Raise your hand if you, or someone you know has ever run into this scenario… Everyone? Yep, it happens often, and it’s the worst. In some orgs it doesn’t matter how many red flags you wave, or if you wave them so hard and so long that your arms fall off. There are stakeholders who flat out refuse to invest in the research necessary to ensure that you’re building something your audience actually needs.
And then getting blamed for the product’s failure is just the icing on the cake. If you run into this there are 2 things you should know:
A. You tried. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
B. It’s not your fault, don’t get down on yourself.
You can push and push and push but if the stakeholders in your org refuse to understand the power of design thinking and the value in user research and usability testing, there’s not much you can do other than bounce and look for a job at a more design centric org. Or at least an org that is open to learning more about the value of design.
You could build the best product in the world, but if there is no audience for it, it’s going to fail. If you encounter this situation, just keep your head up and continue moving forward in your current job or toward a new one, your choice. 🙌
(Or come work at InVision, because we don’t have this problem!) 🙂
UX Rocks 