Beyond Design: Navigating Project Buy-in in Large Enterprise Ecosystems

I started out as a UI designer in my early 20s, moved into UX and information architecture. By the time I came to Dublin, that was after working in New York, I was a UX principal and I was actually working with Donal O'Mahony who is up here. He was one of the best directors I've ever worked with and we built up a robust UX team.
But I'm an old lady at this point. When you're considering retirement, you think I might want to pivot in my career. I've been at UX what, 15 years at that point. So I thought, you know what, I have all these design thinking skills, I've consulted with blue chip companies all around the world. I worked with Sony Music, IBM, Toyota, and then Verizon, and that's just some of the big companies I've worked with. And as a designer, you get an insight into how the business works. You get to see okay, these are the people making the decisions and you think some of them aren't that much smarter than me.
So why are they making the decisions? And maybe as a designer and also working on UX workshops with the ELT, maybe you've come up with blueprints on how to improve the business. You get insights into how the business works but you don't always have the power to execute or convince people.
So my talk today is about design thinking in large organizations. Let's say you have a robust UX career behind you, you have design thinking skills, you've done hundreds of wireframes, you've done tons of blueprints and user journeys and interviews and studies, and I thought at age 60, I don't want to be doing wireframes. So I pivoted.
And the story I'm going to tell you is the parable of the tattooed Irishman. How many of you know who this dude is? But however that is not the Irishman I'm going to talk about with tattoos. The guy I'm going to talk about is James O'Connell.
I'll get to that story in a minute. The reason why I'm going to tell you that story is he had a very good strategy for infiltrating a tribe of powerful people in Micronesia where he was shipwrecked. So I'm going to get to that fascinating story in a minute and it's going to be a metaphor for how you can infiltrate the tribe of decision makers in your organizations.
Now this is beyond once you're kind of past the kind of designing the product, the UI, the user journeys and you want next steps. I am not recommending you follow my tips by the way, they're kind of more dirty secrets to infiltrate the tribe, if you so to speak, that I have found useful.
So we're going to talk about speaking the language of the tribe you're trying to infiltrate and how you might adapt your design thinking experience to do that because the people who are making the business decisions don't have that skill set. They're not good at telling stories, they're not good at visualizing what they're trying to say, certainly not their roadmaps or the rationale for their roadmaps.
And the other thing I want to talk about is stop trying to bang them on the head with the Bible of "this is the right way to do it, this is what users want, this is what the studies say." It doesn't work. People don't like being preached to. And God knows a number of times I as a young designer was like "ah they just don't get it, they don't understand what users want. As soon as we deliver what the users want this business will be very successful." It's never that simple and the tribe you're talking to doesn't appreciate that talk.
And the other thing that that leads to then is giving away your services. It's almost like to serve that tribe rather than trying to control them. You're empowering them with the type of services you can deliver to them. And it's about giving it all away. So it's kind of an ESS act - ESS not Eagles.
And one of the ways you can do that as a designer is crafting narratives, be it user journeys or service design blueprints or any of that stuff. It really is about telling a story and one thing that the ELT, anyone in kind of more business side generally suck at is telling stories. But stories is what compels people.
So I'm going to show you some examples of stories that actually I think you can use for them to sell what they're trying to do to the rest of the business. And what does that mean? A story is a roadmap. Where does a business group, be it sales or finance or product, where they want to get to in one year's time, three years time? And a roadmap - a lot of roadmaps lack imagination and suck because they're not told very well.
So let's go back to James O'Connell. He was working in the 1800s in Dublin on ships. This is when kids had a hard life. He'd been shipwrecked many times by the time he was 18 and then in 1826 he was shipwrecked in Micronesia near an island called Pohnpei. What happened was him and his buddy George, they were shipwrecked and suddenly they were taken captive by these islanders nearby and they had tattoos and spears and they were pretty scary looking. So they dragged them back to the island.
