Strengthening Partnerships
A positive relationship between UX designers and stakeholders is vital to bridging the gap between user needs and business objectives. Clear communication, mutual understanding, and shared priorities are needed in order to successfully align objectives. To strengthen these relationships and streamline work, a solid, documented framework for partnership expectations needs to be in place. Empowered teammates and a shared focus equals exceptional value delivered for the users and organization.
Project Overview
Timeline & constraints
~4 weeks (Dec ‘23/Jan ‘24)
Had to make use of existing company tools
Role & Responsibilities
Map out current state of design and stakeholder partnership
Propose an ideal state of partnership
Identify ways to implement the ideal state
Users
Primarily Product Managers
Any other individual/discipline with influence on the project
Challenge
Determine the root cause of problems in the design/stakeholder relationship
Identify success metrics
Problem Space
A team’s limited capacity
At the time of this project, the design team consisted of two designers and a design lead. Due to the limited capacity, the team operated as a service model, where stakeholders would reach out when they needed design’s expertise. They would submit a ticket into product design’s backlog for the team to refine and slate for upcoming sprints. Over time, the design team realized that more stories were spilling over into the next sprint than anticipated, which extended timelines of expected deliverables.
Discovering a roadblock
Every sprint, design held a refinement session to go over tickets in the backlog and prepare them for the next sprint. This included filling in any gaps or determining next steps to clarify any open questions. The problem?
Ticket format varied depending on stakeholder
Stakeholders weren’t always present at refinement to give context or clarify any questions
Lack of participation and follow up extended deliverable timelines
Given this observation, how can design and stakeholders clear this roadblock so they can experience tighter collaboration and shorter project timelines?
Discovery
An insight revealed: what does design do?
I was having a conversation one day with a product manager about a future project and he wanted my input/ideas around it. He mentioned that he wanted to hold a brainstorming session with other disciplines in his pod to pinpoint problems but failed to mention any participation from design.
Is he not aware that we can facilitate and participate in that session, or at least be a part of the planning?
I mentioned to him that design can help with brainstorming and ideation and can also participate to bring our user-centered perspective. He seemed almost relieved/thankful that design would be able to help.
This was the beginning of the realization that product managers lacked clarity around design’s role.
“I’m not sure when to approach design.”
“What does design do?”
“How can design help my team accomplish our goals?”
I audited design’s current intake process. How were stakeholders reaching out to design? What were they asking us to do? Where were decisions being documented? Any gaps in communication would confirm the opportunity to improve the design and stakeholder partnership.
Mapping out the main ways of communication revealed the risk of:
Information being siloed
Information being forgotten
Extended project timelines
Image of the flow of the current design intake process
Identifying the gaps
Now that I had a visual understanding of stakeholders were approaching design for work and discovered that they aren’t clear on our role, I wanted to create the 2-week sprint schedule and highlight the rituals that were important for stakeholders to attend. If they struggled to understand the role of design, a good start would be for design to align on what is important for stakeholders to be a part of and encourage their participation.
Image of a 2-week sprint calendar that highlights meetings that are important for stakeholders to attend.
From main insights to hypothesis
1) Lack of stakeholder participation in important meetings can lead to extended project timelines
2) Stakeholders lack clarity around design’s role
3) Gaps in communication process between design and stakeholders
These are the three main insights I gathered from my observations and conversations with stakeholders. I formed a hypothesis to help guide me in brainstorming solutions for these problems. The hypothesis?
If design educates stakeholders on design’s capabilities and establishes a process of communication, then they will know what and how to ask for our expertise.
Design
Getting the team aligned on next steps
I shared with the team my research and hypothesis for what needs to be solved. I wanted to discuss the current state of our stakeholder partnership and flow of our intake process and what the desired state would be for a stronger partnership and flow of our intake process.
Remember that giant workflow in the section above? I proposed a better flow, and it’s a lot smaller!
Image of the flow of the design intake process
Image of two columns that explain the current state and the desired state of design’s intake process.
The team reviewed my artifacts and pointed out that the desired state of the design and stakeholder partnership didn’t mention educating them on our capabilities as a design team. Also, what form would stakeholders be using to submit their requests to the team? With this feedback in mind, I came up with three approaches to strengthening the design/stakeholder partnership.
Paving the way for partnership success
Approach 1 - dedicated Slack channel for design and stakeholders to communicate
Slack had multiple channels for design and stakeholders with no clarity around their purpose. I made a channel dedicated specifically for asking and answering any questions around our role and how we could serve them. I provided a channel description and also sent a message stating the purpose of the channel.
Approach 2 - set up a digital repository for design team information
Most teams used Confluence for project documentation. The design team had a couple of spaces, and it wasn’t clear which one could be considered the “source of truth”. I created a space within the proper org and my first priority was to create an intake form.
Approach 3 - remind stakeholders of upcoming relevant meetings
In order to save time on projects, stakeholders needed to attended refinement meetings and design critiques if their work was going to be presented. Their absence was due to lack of clarity around our role and process and design’s lack of communication. A quick win would be to use the dedicated Slack channel to remind them of upcoming meetings to encourage their participation. Long-term success would include educating them on our role and services we offer.
Wait, there’s already a form?!
Once I had the Confluence space created, I worked on the intake form and included as many important questions as I could so that we would receive as much context as possible. I shared this form during a design critique and was asked the question, “How will they access this form? It seems like a lot of work to have to copy and paste when there is an existing form.”
This was news to me. I asked for the link and vaguely remembered it from months back when another designer was working on it. The form, once submitted, converted to a JIRA ticket into our backlog.
What was the issue then if there was already an existing form?
Intake form I created in Confluence
Intake created to convert into JIRA ticket in design’s backlog
The issue with the JIRA form was that not everyone knew about it/was using it, and even if they were using it, we still weren’t getting all of the information we needed. There was an opportunity to clarify the existing form. The team decided to push using the existing form and give it some time, then we would gather data around its usage and decide where to go from there.
Creating a useful and educational space
The purpose of this space is to share with stakeholders knowledge about design’s services and processes. This alone won’t solve the education and communication issue, but having a space that they can come back to will assist in clarifying design’s role and the gaps in communication.
There are shortcuts for the main reasons why a stakeholder would be coming to this space, information on each service we provide and the rituals that take place.
Moving Forward
Measuring approaches for success
Measuring outcomes is vital to determining if the team is moving in the right direction. How will the team know if the approaches to solving the problem are working? Knowing what to measure will help assess when/what needs to be adjusted.
Metrics for approach 1
Dedicated Slack channel for design and stakeholders to communicate
Speak with stakeholders after two months of using the dedicated Slack channel and get feedback around how it helped and where things could be improved
Rating scale 1-5 on how having a dedicated Slack channel supported the stakeholder collaboration and communication for quicker turnaround
Metrics for approach 2
Digital repository for design team information
For two months, tally how many JIRA tickets are using the intake form
Compare completion timeline for intake form tickets vs. non-intake form tickets
Rating scale 1-5 on how having a dedicated design space supported the stakeholder in understanding design’s role and when to approach them
Metrics for approach 3
Remind stakeholders of upcoming relevant meetings
Track stakeholder attendance for two months
Compare timeline for previous tickets vs tickets that have had stakeholder attendance to important ritual meetings
Conclusion
The design team discovered that projects were extending past their original delivery time and partly attributed the delay to insufficient project information. Through research, it was revealed that stakeholders don’t have a clear understanding of design’s role and when they should approach for work. I determined that with education, encouragement, and a dedicated repository, projects could be completed in less time. The partnership between design and stakeholders would also grow and strengthen when they have an understanding of how design can positively impact their work.