UX stakeholder relationships

1. Primary stakeholders

Product managers (PMs)

PMs are responsible for communicating a clear vision of what needs to be done and execute it by leading cross-functional teams.

They sit at the intersection of the business, marketing, development, and design teams.

It's essential to keep them in the loop with everything you're doing so that they can ensure your progress aligns well with other teams' resources and schedules.

The key is to communicate often and provide them with clarity on your progress as well as any potential issues or risks that you might encounter along the way so that they can course-correct risks across the teams.

This is why, when starting a UX project, it’s important to understand the desired business impact. Ask your PMs for the KPIs they’ll be tracking to assess the success of your solution.

Developers (devs)

Devs are the ones who actually bring your designs to life. They are the keepers of the code. Without them, there wouldn’t be a product.

It's essential to involve devs as early as possible in the product development cycle so you don't run the risk of creating designs that are unnecessarily hard to implement.  

They often come up with alternative solutions and think about edge cases, error states, etc., that no one else on the team considers.

Once you've completed your designs, devs will ask you questions to understand how to interpret the screens you provide them. There are many details that a static image can't communicate.

Provide the design specs so they can understand and code the screens you give them.

Communicating with developers is a two-way street. You don't merely send them screens and hope for the best. That's a recipe for disaster.  Instead, help them understand your designs. Be a good listener. Be responsive to their feedback and concerns.

Invite your PM into discussions with devs so nothing gets lost in translation and everyone is on the same page.

It’s important not to assume that all devs fully understand UX design.  If they don’t know much about it, help them understand more about the UX process and how users are co-creators of the solution. Otherwise, devs might push back on your designs because they might think that you came up with them entirely by yourself.

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Executives

Executives could be Directors, Vice Presidents, or in the case of smaller companies, the CEO.

On the one hand, unlike PMs or devs, executives are not a part of the tighter product team, so you’ll rarely interact with them. On the other hand, even though execs are barely involved in the design process, their opinions can literally make or break your solution.

With execs, the key is to provide them with the certainty that you’ve done your due diligence to solve the user and business problems. Translate your work into numbers because that’s the language they speak.

Just showing them the solution without covering the business context, user context, and research findings, would, in most cases fail. Tell them the why and how before you even bring up the what.

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2. Secondary stakeholders

Project managers

It’s worth noting that sometimes, when people say “PM,” they mean project managers, not product managers. In the world of UX, when you hear people say “PM,” most of the time they are referring to product manager. In our program too, “PM” designates product managers.

Project managers want to ensure that every project is on time and under budget. They have a bird’s eye view of many projects to understand how to make all teams as successful as possible.

Depending on the company you work for, you might or might not interact much with a project manager.

If you run into a roadblock in your project, they’ll want to know as soon as possible so that they can provide immediate help. Depending on the situation, they might extend the project timeline and/or add extra resources to help you and the team move forward.

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The marketing/creative team

Many different roles make up the marketing and creative teams:

1. Marketers who want to understand the problem that your solution solves as well as provide you with feedback and context. They care that the product and the marketing strategy are aligned in successfully solving the audience’s pains. This enables them to market the product in ways that resonate the most with the target segment.
2. Product marketing managers who ensure that the product and the marketing teams are aligned. Without them, it’s easy for both teams to work in silos, and come up with a product that does one thing, and a marketing strategy that misses the mark.
3. Visual designers who create the visuals that the UX designers need to polish the product experience. An example of this would be visuals for empty states or larger, more detailed icons.
4. Creative directors who want to understand your project’s design and intent so that they can help their team be aligned, and set a corresponding creative direction.

With the marketing team, the key is to gain mutual understanding and find alignment on how the product solves someone’s problem. Marketing and UX are very similar as they both aim to solve user pains.

As for the creative team, pay close attention to the style guide they use. Ensure your designs follow their styles, branding requirements, etc. The goal is to ensure that any visuals that are in your product align with the creative direction set by that team.

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External influencers like IT or sales.

This group is much more remote, and you might not directly interact with them, yet they will at some point gain awareness of the product you’ve built.

It can be a good idea to reach out to the sales team to learn more about the customer from their perspective.

