How I learnt to not tell clients the wrong thing...

I ❤ Clients
or, how I learnt to not tell clients the wrong thing at the wrong time
@silverfoxyboy 1

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

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.

2

Boosting resource
Telling you new stuff
Saying unpalatable things
Consultants only really do
three simple things... How
hard can it be?

3


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

‘Taboo decisions’

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

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?

‘Evaluate the UX’

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

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

Unpalatable truths

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

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.

Trouble

7

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

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?

Flawed

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

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.

Addiction

9

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

Motivational inter viewing
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

MI - Engagement

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

MI - Selective guiding:
Selectively eliciting questions
Selectively reﬂecting what a client says
Selectively elaborating what a client says
Selectively summarising what a client says
Selectively affirming what a client says
2. Selectively guiding
a conversation:
elicitation, reflecting,
elaborating,
summarising and
affirmation

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

3. Evoking change talk.

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

MI - Evoking

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

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

MI - Planning

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

Boosting resource
For the client design and
development in isolation had
resulted in taboo decisions

that couldn’t be questioned.


But never in isolation,
only during dialogue
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxkiesler/2256119157/

A new story superficially
about boosting resource.

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

Boosting the team

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

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

Simple surely...

Impartiality

16

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

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?

Politics

17

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

This is what i heard...

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

Facts not insights

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

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.

Facts not insights

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Old fashioned management
consulting shows how to avoid
these problems.

As consultants the contract Directive consulting
has to be clear... what have
qwe been asked to do and why You propose guidelines,
persuade or direct in the
problem solving process

Non-directive consulting
Raises questions for reflection

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

Directive consultant
I was over here

They were over here

Non-directive consultant

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

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

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?

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

Boosting resource
you’re in.


But understand the context

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

Culture 2 - Users 0

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

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

Don’t make life difficult for me

25

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

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

We won’t do that

26

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

What was I doing wrong?

What could I do differently?

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

Was it something I said?

27

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

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

Difficult to measure success

28

An organisational value
matrix. The language the
company uses can help you
place them on the matrix
Humans the language
and gauge
Aspirational Becoming Future Man is
values
Competitive dominate respond to them in
needed to
is best orientated born good
a way that will be listened to
nature
them

Humans in Man is born
Static values “I
Just being just Present be Collectivist
has to harmony with neither good
is best orientated
ﬁnished on time” nature nor bad

“We can only go Nature
Being active Past Man is
Conservative
values
forward”
Hierarchical dominates
is best orientated born bad
humans

Activity Time orientation Social relations Human to Nature Human Nature

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

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.

Change of approach

30

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

Boosting resource

Compassion for the culture

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‘It’s a chance for them [clients] to
work with sharp minds from outside
their teams, who will forward their
Are we any nearer
agenda.’ - David Jarvis knowing what
consultants are good for
in a world full of internal
www.slideshare.net/dcjarvis/ UX teams?
what-its-like-being-a-client Let’s ask a client...

32

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

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

What about the UX teams?

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

The lanscape of competitors has
changed too.

Who, now, is your biggest
competitor?

The guy down the road?

Or, in the next city?

Your biggest competitor ?

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Your biggest Your client faces three
competitor is now
your client. 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
35

Thank you

Walt Buchan
walt.buchan@cxpartners.co.uk

@silverfoxyboy

+44 (0) 7980 344 310

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How I learnt to not tell clients the wrong thing...

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