In our How to Win Stakeholders & Influence Decisions program, we guide experienced UX professionals (like yourself) to develop the behaviors and traits necessary to become a successful UX leader.
Making that transition requires that individual contributors talk and think differently about their relationships with stakeholders. The approach we take is to introduce some new approaches to collaborating.
In this article, I describe five phrases that bring a lot of power to the stakeholder relationship. Enjoy…
Five Power Phrases for UX Leaders
A shift happens when you move from working as an individual contributor to serving as a UX leader. It’s a radically different way of working; the change trips many people up.
Individual contributors are told what to work on next. The individual contributor’s manager or team lead assigns a new project, and the individual contributor works on it. Then the individual contributor gets another assignment, and they finish that.
UX leaders don’t work like individual contributors. They don’t wait for an assignment. Instead, they look for projects where they can add the most value. And they start working on them.
UX leaders make a shift from working tactically to working strategically. It’s a significant change. However, it’s where they can add the most value to their organization.
Don’t get me wrong. Tactical work is valuable, for sure. Without someone doing the tactical UX work, nothing would get done.
Without also doing strategic work, those things never get better. That’s the huge difference.
You don’t have to wait to become a UX leader.
UX managers are different from UX leaders. The organization makes someone a manager to ensure their team works effectively — an important function.
The organization doesn’t appoint leaders. Instead, a leader becomes a leader the moment they get a follower. Followers can come from anywhere. They look to the new leader to drive change in the organization.
UX leaders are people who have a vision for change. They see a different future for the organization. A future where the organization is producing better designs, using better processes, and delivering better user experiences. They’re working on strategy — shifting the organization to be better.
When someone becomes a leader, it’s because others in the organization believe in that leader’s vision of the future. Those followers are now ready to be led. They want to contribute what they can to make the change happen.
It can be jarring when you become a UX leader.
After a leader gets followers excited about their vision, they need to shift away from working as an individual contributor. So they must stop looking to others to tell them what to work on next. They need to go all in on their vision.
While becoming a leader expands their autonomy, it requires a different kind of support. The new UX leader needs buy-in from other influential people inside their organization. Otherwise, their vision will fall flat and never see the light of day.
The UX leaders we’ve worked with who have successfully found buy-in did so by approaching stakeholders and executives differently. We can boil their new approach down to five key phrases:
“How can I help you be successful?”
UX leaders need to win the support of key executives and stakeholders. Those people hold the power to push initiatives forward and can squash anything they don’t see as important. The executives’ and stakeholders’ buy-in is critical.
The effective UX leader is always tracking the priorities of their executives and stakeholders. As the leader forms their vision for change, they ensure they include these priorities.
After all, if the execs see the vision as a reliable way to achieve their priorities, they’ll happily support a UX leader’s approach. Yet, if they think the vision doesn’t consider their priorities (or worse, works to prevent achieving those priorities), the execs will use their influence to squash the initiative.
Therefore, a UX leader needs to discover what success looks like for each of those executives and stakeholders. If the leader can shine a bright light on how the vision works to achieve that success, they’ll see green lights going forward.
“How can I help you be successful?” is a core phrase of servant leadership. Servant leadership is an approach that puts each follower and stakeholder at the center of a leader’s focus. For UX leaders, it’s a highly effective way to move things forward quickly.
“Let’s talk about outcomes first.”
When stakeholders and executives express their priorities, they often do so by talking about the solutions they want to deliver. They say things like, “It’s a priority we deliver a new Data Export feature next quarter.”
However, this focus on solutions pushes everyone back into working tactically. It says what the stakeholders want but not why it’s needed.
The most effective UX leaders work to establish outcomes first. We can think of outcomes as the change we want to see because we delivered a thing into the world. If we do a great job delivering Data Export capability, how will we improve someone’s life?” Knowing the improvement in their life opens up the possibility of finding other (possibly better) solutions that achieve the desired improvement.
Separating the end goal from the approach to achieving it is very powerful. The UX leader makes the end goal the focus of their vision.
From there, they establish a plan to achieve it only after all the key stakeholders have bought into the goal.
Discussing the path to achieving a goal before stakeholders buy into it won’t work. Instead, UX leaders should discuss their planned journey only after the stakeholders agree on the destination.
“Where is this priority coming from?”
It’s possible that when a stakeholder tells you their top priority, it’s something they have chosen on their own. However, it’s also likely someone else set this priority. So it may be that the stakeholder doesn’t think they have a choice.
For example, it could be a priority passed down from their boss. Or it’s a high-priority need from a customer. Or this is the only approach they can think of to avert a crisis.
Telling a stakeholder their priority is wrong when they have no choice will get us nowhere. Instead, influential UX leaders ask where the priority comes from. Having this conversation often reveals why something is a priority. (“The buyer at XYZ corp said that we needed Data Export or the deal was off.”)
Once the UX leader knows the person who originated the priority, they can often find ways to explore alternatives for achieving it. What once seemed like a non-negotiable requirement now has flexibility built in. New options are now open for exploration.
“What I hear you saying is…”
Nobody likes to be told “no” when proposing an idea or action plan. A stakeholder's pushback on a UX leader’s plan can feel deflating. After all, everyone wants their brilliant improvement ideas to be embraced and supported.
For many leaders trying to propose a change, the natural response to that kind of resistance is to build a stronger case and argue for it. Unfortunately, that rarely works. The stakeholder digs in and doesn’t budge on their rejection. Deadlock engaged.
Things change when, instead of arguing, the UX leader starts to listen to their stakeholder. They listen for the reason why there’s resistance and pushback. Not just silently, but actively listening, repeating what they’re hearing to the stakeholder, then asking for more clarification and understanding.
The stakeholder feels heard. They know you’ve listened to them and understood their ideas.. Often, this is the starting point of reaching a compromise position. The UX leader and the stakeholder find an acceptable solution based on their mutual understanding of what each is trying to accomplish. Deadlock resolved.
“I’m trying to avoid surprising you down the road.”
The Doctrine of No Surprises philosophy encourages transparency in stakeholder relationships. In general, it promotes being open about what’s happening, so the stakeholder is never suddenly surprised by what the UX leader is doing or saying.
Imagine a UX leader who has big plans for how they’ll start making the product better. They work up a presentation and gather essential stakeholders in the room for a “big reveal.” Instead of the wow and approval they had hoped for, the UX leader gets criticism and pushback. They feel shut down.
Effective UX leaders employ the Doctrine of No Surprises by meeting with each stakeholder before everyone gets together. In each one-on-one meeting, the UX leader pre-wires their ideas with the stakeholder. The leader collects concerns and feedback and integrates what they’ve heard into the plan.
Now, when the leader assembles the whole group, nobody learns about the plan for the first time. Instead, the UX leader walks through all the stakeholders’ contributions and addresses the stakeholders’ concerns.
By following the doctrine and pre-wiring the meeting, no surprises will trigger pushback. Instead, the UX leader sees stakeholders adopting the ideas in record time.
These five power phrases embody a philosophy of leadership. They show that the UX leader is a team player, striving to benefit the entire organization. More importantly, these phrases are a great way to work as a peer alongside stakeholders, seeking their buy-in with a more practical approach.
Want more techniques for winning over your challenging stakeholders?
Look closely at our 16-week coaching program, How to Win Stakeholders & Influence Decisions.
A new cohort starts on Monday, May 5. (Additional new cohorts start on June 9 and July 7.) I’d love the opportunity to coach your journey to becoming a strong UX leader.