Stakeholder relationships are at the center of creating great products. 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of stakeholders which can be really confusing. 

So in this video, we'll go over the key stakeholders you will typically encounter. And we'll tell you how to effectively communicate with each of them.

This lesson is seriously packed. To follow along, don't forget to download the lesson slides. Go to kickassux.com under the free UX course page.

Alright, let's get started.

The main people that you will interact with are: product managers/owners, (PMs), developers (devs), and executives. 

Secondary stakeholders include project managers, the marketing creative team and or external influencers like IT, or sales.

As a UX designer, you are responsible for researching and creating the designs that will be built by the developers.

Let's dig into the specifics.

During the research and understanding phase, you will work with your PM to understand the business problem that you are solving. 

If you have UX researchers at your company, you will help them put together a research plan to understand user goals. If you don't, you'll be the one completing all the research task. 

Once you have clarity on the business and user goals, you'll work with a PM, UX researcher, lead developers, and other stakeholders to frame the problem. 

Then you, your PM and devs would listen into user interviews conducted by the UX researcher.

You'll analyze the data with the researcher to come up with a general design direction.

Once you've defined the exact problem to solve, and the product team is on board, you will go onto the next phase of the UX process, information architecture and wireframing.

In this phase, you mostly work with the product manager. They'll provide feedback on your storyboard story, map and wireframes. 

Also make sure to involve devs during this phase to ensure that your designs are feasible and realistic. In general, it's a good practice to continually check in with devs and involve them throughout each phase to ensure they can actually develop your design.

Then in the next phase, prototyping and usability testing, you'll work alongside the product manager and UX researcher to put together a usability test plan that defines all the tasks that your prototype will account for. 

That way, you can create an end to end prototype with all the necessary screens and interactions.

Then you, your PM and devs would listen into the usability test conducted by the UX researcher. 

After completing your usability tests, you'll work with the UX researcher to analyze the findings. This will help you develop an actionable list to address user feedback.

Depending on the company you work for once you've gained the confidence that your solution solves the problem, you'll put together a deck to share your designs and research findings. 

A wide array of stakeholders will listen in during that meeting such as product managers, developers, design leadership, UX researchers, project managers, and executives. 

This is a make or break meeting because this is where your designs are ultimately approved or not.

Finally, during visual design and handoff you'll work with other design team members to ensure that you're using the right design patterns and that your designs are consistent within the product.

Once you and your design team are satisfied with the look and feel of the final designs, you'll give them to the developers to implement.

Handing over the designs is a process and not just a deliverable. Depending on the project, this can last for days, weeks, or even month. You'll collaborate with your developers very closely, provide them with the necessary assets and answer any questions they might have about your designs.

You'll also address all the edge case scenarios that developers need. 

For example, how does the interface resize when the screen gets smaller. 

Does text truncate? Et cetera. 

You'll assist developers in interpreting your design so that the end experience is as close as possible to what you've defined.

As you can see, the UX process is not a solo practice. It's essential to be a team player and work alongside different types of stakeholders to build a successful product. 

As in life, communication is a central part of UX design.

Learning the jargon and how to communicate with others on the team takes time. 

We can't stress this enough, communicate early and often.

Here is an important quote from Tom Greever's book " The most important thing you can do to improve communication between you and your stakeholders is to improve those relationships, earn trust, and establish a rapport that will speak more for you than your words."

Let's now talk about how to best communicate with each stakeholder. Starting with product managers, PMs. 

PMs are responsible for communicating a clear vision of what needs to be done and executed by leading cross-functional teams.

They sit at the intersection of the business marketing development and design teams.

You can think of them as conductors who find alignment with all teams to solve business and user problems as efficiently as possible. For example, if a team has five months to build a feature, product managers ensure everyone shares the same vision while making sure the necessary resources are in place to ship a quality product on time. 

Expect to spend a lot of time with your PM.

It's essential to keep them in the loop with everything you're doing so that they can ensure your progress aligns well with other teams' resources and schedules. Imagine your usability test indicates the architecture of your product has to be seriously revised.

The product manager would be responsible to communicate and follow up with the team to ensure that the new architecture is built on time. 

Not communicating soon enough about your progress with PMs could put time pressure on other teams and result in missed deadlines.

