Shhh: top secret guide to effective stakeholder management

And promoting the impact of your designs.

Being a designer is a unique function — not only do you know how to approach problems, but also, you are often the person who works on the actual execution while sitting at a table with business executives, developers, and users. However, collaborating with so many different people requires suggesting feasible and profitable ideas while standing up for your customers and their goals when needed.

At the beginning of my journey as a designer at a larger organization, I experienced a situation when I was presenting my work to 10+ people having various roles. I probably wouldn’t mention this story if it wasn’t for the fact that we devoted a lot of time to participate in the review session, and we couldn’t find a solution that everyone involved would accept. Three people were speaking at the same time and urging me to change the wireframes in front of them, to swap colors, to make one line bolder, one line thinner, to highlight a text field, to make something similar to an Excel sheet… but prettier. The meeting was extremely hectic, and I didn’t know whom I should listen to as I was still new to the team. On top of all the stress and messy designs, I wasn’t even satisfied with the result.

It was the last time I allowed a situation like this to happen. As soon as we ended the meeting, I also put an end to my “Okay, let me try” attitude. I knew I had to become more confident in my design skills, apply a more convincing logic, and stand for what I knew was right when necessary.

Stakeholder management is one of the key skills that every designer should have to confidently present and accommodate various ideas. Unfortunately, no boot camps or schools teach how to collaborate with your stakeholders and gain their trust — it comes with experience. Whether you’re a junior designer putting your first steps in the industry, a “design team of one,” or a less confident mid-level designer still struggling with pushing your ideas forward, there are a few simple tricks that you should apply to effectively manage your stakeholders.

Build trust, be loved

It takes a great deal of time to learn how to convince other people to listen to you or even seek your opinion when they face challenges. One of the key ingredients that both of you need is trust. You may be new to your company or even the field, and maybe you’re still unfamiliar with the working style and preferences of your key stakeholders. On the flip side, you must take into account that they’re also unfamiliar with your working style. They may not be sure if they can entirely rely on your expertise, and this uncertainty can limit both of you. That’s why, instead of throwing yourself straight into work on day one, try to spend some time building connections and learning a thing or two about your stakeholders. Trust doesn’t appear in one day, but once you start building your relationships with people, it will be easier for you to openly exchange ideas. Even though stakeholders are probably not your target users, they’re experts in their own areas, which is why you should trust each other and know how to collaborate. If they don’t trust you now as you’re reading this, they won’t listen to you… just yet.

Sell a story

Our average attention span lasts for approximately 8 seconds. It’s pretty short, isn’t it? This is how much time you may have to capture everyone’s attention and invite them to actively participate in your brainstorming and review sessions. The greatest design ideas are always backed up by an even better story. Remember that your teammates devote at least 30 minutes of their time to participate in your session. Some see your designs for the first time, some are unfamiliar with the context, and others are very likely sending an email or two in the background while you’re presenting (we all do that sometimes). Try to twist in some storytelling elements to keep everyone engaged. On the other hand, a compelling intro story will put all the focus on you and your voice, and from there, the stage is all yours.

Find your voice

If stakeholder management isn’t your strongest skill, it may be because of your assertiveness or confidence levels. However, confidence comes with experience. It’s completely normal if you haven’t settled into your new role yet. This can also be one of the reasons why you’re reading this article now. Allow yourself some time to adjust and you’ll notice how you grow.

If you feel that it’s already been a while and nothing’s changed since you started, you may have to adjust your approach and become more influential and assertive. One of the basic ways is getting comfortable with saying “no,” followed by a clear elaboration on the context. For example, instead of saying: “I don’t think this is a good color.” say: “No, I don’t feel that this is the right color. We have already tried it in the past, and it didn’t work for us because of XYZ.” The second option sounds much more assertive and presents a clearly stated reason for your opinion, while the first one reveals some uncertainty and leaves room for further negotiation if someone’s come up with a stronger argument.

Quantify the impact of poor designs and clearly highlight your role

Most of your stakeholders come from other backgrounds than design, and they’ll be more likely to listen if they see your words backed by numbers. If you noticed that a large percentage of customers get confused at one particular point in the journey or they tend to bounce between various pages before moving to the next step, show your insights to everyone and explain how you’d like to improve that experience. Tell your stakeholders what’s currently missing and how you can improve it together. Showing a go-getter attitude can be crucial to ignite team spirit. Many designers often miss the opportunity of bringing greater impact to areas outside of design. However, designers are also the facilitators and connectors between different departments, and our work can essentially convince customers to either hate or fall in love with the end solutions.

Build design thinking awareness in your team

If you feel that your stakeholders underestimate your input and role as a designer, try to organize some fun design thinking workshops to show what your role is really about! Not all stakeholders are familiar with what designers really do, but increasing that awareness in your workplace will show that design isn’t only a creative field, but also that it’s highly analytical and profitable if done right.

As a designer, whenever you’re exposed to a problem, you always try to view different perspectives, make comparisons, and analyze all factors before suggesting a solution. Teaching some design thinking basics through entertaining activities will be a great way to meet other stakeholders and make everyone more aware of a typical design process and your daily responsibilities as a designer.

Show the impact of your work

Many designers often miss opportunities to adequately promote their solutions or achievements, which is why other teams may not be aware of the impact of your work. However, good designs can be measured quite easily. For example, you can regularly conduct surveys to check customer satisfaction levels and see how they change over time. Moreover, you can look how sales have changed since you made some functional or visual improvements.

Instead of jumping to the next task, collect all the hard data illustrating how your design decisions impacted your product. Next, try to find a way to present the results to a wider audience inside your organization. This will surely encourage your stakeholders to trust your vision more as the next big project approaches.

In a nutshell

Some stakeholders are averse to new ways of thinking and doing things, and it can be tough to change their minds if you strive to introduce radical changes. Even when the current solution has major flaws and your only intention is fixing them, your stakeholders are more likely to seek out experiences familiar to them rather than testing something new unless they see a clear evidence that the current solution doesn’t work. Instead of viewiyour stakeholders as adversaries, treat them as collaborators and involve them in your design processes from day one. If you’re still having trouble encouraging them to listen to you, be patient, aim to gain their trust first, facilitate conversations, and try to increase the design thinking awareness in your team. This will help you promote your skills and convince everyone to trust your expertise in the future.

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