A Seat at the Table

Why Researchers and Strategists Should Sit in on Tech Meetings

by Emily Cox

Emily Cox has 10 years of experience in brand management, brand strategy, customer research, CX strategy and communications. She leads customer research and branding efforts for SingleStone, helping clients create unique experiences, communications and products that benefit both customers and the bottom line.

I’m a researcher and strategist who works in a tech consultancy. I often work with our app dev and digital engagement teams, designing and building the right systems and software for the right people.

At SingleStone, we work on small, cross-functional teams using Agile methodologies, so I’m often an active participant in meetings where our engineers and tech leads discuss the architecture and business requirements of our solutions. I get to watch them push and pull as they find the right balance of constraints and freedoms, prioritize features, build architecture and design the user experience in a way that ultimately benefits our clients.

To be clear, I’m not a developer. Much of the language and concepts used in these meetings is opaque for me. But I’ve learned that having a seat at the table, really paying attention, and wrestling with concepts outside my comfort zone, has been a boon to my work — and helpful for me as a human being.

Here’s why I think my fellow researchers and strategists — and anyone else in a non-tech role, really — should sit in on tech meetings:

• You’ll recognize the biases of your own brain.
  The other day, my team and I played a game to help us prioritize platform features. After a few minutes of playing, I became aware that my attention was attracted over and over again to a particular feature. Interestingly, it was one of the few features I clearly understood. Our brains have a very special, and very misleading, way of prioritizing and emphasizing things we’re familiar with. As researchers, if we fall into this common trap, it means we run the risk of producing biased results and missing opportunities and insights. Becoming aware of my own biases has helped me make recommendations that are more accurate and more actionable, and therefore, drive better results.
• You won’t succeed on auto-pilot.
  Let’s be honest. Most of the time, our attention is divided — especially in situations where we feel confident in our skills and expertise. When you put yourself in situations outside that comfort zone, you have to listen more carefully, ask lots of questions, and — with the help of the team — test out your own ideas and assumptions. Frankly, this is the way we should be paying attention in every meeting. It makes for better ideas and teamwork. It also makes things more interesting and fun. Tech meetings force me into that space, and help me exercise my weaker focus muscles.
• You’ll become a beginner again.
  “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki
  Being out of your element means you can’t fake it. It also means you have to embrace new concepts and ask a lot of questions. Tech meetings create opportunities where I’m allowed to be a beginner. When I allow myself to be a beginner, my senses of wonder and appreciation activate, while the pressure I put on myself to be an expert and my instinct to resist unfamiliar ideas, deactivate. In short, tech meetings create a space where my creativity and a new perspective are invited to flourish. This is where great work originates.
• You’ll have more lightbulb moments about your own work.
  You can’t do great market or customer research for a system or product you don’t understand. Listening to our tech teams talk about their work gives me insight into research I’ve already started, and shines light on areas I have yet to explore. When you excuse yourself from tech meetings, you risk missing important information. Plus, listening to new concepts and working to understand them has been proven to open up new or little-used neurological pathways in your brain. Great research is often about looking at problems from a different perspective. The new inputs and information offered in tech meetings give you that perspective.
• You’ll be more relevant.
  Even if you’re not in tech, chances are your business is somehow fueled by tech. Whether that tech is used internally or it’s customer facing, understanding it helps you better understand the interworking of teams, companies, markets and consumers. This is the raw material of real, actionable research and strategy.
• You’ll appreciate “push and pull” within a team.
  I’ll be the first to admit that people challenging my ideas makes me uncomfortable. I know I’m not alone. But taking part in tech meetings has allowed me to change the way I perceive challenges. I have listened to our tech teams push and pull, challenge one another, and respectfully disagree — and I’ve learned to appreciate that this is the environment that allows for breakthroughs and shared ownership. Welcome challenge, and you’ll see better output.
• You’ll become humble — fast.
  If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that it’s easy to feel confident if we don’t have to stray outside our area of expertise. Stray (see “You’ll become a beginner,” above). Nothing will make you appreciate the cooperation of cross-funtional teams and the vast and varied knowledge of your peers more than listening to them talk about what they know best — and what you know little to nothing about. Jump into the deep end of someone else’s world, and you’ll be better for it.