Poor James O'Connell and his buddy George - and one thing James noticed was this tribe communicates through dance. So George's friend was terrified but James thought you know what, they're dancing, I'm Irish, let me do a jig. So I'm not going to do a jig, but once he did the jig, he won them over. They're like "he gets our language, he is part of our tribe now."
The other thing that this tribe was really keen on was tattoos. So in the Pacific Islands, there's kind of a tradition of tattoos. They use scalpel and needles to scratch into the skin and because they admired James for doing the dance and being kind of saying look, he gets our language, they said let's take him to the next stage of infiltrating our tribe or joining our tribe - we're going to tattoo him.
For eight hours, voluptuous maidens tattooed him. He didn't scream, he didn't show any pain. Well his friend George was screaming and just not enjoying it at all and the tribe elders noticed this and they said look, James O'Connell is leadership material, he's shown guts. And the King decided to give him his 14-year-old daughter and he became part of kind of the royal family. George did not make that.
The other last test was to remove one testicle - they do this to all the men there. There's no record that this happened to James fortunately. But that was part of the tribe traditions. So what I'm trying to tell you here is James O'Connell learned the language of the tribe that he needed to influence and infiltrate.
And you can see he has released a book as well. So let's talk about speaking the language. James danced, got the tattoo, was integrated into the tribe. I have found - and I'm like James, I don't really belong to decision-making tribe, we in the C-Suite or the executives or the people in charge of funding in an organization. Remember I came from a UX background but I learned to speak the language.
So this is a dance that James did. Unfortunately the language is math. So you have to learn - I did a module on how to read an annual report. I didn't know what EBITDA was, I didn't even know what profit and loss was, I didn't know what tangible or intangible assets were. If like James you want to infiltrate, you got to learn that lingo. Otherwise they don't recognize you as part of the tribe. Doesn't matter how robust your UX processes are - when you're presenting, if you don't use their language, if you don't have the tattoos - blank.
That's what I have found and I'm not talking about my current organization by the way, talking about other organizations and actually throughout my UX career. So if anything, learn learn the math that runs behind a business.
Now the reason why I have M3GAN here is not to do silly dance, but I don't want to talk about our company product because there's IP issues and NDA issues. So I want to show specific case studies - it's going to be an imaginary product. So imagine that there is a babysitting robot called Megan. Have any of you seen this movie by the way? So it's an AI generative AI sentient babysitter robot.
So I'm going to imagine that's the product. So there's hardware, there's software, there's a service offering, maybe a contract, maybe there's training. So you can imagine it's kind of suits a whole lot of businesses and certainly that sort of offering. I'm talking about hardware, software and then the service that goes with it is pretty in line with the products that we offer Verizon Connect, but I just have to use an imaginary product because I can't share data about the product with you guys.
This is a terrible diagram and an example of what an executive team member might put together as a slide. So obviously it's false data. What I said was look, maybe there's a discontinued line of the Megan robot, the holiday line, and they need to make a decision on how to migrate customers off the holiday line of the Megan robot.
I didn't understand this because it's such terrible data vis. So even for my own sake I redesigned it. Same data but redesigned it so I can understand it - it tells a better story. What this shows is that look, for the discontinued holiday line of the Megan robot, the largest number of distributors are in the US and same with the largest number of dolls or robots, it's in the US. Secondarily it's in Europe.
So maybe if the business is trying to push for "look we want to discontinue the distribution or migration plans in other countries, let's cut our losses and just focus on the US and Europe." For your own sake I think if you come across slides you don't understand, reformat it so it tells a visual story. And interestingly, this is my dirty tip - once you do this, the executive decision maker who sees this will be like "I'll take that, I'll use that in my deck" rather than this.
So just good data vis skills is a way in. It shows you've gotten the tattoos and you can do the dance. But it does require your understanding the data. The number of times a designer gets this and just puts bevels around it and changes the colors - that ain't good enough. Reformat it so it tells a story, then this can be used and you start to gain credibility.
