Great products are not usually created by just one person. They are collaborative projects that involve many people with different personal and professional experiences. Bringing all of these individuals together to create something for someone they may never have met is challenging at best.
Teams that are good at working together and helping each other improve their social skills, have a higher potential to create a great experience.
To make great experiences, the entire team needs to utilize their social skills including:
- being respectful;
- communicating clearly (verbal, body language, etc.);
- listening actively;
- understanding cultural differences;
- negotiating effectively; and
- being a good leader.
This isn’t always easy, and many of us have deficiencies in at least one of these skills.
For the User Experience professional such as myself, negotiation is the most important of these skills. From the earliest planning stages, the UX professional needs to be able to represent the users’ needs. There may be a wide gap between the information I have already available to me, and the information I need to effectively inform design. The way I present the case for doing UX research and my ability to convince the team or client of the need for that work will influence the type of work that is planned and the quality of information I end up with.
Once the UX study is completed, I still need to persuade my client and the team that my recommendations will meet the user’s needs and will be on balance with the client’s needs. Frequently this involves negotiating to determine what features and content are included and what is left for later.
The more effective I am at negotiating, the better I can represent the needs of the users. When the users are well represented, the result is a great experience!
What do you think? Tell me in person – I am speaking on the topic of “Empower Yourself. Negotiate for the User” at the IA Summit next week.
