UX people LOVE to talk about what they do.
Which is understandable – we love our job, and we think that by understanding the user’s perspective and tailoring designs around how they think, work and do we can produce solutions that makes the world s little better – one project at a time. But when “Uxers” share what is shared is most often focused on technique instead of solutions.
I’ve sat in conference rooms where colleagues presented a standard “walking deck” on UX, and most of the slides are all about the process – Research! Concept Designs! Usability Testing! Documentation! All exciting fascinating “inside baseball” stuff, but… what happens when you are discussing UX with business people and customers?
Too much how – the process – and not the why will not convince anyone of the value of UX. It’s like a dentist explaining how he cleans his equipment between patients. You don’t care, you just want to get that filing done so it won’t hurt when you chew.
There’s the funny meme around the honey badger from 2011 – “Honey Badger Don’t Care.” And, when it comes to the decision makers I meet on a weekly basis, when it comes to UX process, you can restate that: “Business People Don’t Care.” Because the decision makers just want to see the results, and the value.
Why UX? Why engage a UX team? What problem does that solve? While UX has been more widely accepted over the past ten years, you still have a
I met with a particularly stubborn customer just a week ago, who questioned the number of hours we had estimated for a project. “What am I getting when I pay for all these hours?” And that is an absolutely legitimate question. If I had an elitist attitude, I would have been offended by it – Thankfully I was able to rationalize the budget because I could show and describe the value that the team was bringing. But it still too some convincing.
The key is to not be defensive, and to use that key skill all good UX professionals have: Empathy. In a slowing economy, decision makers are under increasing pressure to cut costs and have to defend their decisions to management on a regular basis. Give them evidence and ammunition to help THEM support and sell UX.
(Be careful not to fall into the “deliverables trap”, which is to focus on making gorgeous design documents that don’t actually define real solutions or add value. A good design doesn’t need to be captured in a portfolio-ready piece: it can be captured on a whiteboard or a napkin, as long as it is the RIGHT solution for users.)
I close referencing the quote that I used to title this piece. “Sell me this pen.” In The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jordan Belfort continuously asks his sales team to sell him a pen, to make a point. Only one of the people in the film provides the right answer in response. “Write down your name on that napkin.” He can’t because he doesn’t have a pen. Supply and demand.
Companies need to apply user experience design thinking to create better solutions for their users. They don’t need to know how it’s done or what we think as we do it – but they need to have the value clearly communicated to them. Use every engagement, every conversation as an opportunity to showcase that value. Be clear, and describe outcomes. Have UX, make better more engaging products and offerings.
Sell them that pen.