Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Peter Berrecloth Image credit: George Becker

Design is stakeholder-centered too

Pursuing a project without the buy-in of stakeholders may lay your idea to waste. At the worst, you may expend efforts delivering a great project only to find it is knocked down at the final hurdle.

User-centered design is stakeholder-centered

Stakeholder engagement is a key part of a UX, and shouldn’t be seen as an after thought. A strategic designer should be thinking about stakeholders early on, as much as their users. They can make or break a project.

Here is a stakeholder map you can you use to help.

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Using this chart will let you visualise who are the main blockers or allies at any given point. You need to keep tabs on the key players and adjust your tact accordingly. Part of stakeholder engagement is really like winning chess pieces, but in a nice way. This is a game of tactics and strategy.

Tactics vs Strategy explained

There is one broad strategy that I find most important:

It would not be helpful, for example, to gather all the stakeholders in one room to brief/discuss a project. Sometimes it is best to work on each person individually, and ask them what is most important to them. Then provide them with a benefit that is most relevant to their needs.

Once you have most people on board with your project or idea, it is now safer and easier to bring everyone into the room. There will be less questions, cross talk and noise to deal with and the hard work is now done.

By involving everybody in the design process from the start, you gain buy-in sooner, individuals are not working in silos, and are working towards a common goal.

The best place to start with in identifying your key stakeholders is usually your Project Manager.

Stakeholder engagement in essence.

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UX Design: Win over your stakeholders was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

UX Design: Win over your stakeholders

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