When design meets bureaucracy, it’s easy for even the best of ideas to get caught up in red tape. Stakeholders don’t want to spend resources unless they’re guaranteed a return on their investment, which can make them hesitant to invest in the experimental and uncertain process of design.
That’s why XCell is intentional about building trust and relationships with stakeholders before we even begin designing a specific solution. By making trust a priority in every stakeholder interaction, we’ve been able to quickly move through research, prototyping, testing, and implementation while setting solutions up for successful adoption across complex ecosystems.
For example, XCell was able to research, prototype, test, and implement the Harmony Design System, which unified the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) complex Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Solutions (MACBIS) technical ecosystem. Based on our experiences navigating this complex ecosystem, we’ve identified best practices for creating and maintaining trusting relationships with stakeholders throughout the design process.
1. Talk Face-to-Face
The seed for the success of the Harmony Design System was planted in an early one-on-one conversation between Felix Gilbert and a stakeholder at a conference. At the time, we hadn’t identified the need for a design system or delivered any prototypes. But trust was still built because the conversation centered on listening empathetically to the stakeholder’s needs, challenges, and vision.
As designers, we’re sometimes looked to as experts in our field, which can create a relationship dynamic in which we’re talking at stakeholders or trying to persuade them. Having more collaborative and open conversations, even outside of formal discovery sessions, builds better relationships. Stakeholders are more likely to trust designers when they feel heard and understood.
2. Respect Their Time
Stakeholders are busy. In the case of MACBIS, they were leading an ecosystem with 9 product teams for programs that serve over 72 million beneficiaries.
We made the most of our limited time with stakeholders by keeping early Discovery conversations brief and targeted. When we identified the need for a design system, we made sure to present clear evidence to stakeholders supporting our findings, using impactful visuals (like a UX Maturity Matrix showing the varying design maturity levels of each team). This gave them the context needed to make design decisions based on real information without taking up too much of their time.
3. Don’t Wait for Permission
It’s tricky to move toward uncertainty while maintaining trust. In the process of making the case for the Harmony Design System, our team conducted extensive research to validate our initial findings.
However, prolonging research instead of moving forward with a mockup or prototype slowed our team’s progress. We made the mistake of attempting to build trust through certainty and seeking stakeholder’s permission when failing fast would have been more effective.
If you already have enough research to identify an opportunity, there’s no need to wait for permission so long as you can quickly build a lightweight prototype to test your ideas. Don’t wait to draw the mockup or build the lightweight prototype and show it to your stakeholders.
When stakeholders can actually see the value of a potential solution for themselves, they’re more likely to put resources into prototyping and testing it than if everything remains in the ideation and research stage. And if there are problems with the proposed solution that come up while prototyping, you can work out these issues early in the design process when they are less costly or likely to stop progress.