In this discussion, Jared will explore how we work with confident stakeholders who don’t think we need to do research (or choose to ignore the research we’ve done). He’ll share how focusing on assessing and reporting confidence can improve the results when we need to rely on our guts for important decisions.
How this discussion will go:
Things to keep in mind with Zoom:
We will post the recording for this session within a day.
Today’s Notes
"I know what our users need." – stakeholder words that make UX professionals cringe.
"We aren't our users." – a mantra of the UX profession.
In any project, there will be moments when it's tempting for stakeholders to make critical decisions based on what they believe is true.
They're tempted to do this instead of relying on insights gleaned from user research.
UX leaders are quick to condemn this practice.
Design is the rendering of intent*.***
Rendering is primarily a process of decision making.
When stakeholders are making decisions, they are designing.
Their designs either achieve the outcomes they intended or they don't.
Stakeholders often use gut feelings (also referred to as instinct, intuition, or subject-matter expertise) to make critical decisions.
When the choice is to go with gut instinct or conduct research, they often choose gut instinct.
Conducting research takes time and costs money and resources.
Gut instinct is immediate and has no associated costs.
When a stakeholder makes a decision based on a gut feeling there are two outcomes:
They are wrong: They did not achieve the outcome they intended.
This has potential costs and might even render harm.
The question becomes: Would research have eliminated or reduced those costs?
They are right: They achieved the outcome they intended.
This is a good thing, when it happens.
It was far cheaper to get to the right decision than to conduct research.
The problem is it's hard for many folks to tell upfront whether the decision will be right.
We don't learn until after any damages or costs have occurred.