If you're falling behind, don't keep it a secret. It's impossible to manage. Be sure to communicate sooner than later. 

Think of a PM like the captain of a ship. 

They have the final say on when things happen and the general direction. 

As a UX designer, you like the first mate or navigator. 

You set the direction and keep the captain informed so that they can make the best decisions. 

The PM role is to tie business and user goals together.

PMs ensure their team produces a well designed and useful solution for users.

They measure this by tracking key performance indicators, KPIs. This can include adoption, engagement and retention rates. To effectively communicate with PM, show them how your solution solves user problems while supporting business objectives.

This is why when starting a UX project, it's important to understand the desired business impact. Ask your PMs for the KPIs they will be tracking to assess the success of your solution.

Now let's talk about developers, devs. Devs are the ones who actually bring your designs to life. They are the keepers of the code. Without them, there wouldn't be a product. As a UX designer, you live in a world where anything is possible. Developers on the other hand, provide you with implementation boundaries.

It's essential to involve devs as early as possible in the product development cycle, so you don't run the risk of creating designs that are unnecessarily hard to implement. Keep in mind that implementation boundaries should not restrain the user experience. Design for the ideal world. If you run into complications, it's important to discuss how to scale the design back with the product manager and the lead developer so that it can still be built on time. Communicate with them early and often to bring their unique perspectives to the table.

They often come up with alternative solutions and think about edge cases, error states, et cetera, that no one else on the team considers.

It also helps them feel more involved in the product definition process. 

If they don't know what you're designing, they can't plan for the work. 

What may seem trivial to you as a UX designer could in reality, take weeks or months for a developer to build.

Also, if you don't involve them early, devs may be more reluctant about implementing your solutions because they feel like their voice haven't been heard.

Once you've completed your designs dev will ask you questions to understand how to interpret the screens you provide them. There are many details that a static image can't communicate. Provide the design specs so they can understand and code the screens you give them.

Communicating with developers is a two-way street. You don't merely send them screens and hope for the best. That's a recipe for disaster. Instead, help them understand your designs. Be a good listener, be responsive to their feedback and concerns. 

From time to time conversations with devs might be hard to understand. That's normal because both roles use very different vocabulary.

If you don't get what they're saying, ask them to explain.

You're better off telling them that you don't understand rather than nodding and not knowing what you agreed to. 

That's especially true for junior designers. 

Don't be scared to admit that you don't understand something. That will fast track your learning.

You can also invite your PM into this discussion so nothing gets lost in translation and everyone is on the same page. All in all developers are great to work with, as they provide a unique perspective and actually build what you design. If you provide them with the design spec they need, listen well, and ask them to clarify things you don't understand, you'll be well on your way to building a great relationship.

It's also important not to assume that all devs fully understand UX design. In fact, you'd be surprised to learn how blurry some devs understanding of your job is. Some have no idea that you arrived at your final designs after testing them with users. It's essential to check their understanding of UX. If they don't know much about it, help them understand more about the UX process and how users are co-creators of the solution. Otherwise devs might push back on your designs because they might think that you came up with them entirely by yourself.

When they have questions or concerns about your solution, provide them with as much context as possible. 

Show them all the thinking and testing that went into your designs. 

Often their concerns are valid from a technical standpoint. 

It's your job to explain where users struggled and succeeded as an anchor for your argument. 

With devs, communicate the value that your designs have on the user and the business.

Finally, let's talk about executives. Executives could be directors, vice presidents, or in the case of smaller companies, the CEO. 

Even though execs are barely involved in the design process, their opinions can literally make or break your solution.

Once you're confident that your designs effectively solve the problem and that you have enough supporting data, put together a slide deck to present your work and research findings.

That's the meeting where execs have an opportunity to chime in. Often it may be their only opportunity to provide feedback as they have little time on their busy schedules. 

With execs, the key is to provide them with the certainty that you've done your due diligence to solve the user and business problems. 

Translate your work into numbers because that's the language they speak.

Let's say that you've redesigned the signup experience and that the success rate went from 80 to 95%. That's something you would want to highlight. However, don't just rely on numbers. 

