How I learnt to not tell clients the wrong thing

I Clients

@silverfoxyboy1

or, how I learnt to not tell clients the wrong thing at the wrong time❤

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What are consultants for?

What value can we bring as outsiders?

Why should anyone listen to us?

The experience of working with in-house UX teams and the things I’ve learnt from putting my foot in it with them prompted these questions.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6165071206/

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Boosting resourceTelling you new stuff

Saying unpalatable things Consultants only really do three simple things... How hard can it be?

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‘Taboo decisions’

A story of design decisions that became taboo in the organisation that made them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6164516245/

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‘Evaluate the UX’

Evaluate the holistic user experience of a new website.

Up to that point the usability of the sites content, features and functionality had only been tested in isolation

Would it work as a complete site?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aisforangie/10641940/

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Unpalatable truths

Yes, the features were usable but the users didn’t need them and couldn’t have used them even if they’d wanted to.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scarty/448574138/

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Trouble

The site had taken 2.5 years to get to this point. The legacies of this development time were taboo decisions that couldn’t simply be undone.

Key stakeholders positions would be severely undermined.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spam/3999645772/

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Flawed

For the stakeholders change was not an option despite the flaws in the sites UX.

How can you talk about and achieve change when there is ambivalence to change?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadiapriestley/177264274/

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Addiction

My wife’s a Doctor.

She talks to people who’re ambivalent to change everyday.

They’re addicts. They’re rarely open to change to start with.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23001753@N07/3502752406/

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MI - Engagement

Motivational interviewing techniques allow us to talk constructively to people about their ambivalence to change.

1. Engagement: open questions, reflective listening and summarising what you hear. Basic UX research techniques

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexisnyalphotography/5298367033/

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MI - Selective guiding:Selectively eliciting questionsSelectively reflecting what a client saysSelectively elaborating what a client saysSelectively summarising what a client saysSelectively affirming what a client says

2. Selectively guiding a conversation: elicitation, reflecting, elaborating, summarising and affirmation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nvbr11/5643604921/

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MI - Evoking

3. Evoking change talk.

Move the clients conversation away from the satus quo toward change talk.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dabdiputs/424621519/

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MI - Planning

4. Planning affirming the change by making plans for change.

LInk to MI Article

http://www.stephenrollnick.com/index.php/all-commentary/69-motivational-interviewing-article-published-in-the-british-medical-journal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leoglenn_g/7353535184/

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Boosting resourceTelling you new stuff

Saying unpalatable things

But never in isolation,only during dialogue

Design like change is the product of dialogue. Neither can be done in isolation.

For the client design and development in isolation had resulted in taboo decisions that couldn’t be questioned.

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Boosting the team

A new story superficially about boosting resource.

But really about how the uncomfortable politics that result when unpalatable comments are made

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxkiesler/2256119157/

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Impartiality

What can go wrong if you’re talking about UX problems where an internal team is answerable to multiple stakeholders?

Simple surely...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/binaryape/62517866/

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Politics

The result is tricky questions like these for the internal UX team:

Why didn’t we think of that earlier?Didn’t we try that idea last year?What’s wrong with our UX team?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradfordcoy/3192034327/

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Facts not insights

This is what i heard...

‘Walt... can you stop making recommendations.’

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadiapriestley/177264274/

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Facts not insights

Just like the first story, isolation breaks the UX flow.

No dialogue creates poor decisions

Data and insights in isolation from the context will be ignored or have no meaning.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alainalele/5043787909/

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Directive consultingYou propose guidelines,

persuade or direct in the problem solving process

Non-directive consultingRaises questions for reflection

Old fashioned management consulting shows how to avoid these problems.

As consultants the contract has to be clear... what have qwe been asked to do and why

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6165053376/

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Directive consultant

Non-directive consultant

I was over here

They were over here

Make sure you and the client are operating in the same space before you start.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6165053376/

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What is it you need recommendations or observations for?

Why do you need them?

Who’ll see the report apart from you?

Who’ll be watching the final presentation?

What decisions are you going to be making based on this study?

These are the types of questions I like to include in the opening conversations to avoid the skirmishes that can occur later on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visentico/260490492/

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Boosting resourceTelling you new stuff

Saying unpalatable things

But understand the context

There’ll be more than one agenda affected when you mention unpalatable things. Make sure you understand the context you’re in.

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Culture 2 - Users 0

Two quick stories about organisational culture and why organisations ignore you’re research

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6165050684/\

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Don’t make life difficult for me

In large organisations the cultures prioritises the delivery of a project over the ongoing success of the project.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kvitsh/33287776/

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We won’t do that

In other cultures the emphasis is on being seen to be doing something. Activity is the priority even when the direction is fruitless

http://www.flickr.com/photos/killbox/528962244/

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Was it something I said?

What was I doing wrong?

What could I do differently?

I’d stuck my foot in it because I hadn’t grasped two things that in combination created problems.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymollypop/2686219775/

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Difficult to measure success

1. both sites were lead generating / mind-share sites. Not impossible to measure, but hard to measure in meaningful terms to commercial businesses.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aisforangie/10641940/

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Aspirational values

Becomingis best

Future orientated Competitive

Humans dominate

nature

Man isborn good

Static valuesJust being

is bestPresent

orientated CollectivistHumans in

harmony with nature

Man is born neither good

nor bad

Conservative values

Being activeis best

Past orientated Hierarchical

Nature dominates

humans

Man isborn bad

Activity Time orientation Social relations Human to Nature Human Nature

Being activeis best

“We can only go forward”

“I just has to be finished on time”

An organisational value matrix. The language the company uses can help you place them on the matrix and gauge the language needed to respond to them in a way that will be listened to them

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Change of approach

Understand the agenda of the person who’s leading the project. What will make them look good. How can that be allied to UX.

Introduce techniques that reflect the organisational values. if they find design hard introduce something like 6-up sketching to make it easier for them to be involved.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandralm/2221214088/

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Boosting resourceTelling you new stuff

Saying unpalatable things

Compassion for the culture

We must understand the culture we’re working with. We must have compassion for the culture we’re working with.

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‘It’s a chance for them [clients] to work with sharp minds from outside their teams, who will forward their agenda.’ - David Jarvis Are we any nearer

knowing what consultants are good for in a world full of internal UX teams?

Let’s ask a client...

www.slideshare.net/dcjarvis/what-its-like-being-a-client

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshaz/6165071206/

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What about the UX teams?

There’s something else we, as external consultants, should know...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/illegalcartoon/17231479/

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Your biggest competitor ?

The lanscape of competitors has changed too.

Who, now, is your biggest competitor?

The guy down the road?

Or, in the next city?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladyrivermouse/3588704511/

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Your client faces three options: using your service, not doing it at all, or doing it themselves.

In many cases, then, your biggest competitors are not your competitors.

They are your clients.

Harry Beckwith

Your biggest competitor is now your client.

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Thank you

walt.buchan@cxpartners.co.uk

@silverfoxyboy

+44 (0) 7980 344 310

Walt Buchan