Christmas Special (Working with Stakeholders

What’s up Ugly Unicorns? This is my Christmas post to round out the year and bring a little holiday spirit to the info I’m sharing here. Expected? Probably not, but hey: every hit show has its own holiday episode, and that’s the energy I’m bringing today. Hot cocoa and plaid jammies are optional, but highly recommended!

Introducing Our Fur Babies!

My wife and I don’t have any human children, but we have some fur babies. We’ve got a full-breed dachshund named Kobe, and a mini-pinscher/dachshund mix named Lilo.

They are both about six years old, so no puppies here. We have old dogs and they don’t know any new tricks. In all honesty they know exactly zero tricks! Unless you count eating, peeing on stuff, and cuddling with us humans as tricks. In which case, they are very accomplished pups. Maybe even overachievers.

Kobe and Lilo are the best for when you want to snuggle up in the cold months, watch Netflix and drink some wine. No eggnog allowed in this house, sorry eggnog lovers!

Making Me Cry

I got a great message today from Maya, a Spanish designer who contacted me on LinkedIn. What she wrote literally made me tear up, it’s too good not to share. Brace yourself:

“Today I found this UX podcast from Eric Abram, and I only just finished Episode 1. But I absolutely love it… what he said about his experience really resonated with me when he asked about how he just hated sitting there creating pretty things. I get it.

Not long ago I started losing interest in doing graphic design. I feel like I didn’t really create any value. While my work looks decent enough to satisfy my client, I didn’t really want to show anyone… I didn’t really feel proud of how it looked.

And while I was trying to figure out where I went wrong, I bumped into UX and the more I learned about UX, the more I believe that this is the bridge between me designing pretty things, maybe non-functional stuff, and me creating usable design that is actually beneficial to other people…

There’s nothing more satisfying than finding a successful role model, someone who used to have the same problems as you and now they are able to solve it.”

Be still my beating heart.

Inspiration Goes Both Ways

Needless to say, it made my day (really my week!) to see that message from Maya. It’s always so cool when you stumble across something that answers questions you didn’t even really know you had. I’m honored that my podcast is helping Maya find some answers and inspiration.

Knowing that I’m reaching people around the world is insane. Knowing I’m making an impact on other people’s lives? That’s priceless. So what I learned from this is to make sure I tell people when they inspire me. Inspiration goes both ways.

Sharing What I’ve Learned So Far

So like I’ve been saying, it’s great to know that my podcast and other content is making a positive impact. The things I’ve shared so far are not always UX-focused only, because a lot of my experience relate to branding, owning a business, and having a growth mindset in general. All those things can obviously help you in your career, UX or not.

Another skill that transcends UX? Being able to effectively present your ideas and your work. So that’s what I want to focus on for the rest of this post: talking to people about what you do and why they should get on board. In other words, talking to stakeholders.

Work on Your Speaking Skills

When I started working in UX design, I was kind of afraid of talking to people. Now I know what you’re thinking:

“Eric, why the heck are you running a podcast and a YouTube channel if you’re afraid of talking?!?”

Guys, talking to a camera is just NOT the same as talking to real live people. Especially if you have to do that in-person. And interacting with stakeholders is something I had to learn to do well.

Get Out of Your Head

It’s really easy to jump to conclusions, and try to guess what people will like, what they’re not going to like, and how they’re going to react to you. But the more you think you can read people’s minds, the more likely you are to be humbled when you find out what they’re really thinking!

So the first step? It was getting out of my own head, AND the heads of the people who were listening to me. Going in with zero expectations, open to where the conversation might lead.

For example, one day I was presenting designs to some stakeholders, and they loved it. They had some feedback, but overall they said the design and the flow was great. All they really wanted to change was to add one extra screen. That was it. It was a 15-minute, cut and dry meeting. 

You wanna know how much time I had scheduled for that meeting? An hour and a half. Because  even though I knew my work was good, I couldn’t really predict how that meeting would go or how those stakeholders would react. I left things as open as I could.

Make Room for Ego

This might sound funny, but by scheduling a long meeting with plenty of time for feedback, I was making room for ego. Because not every set of stakeholders is going to be content with listening and approving.

A lot of people feel they have to express themselves and share feedback even if they like what they see. It’s human nature. So in my opinion, it’s wise to make space for that. If some stakeholders want to give me super-detailed feedback on every aspect of my work, fine, I can work with that. And if others are happy and move forward without much critique at all, awesome!  You have to get to know who you are working with and allow for different people to process in different ways. And you have to leave some room for development, rather than turning in a perfect prototype at the start.

Leave Room for Development

So, am I saying you should leave things a little unfinished or unpolished? Really?

Yes! At least when you’re first presenting your work. Because sometimes it’s better to not knock things out of the park right away. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

In other words, leave a little room for the final details. Make sure the foundation is rock-solid, but let your stakeholders use their voice to help you add the finishing touches.

Helping Your Stakeholders Feel Included

If your stakeholders see something that looks complete right away, they’re instinctively going to feel left out. And who left them out? In that moment, it’s going to feel like you were the one to leave them out. Yikes.

By leaving room for development, you’re giving stakeholders a chance to engage, but not to overdo it. Their ego gets a chance to express opinions and concerns, but their lack of knowledge doesn’t get to tear through your entire project and make you start over. Trust me on this: you don’t want things too perfect right away.

Thicken Your Skin

You may have already noticed this, but a person who can’t handle feedback is the worst to work with. The absolute worst. So who do you have to become? The guy or gal who can receive criticism and respond without taking offense.

This takes some practice, so go ahead: practice. Get in front of a mirror or record yourself on your phone. Think about some of the feedback you might receive about your ideas or the work you’ve done so far. Imagine the kind of criticism or questions you might get, and then plan how you will respond.

If you’re working in a team, you may actually want to do this together. Or you can plan who will take which kinds of questions. Sharing that responsibility in a meeting is important; doing it smoothly and coming across like you’re on the same page? It’s what will set you apart from the rest.

Don’t go into meetings like they’re a battle. Coordinate with your team and create wins for everyone! Even if you have to push back on criticism, you can do that diplomatically with some practice.

Making the Most of Your Meetings

So, what are you going to do to prep for your next meeting with stakeholders? How are you going to best present yourself, your team, and your work?

• Share what you’re learning so everyone around you can level up with you

• Leave room for feedback and flexibility

• Work on your presentation skills

• Get out of everyone’s heads: don’t assume you know what people are thinking

• Make room for ego

• Help your stakeholders feel included

• Respond diplomatically to critique

If you have the best product in the world but your stakeholders aren’t happy, you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle. So think ahead, think strategy. Practice and plan with your team. It’s extra work, but it’s worth it.

Wrapping Up the Year

Christmas is a time to be thankful, and I’m super-thankful for each and every one of my readers, followers, and future Ugly Unicorns testing the waters of UX design here with me. I appreciate every new subscriber, every commenter, and all of you no matter what stage you are in on your UX journey.

It’s going to be a good year, folks. I hope you stick around. ;)