As a UX designer, you are the voice of the user. It's powerful to share some of the most impactful quotes that you've heard during the research. The key is to provide execs with the whole story so they understand how you go to your solution. 

Just showing them the solution without covering the business context, user context ,and research findings would in most cases fail. 

Tell them the "why" and "how" before even bringing up the "what."

Finally, they will give you feedback. They have a lot of context that you don't have and often have a unique perspective. When they provide feedback, don't be defensive. Show them that you heard and value their feedback. There are two types of feedback, the type you agree with and the type that you don't. Regardless of what you think it's crucial for you to listen to execs, ask clarifying questions and thank them for it.

Now, if you agree with the feedback, say something like "thank you, this is great feedback, and we'll think of a way to integrate it in the solution." Then move on, and after the meeting go fix it. If you don't agree with the feedback, ask clarifying questions to be 110% sure that you're on the same page. If you still disagree respectfully, bring the user back into the conversation and/or how the solution supports business objectives.

Use the findings from your user research to back up your decisions. 

Then, ask if that addresses their concerns. 

If it does, great. 

If it doesn't thank them again and assure them that you'll work on it. 

After the meeting, check in with your manager to understand how best to proceed.

Now that we covered all the primary stakeholders, let's talk about the secondary stakeholders, starting with project managers. Before we begin, it's worth noting that sometimes when people say PM, they mean project managers, not product managers. In the world of UX, when you hear people say PM, most of the time they're referring to product manager.

In our case, PM designates product managers too.

Now that we covered this, let's dive into more details about project managers. They want to ensure that every project is on time and under budget. They have a birds eye view of many projects to understand how to make all teams as successful as possible. Depending on the company you work for, you might or might not interact much with a project manager.

If you end up working with them, keep in mind that time and resources are the two things they care most about. If you run into a roadblock in your project, they'll want to know as soon as possible so they can provide immediate help. Depending on the situation, they might extend the project timeline and, or add a few extra resources to help you and the team move forward.

Clearly communicate about the progress of your project and tell them about concerns and any other issue that could impact the schedule and budgets they've set. Be proactive about it. For example, if there is a 20% chance that something might derail a project, even though it's only 20%, you need to let them know. And the sooner, the better.

Another type of secondary stakeholders are the marketing and creative teams. 

Many different roles make up the marketing and creative teams.

First, there are marketers. They want to understand the problem that your solution solves as well as provide you with feedback and context. The care that the product and the marketing strategy are aligned in successfully solving the audience's pains. This enables them to market the product in ways that resonate the most with the target segment.

Second, you might also work with product marketing managers who ensure that the product and the marketing teams are aligned. Without them, it's easy for both teams to work in silos and come up with a product that does one thing and a marketing strategy that misses the mark.

Third, there are visual designers who create the visuals that the UX designers need to polish the product experience. 

An example of this would be visuals for empty states or larger, more detailed icons.

Fourth, there are creative directors want to understand your project design and intent so they can help the team be aligned and set a corresponding creative direction. 

With the marketing team, the keys to gain mutual understanding and find alignment on how the product solves someone's problem.

Marketing and UX are very similar as they both aim to solve user pains.

Marketers help their audience understand why and how the solution addresses it. 

And UX designers design the solution itself. 

The goal is to help each other get aligned. 

That way what's marketed, describes what the product actually offers.

As for the creative team, pay close attention to the style guides they use. Ensure your design follow their styles, branding requirements, et cetera. The goal is to ensure that any visuals that are in your product align with the creative direction set by that team.

Finally, the last set of secondary stakeholders are external influencers, including IT, sales, et cetera.

This group is much more remote and you might not directly interact with them. Yet, they will at some point gain awareness of the product you've built. It can be a good idea to reach out to the sales team, to learn more about the customer from their perspective. 

Salespeople usually know more about users and their pains than the UX designers themselves, because they talk to customers every single day. 

Salespeople can be a great resource to quickly gain an understanding of the customer pains without having to conduct any research yourself.

And that's it with this lesson. 

That was a lot of information, so don't forget to download the lesson slides. Go to kickassux.com under the free UX course page. 

Hopefully, this lesson gives you better clarity on what a product team looks like. 

But keep in mind that depending on the company, these roles can vary.

They are not set in stone.