Build research practices with deep stakeholder listening and ReOps
A perspective from a UX lead in the startup environment, people, and organizational context: How to pursue meaningful UX research practice-building through flexible listening and overcome challenges in practice-building for a more positive org culture.
Remote and hybrid work is hard. As I have written about before, as a UX Lead in a team of one, we are Changemakers. When we push for change, we will experience friction or pushback, which also means deciding what risks we believe are worth taking to get important work done.
We have to find support networks of high-level sponsorship and team members willing to collaborate where UX research is a benefit to their work. How do we build relationships, stay proactive, and still lead on research execution?
*Note: A lot of my experiences come from working in a US startup environment. Your experiences and your work realtionships may differ depending on where you live. Given that many US companies have experienced frequent leadership changes, and mass hirings and layoffs in the last 4 years, some of these experiences and ideas could apply to individuals working in larger corporations as well.
Shifting organizational challenges
One of the core issues of working in a startup environment is that change and friction are going to be unavoidable, often in ways that will not be in our control.
Why? Any time a startup experiences cycles of high growth or an infusion of venture capital, new members will be added. Suddenly the existing team has to cope with the change and hopefully, they can be supportive of new formations in the team. But sometimes, as new relationships are still being formed, tensions can run high. A smaller startup made up of members who “wear many hats” may find themselves in a larger team with more specialized roles.
This can naturally lead to a number of important questions about team identity:
- How many people should be on a team?
- How do we make decisions in a way that’s inclusive and multi-disciplinary?
- How can we offer repeatable and scalable research practices in times of change?
- What are healthy ways for a team to collaborate?
- When is it ok to push for new and existing insights?
- What are the ways we can take a more open approach to fostering psychological safety, inclusion and user-centricity?
- How do we adapt to cycles of change when the company chooses to downsize?
One perspective is that we can be more adaptive ourselves and model behavior through peer 1-on-1s as a means to develop a more human culture.
It starts with goal setting and communicating clear boundaries
Pursuing a path as a team of one building means we’ve chosen a path that allows us craft our jobs, but this comes with a certain responsibility. While a simple online search will bring up billions of results about “How to have better 1-on-1s,” it’s the same as taking any other kind of advice, it will still take time to figure out what will work for you and your team.
Also, trying to do more and complete more tasks might not lead to better work relationships or better collaborations. Figure out who can sponsor the work, who are the collaborators of the team, get to know them, and then share vocally about what you need to get work done.
Also knowing how you want to get work done will help you to communicate with your direct manager, even if the manager is not a UX practitioner. This isn’t always easy, and so being kind to yourself and finding ways to network and find support outside of your work area is also important. You’ll be surprised how many face similar challenges. Find other safe spaces, like the Research Ops Community Slack, to help you to listen more intentionally within your organization.
These are starting questions that I’ve collected from mentors that really helped me to establish personal grounding for a new research practice. Keep a journal and check back on your answers every 6 to 12 months.
- What gives you energy?
- How do you shore up your energy if you’re feeling drained?
- What are your preferred work hours to focus or to collaborate?
- How can you find commonalities with your co-workers?
- What are your favorite things to do outside of work to stay balanced?
- Most importantly: what does success look like for the team at work?
Good leaders establish clear goals for how they want to listen to model the behavior to others, and align people to gain the same understanding. For example, if you’re facilitating a workshop, and want to encourage teammates to generate ideas, set the tone of the meeting by starting with creating shared agreements. This might sound like “We will only say Yes, and” and “We will avoid saying No, but…”
Sensing: proposals and your impact radius in the team
Reframing our recommendations as proposals can be eye-opening, especially in times of pushback. No matter how small the proposal or the project, there can be an impact on the team, and hopefully a positive one.
A frequent question I ask myself to decide whether a proposal is worth the risk is: “What common value do others lose if I don’t make this proposal?”
When we pursue practice-building in a startup, it’s likely that your first proposal that you put on offer is to ensure repeatable user exposure through qualitative methods first. Depending on teammates and their prior experiences with UX research as a discipline, they will react differently to the work.
Making proposals will not be without friction. The team wants to move in the same direction, but they will see different perspectives to the same problem.
This is also where it helps as a UX practitioner to be adaptive and use your listening skills. Dismissing emotions or not addressing stakeholder needs can harbor resentment and potentially make others resistant to change. It will take a little experimentation to recognize who to stay in touch with.