Same with this imaginary data about the Megan bot. So I'm saying the Smith's toy store, the revenue for the Megan bot's 42 million and then Walmart's 98 million. If you look at the cost, the return on investment, it's probably best for Smith and Walmart. I'm not going to worry about the other vendors. Once again this was just in a basic chart, but if you learn to visualize the data you're telling a story. The executive team is very bad at this stuff. You know like I said, they just come up with this sort of stuff. So once you can tell a story with the numbers that count for them, they're like "she has the right tattoos" like James O'Connell.
From an early age I studied Edward Tufte's books and conventions on data visualization. I really recommend that as a UX designer and also a UI designer because sometimes UI designers just pretty things up - study this stuff. If you don't know what chart to use - I mean this is too small for you guys to see but there's so many ways to say look, I want to show relationships or comparisons, these are the data vis conventions you should use. It's a basic skill I think if you want to move into the space of convincing decision makers in the business rather than just making it pretty colors or on brand.
The other thing I want to move on to for - like I said the tattoos and the dancing to convince the tribe that you know, you understand where they're coming from is adapting your design thinking skills or sorry outputs. Like you can see here this is a typical service design blueprint or user journey - very useful in workshops. However, stick this in a slide, you can't see what's going on.
And another secret, a dirty little secret I'll give you about the decision makers is they love slides. So condense it into a one-slide format. Like this is a quick version that I did of a whiteboard which really covers the top points of a service design blueprint but relevant to the person, relevant to the tribe elder so to speak.
So look - what does your team need to do? What systems are impacted? What outcomes metrics? So remember metrics are what counts to the ELT - how you going to measure success of these features or processes you're going to deliver? I'm not saying this is the best template, but all I'm saying is if you can summarize it into one slide that they can share, your stuff will be distributed more and seen more.
I love making extensive blueprints and user journey diagrams, all that stuff, but it cannot be socialized. They just will not get away from PowerPoint and slide presentations because when they're in a board meeting it's all slides. They are not going to pull up a PDF you have to zoom into, a Miro board you have to zoom into. So just a practical tip.
And then when you fill it in it might look like this and based on this they might create a roadmap and you can help them with that. When it's really extensive they don't have the time - they're busy people making really important decisions for the company. If you can summarize into one slider you can help them deliver a roadmap which is a story that often they're very bad at telling.
Now Dr. Phil, whether you like him or not, he does have a phrase called "right fighting." So look, if your wife is saying "look you know what, I really don't like the way you dress, you're turning me off, our marriage is going nowhere" - rather than saying, rather than fighting with facts like "how could you say that? I've listened to you all the time, we've been to couples counseling, I've upgraded my wardrobe" - he's like that's called right fighting. You're trying to prove you're right.
And the number of times young designers contact me on LinkedIn saying "oh good I have user research skills, I have the best evidence, I have the best best practices to show the business what they need" - if you preach to the people who are making more money than you and they are actually making the decision what to fund, they don't like to be preached to.
So what I have found is if you move into the idea of service - so even the simple act of creating slides and the story for them, maybe a synopsis of the more complex work we do as UX designers - that works better. And what Dr. Phil says is "how's that working for you?" When you're telling your child "you need to move out, you've been at home for 30 years, I'm paying your bills" - he's like that doesn't work, you got to kick him out.
So "how's that working for you" refers to - you're preaching, you're bitter, they're not listening. How is that working for you? Probably not very well and that's why I advocate the service model. Then you're serving them - what can you do to make them look good? When you decide to help them with roadmaps or even as simple a way in - sneaky way in is say look, that slide I can make it tell a better story for you, for you to get funding or for you to convince people to put it on the roadmap. That's a service and then you step back, let them have the glory.That's what I find - a lot of people want credit. I say don't worry about the credit, just serve. Be selfless. This is not because I'm Gandhi-like, it's just because it's effective.
And a quote I wanted to bring up was Ruth Bader Ginsburg - the night she got married her mother said "look, the secret to a long marriage: it pays sometimes to be a little deaf." The offensive things will be said to you - like so the customer wants to be able to have personalized recommendations on what reports to look at, or you know any recommendation you might give based on user feedback.
