5 Ways Designers Lead with Reciprocity
There’s a sense that when design thinkers and customers get along it’s good for their working relationship. Actually, this feeling of mutual benefit — aka a practice of reciprocity — is more than just a nice-to-have. This is what leads to better products, a more equitable society and increased business value. The catch? Reciprocity doesn’t happen on its own.
The key to reaping these benefits is actively pursuing the idea of a two-way street. That means building it into team cultures and timelines. Read on for five ways to start today.
“Designers who practice reciprocity engage in authentic conversation, welcome shared learnings and lean into mutual accountability,” says Cynthia Kaschub, Research Architect, Salesforce Design.
Cynthia experienced this first hand during her recent work with Salesforce.org Impact Labs. The goal of each six-month-long Impact Lab is to identify a scalable solution to help address a specific social cause. Director Amy Guterman explains, “It’s a cross-sector, collaborative initiative aimed at developing innovative technologies to help address complex social issues.”
Right now, the project is focused on promoting equity in education through solutions built on the Salesforce platform. Twenty-six Salesforce employees called “Pro Bono Fellows” are volunteering their time, skills and passion to design and build a solution. They joined forces with 15 “Community Fellows” that include education experts from community colleges, HBCUs (Historically black colleges and universities), K-12 schools, and student-serving nonprofits.Together, the working group has committed to putting reciprocity first.
They design with — not just for — their customers.
The current cohort is focused on designing solutions for educational institutions to better support Black and Latinx students who are considered “nontraditional learners” by the U.S. Department of Education. Nontraditional learners include students that are the first in their family to go to college, over the age of 24, working full-time while attending school, or taking care of children full-time.
As the team progresses, they’ve learned how to invest in reciprocity and mutual benefit. At a virtual session with The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) this spring, the team shared how those in similar fields can do the same.
When the customer benefits in the process, it yields better outcomes for everyone involved. To do that, here are some simple communication and collaboration tips and tools.
1. Create space
People want to feel seen in their experience. Designers engage customers in this way by making well-designed products — and also by making room for open conversations during the collaboration process. It’s one thing to listen when customers talk. It’s quite another to create space for honest sharing. The key here is making it easy to feel seen and removing the burden of initiation.
Impact Labs did just this. They set aside time for Pro Bono and Community Fellows to be vulnerable, share ideas and ask questions. One of the Pro Bono Fellows, Salesforce Innovation Executive Danielle Raynal, saw the value of creating space even through Zoom.
“Encourage teams to look at remote facilitation as an opportunity to include and amplify voices that may not be comfortable or confident speaking up in person,” she says. With this in mind, her team created the digital collaboration board below to democratize the process. It’s a small move that could be seized by all design teams.
2. Practice humility
For co-creation to work, designers can embrace a team-first mindset. This starts with recalibrating one’s own view of their importance in the equation. Being humble is a powerful message to customers and one that builds trust. It’s also a way to come into a project with a beginner’s mindset, which allows for more possibility.
“We had to recognize in starting the project that we weren’t the experts in the topic area,” says
Tracy Potter, a Pro Bono Fellow and Salesforce Lead Product Designer on Platform Design. To do this, she recalls putting aside her personal experiences — something all designers can consider.
For example: During the Equity in Education Impact Lab, Community Fellows questioned some of the language in the problem articulation. They encouraged the team to replace the term “underrepresented minorities” and instead name the specific groups: Black and Latinx. The design team acknowledged their oversight and humbly made this change. Doing so improved clarity and ensured their customers felt seen.
To continue unlocking these authentic conversations, transparency also comes into play.
3. Be transparent
Designers can build trust over and over by putting it all on the table. There’s a tremendous benefit to talking openly about roles, expectations, relationship dynamics, hopes and fears. It leads to mutual accountability. With that, customers have a greater comfort in sharing honest disclosures of pains, issues and insights.
“That openness added a dimension of vulnerability that is not usually present in corporate settings,” says Akanksa Chaubal, Pro Bono fellow and Salesforce Experience Strategist.
The Impact Labs team asked Pro Bono and Community Fellows, “How do you like to receive feedback?” Some answers included candor and mutual respect. Therefore, they used this input as anchors throughout each co-creation session.
The team even went so far to explain who the internal stakeholders were and how they contributed to the project. This is what it looks like to openly share information from customers. When there’s trust, there’s an incredible opportunity to include everyone.
4. Democratize the process
“To me, democratizing the process is making sure every voice is heard,” says Francis Afriyie, Pro Bono Fellow and Salesforce Experience Design Consultant. Though designers may have more knowledge about certain approaches, all big problems require multiple perspectives. It’s collective input that guides designers to the right solutions.
One way Impact Labs democratized their design was with a voting tool. This way, every voice would be heard — even those who might shy away from taking the stage. Concepts were evaluated through Menti, an anonymous voting tool seen below.
When the systems are set up for success, here’s a reminder not to forget to celebrate.
5. Celebrate others
When a team is sharing power and enabling success, ring the bell. We all need to experience moments of reward and celebration. It’s also a great way to sustain teamwork and group dynamics.
In the first design workshop they ran, Impact Labs encouraged sharing success stories in addition to all the pain points and unmet needs. For example, in the design workshop, Pro Bono Fellows played a recording of an interview with a student to provide inspiration for the group. In the recording, the student reflected on the time they received an encouraging handwritten postcard from their college. The gesture made the student feel like someone really cared about them.
Celebrating is another way of creating space to feel seen, which connects to the first advice above. The truth is: Reciprocity is a layered process that builds mutual benefit with consistency.
Francis confesses he sees why other designers skip it, too. It takes added time — and means not jumping straight to design.
“In my experience the intentionality of practicing reciprocity is the biggest challenge,” he explains. “If you’re like me, the design part tends to be more fun than getting input from everyone involved. But practicing reciprocity means intentionally creating situations for feedback and collaboration.” His co-fellow Aksanka has also experienced this effort. She says, “I have to slow down and make time for it.”
The drive to be more intentional syncs back to Relationship Design — Salesforce’s creative approach to driving business and social value that’s focused on building relationships with customers, employees, and community. It’s about more than one customer. This design approach comes down to the connections between people. That’s why it encompasses four mindsets of Relationship Design: compassion, courage, intention, and reciprocity.
When a team of designers is aligned to practice reciprocity, they can try the ways that worked for the Impact Labs team.
Consider creating space, practicing humility, being transparent, democratizing the process and celebrating others. Eager to start? Skill up on these ideas and more with the Relationship Design module on Trailhead.
Interested to learn more?
- Watch the Reciprocity By Design panel
- Watch Relationships by Design panel
- Watch Leading with Courage — A Fireside Chat
- Skill up with the Relationship Design module on Trailhead
- Read Building Relationships by Design
- Read How Higher Ed Models are Evolving to Support Nontraditional Learners
- Read Announcing the Second Impact Lab on Driving Equity in Education
- Read Why Your School Should Make Wellbeing a #1 Priority in 2021
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