HCD Project is Not All About The Meat, Sometimes It’s About The Table Manners
When we talk about how to run a successful human-centered design or UX project, practitioners usually focus on the content-related aspect: the methodology, the way we conduct the research, and how from the research we can come up with the relevant solutions for the problem we are currently solving. The Meat. But actually, many other things could affect the trajectory of our projects. One of the things that I think is crucial is stakeholder management: mapping who is involved and how we communicate with them, The Table Manner of a project.
Mapping stakeholder involved
We need to know who within the company we need to engage. This is not just so we know which divisions we need to talk to build content awareness, but also to create buy-in. This is important for two things: easier navigation within a project, but also to make sure the result of the research can be followed up to implementation.
Who has the biggest influence?
Consider who would have the biggest influence, either the one that is supporting the project, or the one who is skeptical or against it. Involve them regularly, so we can hear their feedback or concerns. Sometimes, these people give hard feedback not because they have concerns, but simply because they can. Some people want to exercise the power they have. By engaging them from time to time, we can understand their concern and address them along the way, reducing the chance of them dropping bombs at the very end of the project.
For example, in a company that has a top-down approach usually if we can get someone from the higher-ups who believes in the initiative to speak in the kick-off meeting, it would make the communication to these related divisions much easier.
Who will be impacted the most?
The other party we need to consider is the one that might have been the most impacted or do the hard work to implement the initiative. Try to understand what they have been doing so far and what are their blockers. Explain how our project might impact or solve it. They might have already spent months doing another related initiative and see our project as a threat. See how we can collaborate or use what the team has been doing so far. By doing this, we are reducing the risk of the result of our project being not implemented due to the related stakeholders not feeling valued by us.
In a project where we created a visitor experience strategy for a heritage museum, we involved divisions that are directly related to visitors: curators, exhibition, education, and public services. However, at the beginning of the project, we did not realize that there were two different teams of curators handling the artifacts, the more senior in terms of hierarchy. Having realized that later on in the project, we set a dedicated session to run through the progress of the project and all the findings we had so far. When they learned about our findings, they felt a bit devastated. Based on our findings, it felt that they were not doing their job properly, but it was only because they had some limitations that made them unable to do it properly. When sharing with the higher stakeholders, we made sure to not only share the findings but also the team’s challenges so they could have what it takes to implement the result later on.
Communicating with the stakeholders
When sharing case studies in public, I often heard questions “Oh, my stakeholders don’t care about our users, they only care about the numbers. Do you know how we can make them care?”. In terms of content delivery, there are a couple of ways to make it more engaging, mainly focusing on how to make the insight ‘alive’, which can be using videos or quotes from our customers. But what I want to highlight is, the way we present the project is also a crucial part of it. Here are several learnings I got in talking with the stakeholders:
What’s in it for them?
When we talk about human-centered initiatives, often we only focus on the customer’s perspective, but forget that our internal stakeholders are also human. They have their KPIs they need to achieve as well, they have their problems to solve. When we talk to different divisions, try to think about how our project might be beneficial to them so they are interested in engaging with us.
Avoiding lost in translation
Let’s be honest, practitioners use a lot of jargon. Persona, Stimuli, Prototype, Discussion Guide, IDI, to name a few. These jargons are not common or they might have different meanings outside of HCD or UX knowledge. Try to use more publicly known terms to make what we are conveying easier to understand. For example, instead of saying Discussion Guide we can use a list of questions for the interview, instead of Stimuli we can use initial concepts.
Another thing to consider is to learn the stakeholders’ ‘language’. Sometimes they have a specific terminology that they use to explain a certain business process. Familiarize ourselves with the terms so at the very least we understand what they are saying to us, better if we can convey what we want to say using their ‘language’. We could miscommunicate just because we are not on the same page. By doing these, we are reducing the gaps between us and them.
Establishing authority
Not all people know or already believe in the human-centered design or even the qualitative approach. Even if we already have the right methodology, the right research activities, picking the right participant samples, all would be thrown out of the window if they don’t believe in the overall approach to begin with. Try to understand these beforehand. If we think they are not in the same boat as us, it will be a good idea to present case studies that demonstrate successful stories of the approach, to make them onboard.
Sometimes the question of authority is not about the approach, but about us personally. They may doubt whether we can deliver the project, especially if the project is quite complex. We can combat this by inserting some of our previous track record when we explain the methodology or activities we will carry out to convince them.
We are visual creatures. We judge based on what we see. Sometimes, the way we present ourselves could heavily affect the reception of the content we are sharing with the stakeholders. The way we dress, the way we stand, and the way we engage with stakeholders could contribute to whether they believe in what we say or not. One story I heard from my acquaintance in handling a government project was that they got underestimated because their stakeholders felt the project was handled by a team of ‘students’, as they are wearing business casual outfits and backpacks when meeting with them. So we need to adapt a little bit to make sure we are ‘presentable’ according to our stakeholders’ standards.
The next time we are navigating a HCD or UX project, let’s not focus only on the content level of it, a.k.a The Meat, but also on how we deliver the project to the related stakeholders, The Table Manner. Map the relevant stakeholders: understand who supports or is against the project and who would be impacted the most. Adjust the way we communicate to the stakeholders by finding aligned interests, avoiding miscommunication, and establishing our authority in the subject. These are to ensure the meticulously cooked dishes we prepare are palatable and can be enjoyed, thus leaving a good impression on them.
Uka is a Lead Design Consultant at Somia CX, In his spare time you can find him trying out new coffee beans he ordered from his favorite roastery, or trying to establish two-way communication with the neighborhood felines.
You can find more on his writing here or visit his LinkedIn to learn more and connect with him.