We had one COO who said "that's great but what's it going to bring to the business." That's like asking for world peace. Sure, Donal can relate to that quote. If it's a little offensive, just get over it. Just realize you're not wearing the tattoos, you're not doing the dance, they ain't listening. If you can actually use your financial acumen or knowledge to make a more plausible case for what you're proposing, then they'll listen. Otherwise they will say things that you think "oh jeez they just don't get it."
And when they do, it's a maturity thing. I think I suffered from this more when I was probably early in my career. I think it does help to be a little deaf and realize they're in a different tribe and you're not speaking the language - that's why they don't understand.
The pictures I have here are people taking selfies because I have a friend, a very vain friend. When she posts on Instagram she puts a filter on herself to look hot and all her other friends look ugly. So do the opposite - you want to step back and give everything you've done, the one slider or your roadmapping skills, and don't claim credit. If the person you did it for, be it someone in the C-suite and management, maybe a VP outside of UX, they can use your materials without you, that's a win. It makes them look good. You're putting the beautiful filter on them, not on yourself. That just seems to work better.
So let's go back to the robot babysitting thing. Often as designers you might get data about - look, please use this data to figure out - like you might get discovery data and you don't know what to make of it. Often what I'll do is visualize it. I've brought this up before. So that might be the intel you get from product or other parts of the business. This is saying look, the R&D spend and the type of platforms behind this robot that you're trying to sell - I couldn't make head or tail of it. I always visualize it to get a sense of what we're trying to achieve.
Once again do this for yourself, share it with product and anyone else who is making a decision in this case on consolidating the platform. And then you'll see your services might be requested more and more and you get an insider view on the business and they're like "okay, like James O'Connell she has the tattoos, she's doing the dance."
The other thing I'd be remiss to leave out is the Lean Product Playbook. So this was rolled out in our org. I recommend it because what it does is for every concept or feature or user research that you've done as a UX designer, it forces you to articulate the business outcomes of what you're proposing.
I'm not going to go through this in detail but I do recommend it. Business outcomes are things like look, this is the amount of revenue you bring in, this is amount of cost savings, this is how much it'll cost. So I'm not saying use this format but this sort of framework where you're not only proposing UX recommendations but the repercussions for the business and that's going to be math. If you don't know how to do it, win some friends over. And how do you win friends over? Do favors for them.
When you decide that look, there are things that you notice in the business where it's not designed well - the process or the features or the services - step in and volunteer. You don't want to end up being what I call a "deck bitch" as in like "my deck's ugly can you pretty it up." But so there's a fine balance there.
But if you notice things that aren't well explained - remember as designers you're storytellers and that means they can help communicate what they're trying to do a lot better. Same with roadmaps - that's a story.
The other thing I want to bring up is politics. The number of people contact me on LinkedIn and otherwise saying "look I hate the politics in our business, it doesn't help me do what I want, they don't accept user research, they're not listening to the design recommendations" - politics is not a dirty word.
The reason why I have firefighters up there is fire chiefs say it's all about politics. You want to win over the local groups, understand the tattoos and the dances and that's how you serve them. And the way I see it is if someone as selfless as fire chiefs, who run large fire departments, are included about politics, there's no reason why we can't. It's a process rather than a one-off event or meeting.
Moderator: All right, some questions for Kelle. I've already read the first one.
Kelle: Alan has asked how many tattoos is too many tattoos?
Well, I think when your bank manager has tattoos, you know it's peaked at this point. So depends. Not having tattoos - normcore is so hot right now, that's what I would say.
Moderator: Great. Can you explain the Lord of the Rings method a little?
Kelle: So what normally happens is when teams, be it UX or engineering or product, pitch an idea, they pitch what I call The Hobbit - like let's just do this MVP or this small release. And then the executive team will be like "well that's kind of unambitious and uninteresting and how's that going to get us to a three-year goal?"
