ux australia 2015 - talking to stakeholders, 13 anti-patterns

Talking to Stakeholders13 Communication Anti-Patterns That Block Good IdeasUX Australia, Brisbane, 27 August 2015

UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL#13antipatterns

That’s myClient from Hell’s

line!The gameshow where we ask you,

What the hell does your client’s line mean?

I’ll show you a piece of feedback from ClientsFromHell.net

You tell me what the client is really saying

http://ClientsFromHell.net

Question 1

“We want the design to be intentionally confusing to show how complicated the concept is.”

“We’ve conflated complex with confusing, and we need a design solution that communicates the

complexity without sacrificing usability.”

Question 2“Don’t use sky blue as a “feelgood” background color. It’s not essential for our users to feel good as

long as they spend money.”

“You need to make the case for the link between user satisfaction and profit.”

Question 3“Our main goal is to get people to sign up to our newsletter, we need a huge green sign up

button in the middle of the page, like on twitter.com”

“Our KPI is to increase signups so your job is to sell us a better solution.”

Final ScoresClients Designers

3 3

LANGUAGE ANTI-PATTERNS


SPEAKING DIFFERENT LANGUAGES


NO CONSISTENT DESIGN LANGUAGEHAVING DIFFERENT KPIs

LANGUAGE ANTI-PATTERNS

Speaking different languages

STAKEHOLDER SAFARI

THE MEETING BEFORE / AFTER THE MEETING

STEP BACK

PLAY IT BACKUX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL#13antipatterns

PRESENTING ANTI-PATTERNS


PRESENTING WITHOUT CONTEXTUALISING


ASSUMING OTHERS DON’T GET DESIGNTHROWING DELIVERABLES OVER THE FENCE

PRESENTING ANTI-PATTERNS

Presenting without contextualising

PREPARE FOR PRESENTATIONBE PRESENT TO PRESENTCASTING FEEDBACKSET SCOPE EXPECTATIONSACTIVELY CONFIRM


WORKING PRACTICE ANTI-PATTERNS


BEING IN THE ROOM, BUT NOT PRESENT


NOT EMBRACING EVERYONE’S GOALSLIVING IN THE DELIVERABLES

INSISTING ON PERFECTION

WORKING ANTI-PATTERNS

Being in the room, but not present

IN-PERSON ACCESS

STENOGRAPHER’S PATTERNLIFE IN MONO

SCARY FACE PATTERN


DEFENDING ANTI-PATTERNS


RESPONDING TO TONE, NOT CONTENT


NOT DEFENDING HARD ENOUGH

DEFENDING TOO HARD

DEFENDING ANTI-PATTERNS

Not defending hard enough

ARRIVE VIA MoSCoWBEGINNING, MIDDLE + ENDSNAP THE ELASTIC USER

EDUCATE


Thanks!

Martina Hodges-Schell @polaroidgrrl @13antipatterns