In the words of Indi Young, “Above all, support your stakeholders….Build relationships so that you respect where they are coming from, and so that they trust you in return.” — Practical Empathy
From individual contributors, VPs or C-level, any one could react emotionally to a proposal. This is natural and human. Keep an eye out, not only for direct feedback that is shared with you, but also for indirect objections. Look for teammates who may shift into “hot” (reactive) or “cold” (withdrawal) emotional states.
According to Nedra Glover Tawwab (p. 14–17), stakeholders could react in a number of ways that may question your proposal, such as ignoring, ghosting, limit-testing or other methods of reacting to what you share. She also suggests productive ways to respond.
Similarly, you may see other proposals within the company that affect how you want to pursue practice-building, and where you may experience similar feelings. In those cases, it’s important to consider what’s important to us, how we want to stay effective, and ensure team cohesion.
One way that’s most effective is to pursue 1-on-1s within your support network at first, and work outwards to others who need to sponsor. Later, experiment with cadences to help manage for different group sizes and meeting objectives.
How this works with larger proposals:
In one scenario, I worked with my teammate, Rachel Norton, and we proposed that designers and PMs take opportunities to interview customers themselves. I had already worked with one product manager to investigate and experiment methods from Teresa Torres’s book, Continuous Discovery Habits. Building upon these gains and because we felt we had relationships of trust where this approach could be offered safely, we decided to offer to more team members.
We proposed that we could conduct interviews and model what it’s like to interview, and we asked that they commit to observing at least 2 user sessions. Working in teams of three, members could reflect together on what they heard and also have a UX researcher show them what it’s like to be an interviewer.
At the outset, this proposal was received with a lot of excitement from many team members. Teammates told us that they felt that they were often guessing what the customer wanted. We heard a lot of “Yes, we want to hear directly from users” and “Yes, we can attend at least 2 sessions in 2 weeks.”
So, we created this shared commitment together, but some individuals did not show.
Since, team members were also asked to complete a light survey before the interviews began, they were willing to complete a post-survey about their experience. Afterwards, we spent time with each person to discuss feedback about what it was like to work on this proposal. It became evident from those who didn’t show they felt it was sometimes in direct conflict with other goals that they had. “We don’t have time to test” was a common piece of feedback.
Once we understood the tension, we shared the feedback with our sponsors, and the UX practitioner (Rachel) took actions to address their feedback. Today, the program is often recognized by many as “CD” or simply “Discovery.”
Seeking feedback: Tensions and commitments
We can reframe how we see “feedback” as part of practice-building. It’s a collective way to contribute ideas jointly, where we can develop user-centric practices that are shared among the team. It’s also a way to embrace tensions as they come up, because remember, when we make proposals, the ripple effects can vary. It’s worth being proactive by forming trusting bonds to make way for two-way conversations about the work.
There was a different moment in my career where I presented a research readout with recommendations for a usability test. I expected it to be a standard deliverable, because the UX designer and Product Manager had previewed and approved the recommendations a day earlier. After the readout, I was surprised to hear the PM react negatively to the recommendations.
Moments of tension like these can be confusing, where it feels like there is no path forward: “Why doesn’t my PM understand my work?”
This was my opportunity to reflect and learn about her work pressures as a PM. Even in those hard moments, we can take the time to slow down, depersonalize the situation and learn through our differences. Through the tension, and staying proactive, a more meaningful relationship could emerge.
Conclusion: Seek progress, not perfection
It’s not going to be perfect. Conflict is a natural part of human communication and emotions will bubble up. We can choose to stay anchored by recalling our purpose, values and boundaries, as well as recognizing what’s in our control (or not).
Most of all, celebrate your wins, and track your progress. Regardless of what happens at work, you can always take your learnings with you.
What have you found helps you to maintain practice building? Comment or reach out to me — I’d love to hear what your experience has been.
About Clara Kuo
Clara is UX research leader with 10+ years experience, including building new research practices at different companies. She helps teams to connect and empathize with users, especially in fast-paced startup environments. Previously, she led “team-of-one” practices at different startup companies. She holds a MBA from the Middlebury Institute at Monterey, California, where she also took a course in organizational psychology, and informs this article.
Acknowledgments:
ReOps Editors & Volunteers: Jake Burghardt, Melissa Hack and Nelson Taruc — thanks for your thoughtful feedback that helped to bring this article to the ReOps blog.
For further reading:
On team and work psychology