So what I propose in The Lord of the Rings method - right, or it could be Harry Potter - is describe that one thing you're proposing but in the context of three years' time. Forgot the name of the - what's the name of the last book? The Return of the King - what's that going to say? And then it looks like what you're proposing is quite exciting because it's an iterative step to get to a grand narrative.
If you're proposing only the small MVP, it's not very sexy, it doesn't look like you're going to get to where the company needs to go in three years. So that's what I mean - design the whole story and then when you pitch The Hobbit bit, make sure to explain the context of where it fits because then you're selling an ambitious narrative, not just the one chapter.
Moderator: Great. You amazing, love it.
Kelle: Oh thanks.
Moderator: Excellent. How do you learn to speak business language when you don't have training in that field?
Kelle: So I went to art school, pretty liberal-minded, crazy kid, did lots of drugs in art school, you know all that crap. I was obviously not very corporate. I actually went to DIT and did an MBA and man it was kind of eye-opening. So that's what taught me to speak the language. It's a killer but I do think like if you want to be taken seriously you got to learn that stuff.
And if I can learn financial analysis and statistical modeling, anyone can, trust me. I mean I did grinds but I still passed. So I do recommend that you learn it really. Like I said, it's once you speak that language, it looks like you have the tattoos and can do the dance. Otherwise they're like totally not part of the tribe, not going to take them seriously, they're just talking like airy fairy.
Moderator: So actually doing the course of like the business side?
Kelle: I'm afraid I had to do that, yeah. Was good. And the cheapest in Ireland so...
Moderator: Nice. How to avoid being the deck bitch while trying to speak their language?
Kelle: The point of being the deck bitch, right - you saw examples of terrible slides I had to go through. When I translated it into visual storytelling, I could understand it. So you don't want to end up being the deck bitch but even for yourself just do that. I know plenty of people have ended up being the deck bitch so it is a risk, right. It's a risk.
Moderator: Why do we need to speak the language of business? Why can't they speak our language and why is it always our responsibility?
Kelle: This is where I mentioned about the ego - why do you think you're right? These guys make hard decisions about where to spend money, what market to chase. They have intel that we have no idea about. Now that I work with them I can see they are way smarter than I have ever given them credit for, with a lot of complex things to consider.
So it's like that tribe - they were way more powerful than James and George. If you refuse to get the tattoos and do the dance, why are they going to take you seriously? So ideal - yes, reality - no. You know it's just a reality. So if you want things to be a fantasy, it's not going to work. Like Dr. Phil says, "how's that working for you?"
What works in reality is to join the tribe - not in your heart necessarily, but certainly as a mask for the job, which is what I do. And I enjoy it, I learn a lot from the exec team, they're really smart people.
Moderator: Cool. Two more questions. How do you suggest learning how to read and understand data?
Kelle: Yeah so this is where like I said, if you come from an art school, design school background, it's a weakness. Start with Edward Tufte's books. You saw some examples of - I didn't understand what they're trying to say so I visualized it. Start with that.
And just be aware when do you use a pie chart, when do you use a stack bar chart - like if you don't know those basics, you're kind of shagged. I've seen designers take like pie charts to make them beautiful when they're completely the wrong data visualization to show market share. So it's an education piece. Just happens to be an area I studied from an early age and I'm fascinated by, but you're going to have to learn, I'd say.
Moderator: All right, last question. When everyone speaks business, who is going to speak user or customer?
Kelle: Yeah, good point. So I'm not saying don't speak user or customer. When you speak user or customer, bring data into it. User - what segment? If you cater to that segment, what is the cost to do that? What features are you proposing and have you tested? And so that's feasibility - get high level estimates, find out the return on investment for developing that.
So I'm not saying don't focus on user or customers - that is so key. But you're going to have to supplement it with the language the business decision makers understand, which is why should I invest in this? And that's numbers, financial numbers. So just supplement it because then they think "she has the tattoos, can do the dance." Without that it's ineffective, like Dr. Phil said - how's that working for you?
Moderator: That's brilliant.
Kelle: Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you very much. Round of applause for Kelle.