A few weeks ago, I caught up with an old friend. Because he also happens to be a product manager, we spent a good portion of our conversation talking shop about product development.
My friend shared that he’s having challenges with his design team. Specifically, he lamented that “they’re not strategic enough.” He wishes they would be more vocal about sharing ideas for how to improve the product. He craves deeper partnership and is frustrated it isn’t happening.
Because I wanted to be of help – after all, I am a designer and want harmonious PM/UX relationships for all! – I put on my UX researcher hat. I asked questions about the design team and how it’s staffed. I also asked questions about how customer connection, strategic planning and decision-making happens at his company. After chatting for a while, we had a clearer picture of some of the barriers preventing a more productive relationship. While this single phone call didn’t resolve the challenges, we identified a solid list of topics for him to discuss with designers and other leaders at his organization.
If you’re experiencing similar challenges and want more strategic input from your design team, here are six questions to ask:
Are design team members regularly connecting with customers?
Getting the chance to engage with customers is square one for design teams. The tools UX practitioners leverage for these conversations are specifically designed to reveal unmet needs. These are not casual chats; they’re activity-based, associative exercises geared to uncover people’s underlying motivations and unvoiced needs. Without the ability to conduct robust, human-centered research, design teams will falter in their ability to generate strategic ideas.
Are design team leaders experienced in defining UX strategy?
Let me put it this way. Would you ask someone with no training and 2-3 years of experience to set your corporate financial strategy? No, of course not! The same framework applies to design strategy. Becoming skilled in making strategic design decisions requires practice. A lot of it. If you’re expecting UXers to engage strategically, make sure they have the training, experience, and runway to succeed.
Are design team leaders included in strategic forums?
Think about how product strategy questions are debated in your organization. Who’s in the Zoom when these conversations take place? Are design leaders present? If not, they’re missing vital context for understanding how decisions are made, what influences senior leaders, and what constraints the group is wrestling with. If senior design leaders are included, they will be able to interject findings from research initiatives when relevant and lobby for human-focused product improvements.
Do designers have adequate runway for strategic pursuits?
Many design teams are leanly staffed. It’s common for a single designer to support multiple products and/or feature teams at once. In situations like this, where a designer is a potential bottleneck for legions of engineers, the designer does not have the luxury to explore strategic concepts. They’re too busy cranking out wireframes. For strategy to happen, designers need time to think, test, and iterate.
Are strategic design recommendations given due consideration?
Sadly, many designers shy away from sharing strategic ideas because they’ve been burned in the past. This is an unfortunate, yet common, pattern:
Ask design team to explore blue sky concepts.
Design team delivers blue sky concepts.
Design team tests and iterates blue sky concepts with customers.
Customers love the new concepts.
The concepts are too expensive and time-consuming to build.
Nothing gets implemented.
Rinse and repeat.
After enduring repeated cycles of this pattern, some designers shut down, concluding that it’s not worth the effort. They retreat to their corners and deliver what they’re told to design.
If this pattern exists in your team, consider framing the request differently. Instead of blue sky concepts, ask for 2-3 potential design solutions to a clearly defined problem that could be implemented in 1-2 quarters. And, instead of asking designers to work on the problem in isolation, create and free up a product trio, consisting of a designer, product manager, and engineer, to generate solutions together.
Finally, do designers know you want them to be strategic?
I know this seems basic, but expectations misalignment is a classic source of team friction. And if you’re wanting designers to engage differently, this is a great place to start. First, tell the designers you’re working with that you want more input. See how they respond. Do they raise challenges or concerns? Great! Now, you can begin to have a dialogue.
Once you’ve heard their side of the story, you can work together to define what strategic design input means for your team and co-create a plan to go after it.
Now you: Have you experienced this dynamic before? How did you address it?
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