Bringing stakeholders along the journey in user research
Throughout the years that I have worked as a UX researcher, I faced clients resisting to accept the “truth” revealed through user research, but when I started adapting design thinking approaches within the process I found they became far more engaged with the research. Here are some tips that will help you to engage your clients more with your research where user research becomes a ‘team sport’!
I did EVERYTHING by the book
I have always been a user’s advocate, supporting my case with user research findings and trends within similar businesses. I believe that “a happy customer is a loyal customer, hence long-lasting business”. I would classify the issues based on their severity and their market impact to the business, recommending fixes that could be as simple as changing the style of a button or rephrasing an error message.
Yet, even after this comprehensive research and elaborate plan of “how to fix things”, the client was never as eager as I was expecting. They were denying the truth of having problems with their product! I saw their resistance as “they have been in the business for years, and things are going good for them so far. How could a 30-year-old outsider come and talk trash about their baby?” I know I needed to change my approach to bridge the gap in our understanding of the problems.
Mistake #1: Not having the decision makers in the room
The little researcher in me investigated why I’m having such responses and reactions. Is it me? Is it the slides deck? Haven’t I emphasized enough the importance of UX research and hearing from the users? I then realized I engaged with a single department and didn’t involve a service owner or another department that may have equally been involved in the journey. That was the first gap! To them, I was an outsider who knew 5% of their product and strategic plans for it. How could I expect them to be on board when I didn’t involve them from the beginning?
Identify & map who’s involved in the problem space
Start with identifying who’s part of the problem space and which part of the problem they own. Meet them and get to know them, understanding their hopes & worries so you can better bridge their needs with the user’s needs. Taking this approach before beginning a research plan means you’re taking the time to understand your stakeholders, reducing potential risk of friction later on. You’ll get find out where they sit on the spectrum of championing user-needs whether they’re a skeptic or an advocate.
Mistake #2: Listening to only 1 side of the story
The second gap was focusing on only one type of users — Customers. Despite involving the client in planning the user research activities, we would be focusing on only one part of the problem. This is where I missed another opportunity! I thought the research activities are tied to each other; where the findings from one activity would feed into the preparation for the next one, but what I missed is that talking only to the customers would reveal only their side of the story. We didn’t have the full picture. Doing user research with different types of users such as service providers and front line staff means you’re getting a better understanding of the problem, reducing the risk of solving the wrong problem.
Involve all stakeholders and keep them updated
Instead I started researching everyone who is directly or indirectly involved in that process (prioritizing direct and primary stakeholders), using different research activities. For example if someone was on the field, I would tag along to observe, or if I needed to know how a user would behave with a product, I would conduct usability tests. I observed, talked, listened to as many involved parties as time and budget would allow me, and with every person I met I learnt something new about the process. I was getting closer to highlight the pain points in a user’s journey with a product or service.
Engage decision makers throughout the process
If you have noticed so far I haven’t mentioned anything about recommendations or fixes. Because last but not least, the recommendations were co-created with the product owners.
Yes! I learnt that a key factor in getting my voice heard as a 30-year-old consultant in a room full of directors and executives, is to engage them in the solution! Let them own the fixes; my role is to facilitate design thinking activities and be their brain teaser, whether it is by talking about new ravishing technologies or referring to a competitor who is using a specific approach. And when they felt that it’s their idea they became defendant of them, and I’m no longer “a 30-year-old outsider who is there to call their baby ugly”!
