Guide #004: How to elevate the role of design as an agency or in-house partner

When asked to join a project as the design partner, whether in-house or through an agency relationship, first determine where the project owners are on the spectrum of defining a project scope/objectives, etc. versus ready to execute. Seek to understand how well a problem has been defined, if a budget has been scoped, or if a vision has been proposed to senior leadership. As you join projects that are closer to the execution phase, recognize that the opportunity to contribute your own strategic ideas still exists, but will most likely be limited to the scope that is already defined. If you are not in a strategy-defining role, nurture relationships with strategy-defining partners so that you can join projects as early as possible to add strategic value.

Ask your stakeholders or partners how they measure success, or how they know when a solution is right, or good. This is especially important to understand for stakeholders that are on the receiving end of design solutions. Give these partners the opportunity to express what they care about or what goals they're trying to achieve. Ask what types of experiments or tests they run and how they are compensated or rewarded for achieving their goal. These can often be very different from how designers measure success but no less important.

Recognize the importance of revenue as you work with stakeholders that sit outside the design organization, especially as their seniority increases. When discussing design-centric metrics like usability scores or customer sentiment, these partners may not see these metrics as a driver for revenue. Anchor your conversations in metrics they care about and help them bridge the gap between design goals and business goals.

Establish a process—a set of questions or a collaborative exercise—to learn what motivated your stakeholder to embark on this project. Establish an understanding around the stimulus or catalyst for kicking off this project, at this specific time. Get your stakeholder to express their hopes and fears for this project. When they envision a great outcome, what is driving that? And what do they fear will not happen or go wrong within this project.