Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement, when done right, elevates UX from a functional team to a strategic force within your organization. When done poorly, you might find yourself repeatedly defending why a "hamburger menu" isn’t the solution to every design problem.

Understand your stakeholders like you understand your users

We preach user empathy and therefore we should extend that empathy to our colleagues. Stakeholders, like users, have their own needs, pain points, and goals—understanding these can help you tailor your approach.

Here's a few starting points to elevate your engagement strategy:

• Map the stakeholders: identify who’s involved in your project—including product managers, engineers, marketing, sales, and executives.

  • As you create the map, make sure to elevate specific decision makers for specific parts of the project.

• Define Their Goals: what does each stakeholder care about?

  • For example:

    • Product managers want features that drive business value.

    • Engineers care about feasibility and technical constraints.

    • Executives focus on ROI and big-picture strategy.

• Uncover Pain Points: ask questions to uncover frustrations.

  • For example, you can ask "What’s been challenging about past design projects?"

You can quickly organize this content with a simple quadrant diagram showing "Influence vs. Interest" to prioritize your efforts.

Communicate in Their Language

The entire team won't have you visual thinking or design skills, and therefore won't think in wireframes and journey maps. Tailoring your communication to the stakeholder’s perspective is critical.

As you think about your stakeholders on a deeper level, ensure it resonates with your communication style:

• No design jargon: for example, instead of saying, "This design improves discoverability," say, "This layout helps customers find what they’re looking for 30% faster, which reduces churn."

• Use data, avoid gut feelings: stakeholders love numbers. Pair qualitative user feedback with metrics like conversion rates, task completion times, or Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

• Adapt to their medium: some stakeholders love a good Figjam board, while others prefer concise slides. Match their preferred communication style.

Each meeting is like a UX testing session—what works for one stakeholder might not work for another. Iterate until you’ve nailed the delivery with your style and tone.

Bring stakeholders into the process

The best stakeholder relationships are collaborative, not combative. Involving them at the right time can build buy-in and reduce resistance later.

While you develop empathy and communicate in their style, pare back the curtain on design:

• Educate without overwhelming: teach stakeholders about UX processes, but don’t drown them in design theory. A 10-minute overview of a specific topic like usability testing can go a long way.

• Invite input strategically: early in the process, involve stakeholders in activities like problem definition and prioritization exercises.

  • Problem definition workshops can help align on goals and user pain points.

  • Prioritization exercises can help them decide which problems to tackle first.

• Gatekeep design details: resist the urge to show detailed mockups too early. Focus on concepts and frameworks initially—remember that low fidelity wireframes often result in high fidelity feedback.

Utilizing a "Discovery-to-Delivery" timeline to show where stakeholders’ input is most valuable. For example, highlight where you might validate concepts and later on where UI design could be finalized.

Use storytelling to build alignment

Data tells, but stories sell. You are more likely to find a champion for your design decisions or projects if they connect emotionally with the user's story.

Remember that storytelling is a skill that can be deployed to all aspects of work—not just the UI itself:

• Create personas that resonate: focus on user stories that align with business objectives—grounding the design solutions in user pain points is sure to win.

• Use before-and-after scenarios: show how your design will improve the user experience. Comparing time savings, user satisfaction, or efficiency allows your stakeholders to advocate for the project in other meetings.

• Leverage visuals: use journey maps, prototypes, or even simple storyboards to bring user challenges to life.

It's always best to keep the ball rolling on projects, so closing the story with a call to action is a strong recommendation here.

Disagree without being disagreeable

Stakeholders often have strong opinions about design, and we all know that not all ideas are good ideas. Learning how to push back tactfully is a critical skill.

As design projects progress toward completion, some degree of negotiation is inevitable:

• Reframe "No" as "Yes, and...": instead of outright rejecting an idea, build on it. For example, saying "Yes, adding this feature could be valuable, and we’ll need to validate it against user needs."

• Ground your response in data: leverage any and all user research or analytics to justify your position. If you're at a larger organization, get in touch with the research team. If you're at a smaller, leaner org, NN/g can help on just about any topic.

• Propose alternatives: offer solutions that address the stakeholder’s underlying concern.

Always remember to document decisions and their rationale—it'll help align the team with a record of user research and business alignment.

Show value to build trust

Stakeholder relationships thrive on trust, and trust is built through results. Showing the value of UX, whether thats delivering quick wins or going above and beyond to formulate a roadmap, show stakeholders you're invested.

Thinking on a quicker timeline initially, and building some quick wins shows how you can drive results:

• Target low-hanging fruit: identify easy-to-fix usability issues that have a big impact. For example, creating a prioritization matrix with long standing goals can be a piece of this collaboration.

• Set realistic expectations: under promise and overdeliver—state the hypothesis on the low end, and monitor results for unexpected gains.

• Showcase success: when you're winning, don't be shy about it—share results widely.

It's always best to celebrate wins publicly and give credit to stakeholders for their input. It strengthens relationships and encourages future collaboration.

Evaluate and iterate your strategy

Just like design, stakeholder engagement isn’t a one-and-done task, it's best to regularly assess and adjust your approach.

Building productive relationships takes time. To accelerate that timeline, frame your questions and appeal to stakeholders' expertise:

• Request feedback: be transparent in your aspirations and ask you collaborators, "How can I better support you in achieving your goals?"

• Analyze what’s working: reflect on recent successes and challenges—and share those experiences with transparently with.

• Experiment with new techniques: try different methods for collaboration, such as co-creation sessions or design sprints.

Maintaining your own "Stakeholder Engagement Playbook" to document what works and what doesn’t— sharing it with your team to build collective knowledge.

Stakeholder engagement is an art and a science. By building empathy, communicating effectively, and fostering collaboration, you’ll position UX as a strategic partner within your organization. You might even convince that one stakeholder that the "hamburger menu" isn’t always the answer.