By Nishant Kothary CHAPTER 12is surprising because one would expect that inmates who were slapped
with longer sentences after having spent a great deal of time with their
lawyers would be more disgruntled. But the exact opposite was true.
“Although the outcome might be exactly the same, when we don’t get to
voice our concerns, we perceive the overall fairness of the experience quite
differently,” concluded the authors.
Designers are prone to hiding from their stakeholders. Each of us
has our reasons, but most of them are grounded in the fear of being told
how to design something. But researchers have found time and again
that fulfilling someone’s need to be heard has more influence on their
perception of the outcome of a situation than the actual outcome.^4 And if
you’re smart about it, you can both influence stakeholders into cooperating
and create the design you believe to be right for the project at hand. On
Project Unify I forced myself to make time for one-on-one conversations
with around twenty stakeholders. I wanted them to meet me and get to
know me. The meetings ranged from getting lunch together to letting
developers wireframe their vision of the website on their whiteboards. I
always kicked off the meetings with, “So, tell me what you think we should
be doing for Project Unify?”
And boy did they.
Some vented about politics and bureaucracy (I joined in). Some
vehemently disagreed with the project’s existence (I empathized and
reminded them about our pay grade). Others felt it was time for a
professional designer to take this on (I hid my imposter syndrome^5
symptoms). Some focused on a specific aspect they really cared about (I
took notes). And there were those who were just happy to be out getting a
coffee during work hours (my type of people). It was an intense week.
But by the following week, the timbre of Project Unify was a solid
4 Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, 2 Jun 2009, pp. 121-125.
5 The Impostor Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which people, despite external evidence of
their competence, remain convinced that they’re frauds and don’t deserve the success they have achieved.