (UX researcher) is to be the advocate of the users so they can achieve their end goals. From meeting the stakeholders to multiple user research participants, their job is to guide the design process, examine the result of the data, and vocalize the user’s POV. Even though many people “agree” UX research is what allows a company to succeed because getting users is the number one priority, it’s a department that’s postponed until later when resources (time, budget, workforce) are limited.

So how do we make a case to get stakeholder buy-in for UX research? Similar to how there’s no one size fit all method to conduct UX research, there’s no one “correct” strategy that will magically convince your stakeholders. Thus, you need to modify and tailor the approach to your specific patrons.

Here are some ways you can get your most resistant collaborators as your right hand supporter for UX research. No matter how long it takes to convince a stakeholder to invest in a UX research, it will be well worth it because the value of UX research will have a positive influence on the bottom line.

It’s just going to prevent the team from meeting the timeline goals.

Deadlines are important and the success of the project is important. As product owners, we want to make sure the two things are “checked off” before your project launch. One critical aspect of a successful product is knowing what your users need, making sure they’re satisfied with your solution, and having them keep coming back to use your product. A product manager or program manager has a huge amount of pressure to meet the given timeline, a designer might be reluctant to keep making changes to the design, an engineer will get annoyed with the minor fixes that need to be done, and the executives of your organization just wants a product out to update the c suite team. However, as mentioned in our previous blogpost Why Should Early Stage Startups Value User Research?, you must remind yourself that “when your company invests the time in prioritizing UX research as the foundation of your development process, you will extract high quality insights and recommendations of your intended users’ needs and pinpoint how to address them. This, in return, will eventually save your company’s time, money, and effort from potential product failure and go back to the drawing board for the second (or third?) time.” Also, a good product manager would add buffers to the milestone timeline to avoid project delay.

For UX researchers: Be sure to make your data and content presentable and digestible so your stakeholders can make quick informed decisions. In addition, create a document that details what your budget will look like, outline the different pricing options for services or platforms that are needed (emphasize the advantages and disadvantages), list the explanation for material needs, and lay out the timeline that includes external factors like delays and unexpected incidents.

I want numbers and proof that it works.

This is a reasonable response because it is required for pretty much all teams within a company. The beauty of user research is that you can get both qualitative and quantitative feedback for your users. And we know the c suite team loves a good ROI. By studying and understanding your users, you’re able to know why the low conversion rate and how to design a great solution. A great UX will increase your user base, reduce your customer acquisition costs, and decrease your call center overhead. By being able to communicate the clear return on UX investments, the UX metrics you provide will help improve the initiatives of other teams like marketing and sales as well.

For UX researchers: Learn what’s important and what motivates your stakeholders. You’ll have to recognize and understand their top priorities so you’re able to align your research goals. And when they see that their needs were conveyed and addressed through your research, they’ll be more willing to be your supporter. You should also demonstrate how UX practices and benefits can be quantified — will your insights steer your products to be more useful and usable to your users? Can your UX metrics convert into business KPIs? Will your conversion rate increase by 0.5–10x?

It’s just talking to a couple users, someone on my team can do it.

At smaller companies, it’s usually the associate product managers or product designers who have to be the interim UX researcher — if they know the importance of user research, they go out of their ways to make it happen because they know that the lack of user research will result in a failed product launch, which they’re trying to avoid at all costs. However, it must be noted that they are not hired to do user research. Imagine already being swamped with the workload they were hired to do, and having to do somebody else’s full time job as well. Yes, it’s better than no user research done at all, but remember, the more they’re doing, the faster they’ll be burnt out from their job resulting in minimal efforts and deliverables for the actual job they were hired to do. Additionally, when you hire an actual UX researcher, they know the best and easiest way to gain empathy for their end users because they’re the experts.

They don’t know what user research actually is.

User research is considering each and every step of the interaction between the user and the product. The different research methods used will help produce tangible data and insights that are not based on assumptions, but rather on the goals, needs, and motivations of the user. User research is not simply just talking to your users and calling it a day. There’s more to it like visualizing the data, properly synthesizing the insights, making recommendations that’s backed with evidence, and so much more.

For UX researchers: Even if it may seem like it’s common sense, you will need to show why user research matters to your stakeholders. For that easier and seamless UI flows, the short and sweet copywriting, and the resources for research and testing, you’ll have to explain why and how it’s going to enhance and improve the product. Your design thinking and storytelling abilities will be useful here as you will have to concisely communicate the right message to the right people, including your stakeholders.

Depending on your organizational structure, you’ll have to trust your gut instinct on which strategy is the best way to get stakeholder buy-in. You might need to present just the concrete results and not the entire progress because your stakeholders care more about the end results like cost savings or intelligible competitive advantages. Or you might just need to include them in all stages of the research process from research planning to user testing sessions to debriefs.

We know it’s an uphill battle to win over stubborn stakeholders, but keep reminding them that your UX research is only going to better the outcome of the company.

​​Interested in joining our effort to democratize user research? Check us out at pensieveai.com or on social (LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter).