CHAPTER 12 The Design of People
positive. Stakeholders were cautiously optimistic, even excited to launch
into such a contentious redesign. The turnaround in attitude far exceeded
my expectations, so much so that informal one-on-ones have become an
indispensible part of my designer repertoire.
A tremendous amount has been written about stakeholder
interviewing on the Internet. I trust you will be able to search your
way to the articles. But before you start creating checklists of interview
questions about brand strategy, success criteria and user personas,
consider for a second that while we need information from stakeholders,
they need security from us. They need to be heard, and this need, when
left unfulfilled, justifiably jeopardizes the project at hand in unfathomable
ways. And the worst way to treat someone hoping to be heard is to walk
in with a clipboard and a checklist. There will be time for that later. First,
focus on what’s important: the little things.
It is the little things, after all, that can have the biggest effects.anChoRing gooD behavioR in DeSign ReviewS
Getting stakeholders to feel optimistic about a project is one thing, but
translating that optimism into useful and favorable feedback is entirely
another.
There is a fascinating concept in psychology known as anchoring.
Anchoring is a psychological phenomenon whereby humans rely heavily
on the first piece of information they’re offered (known as the anchor)
in making subsequent decisions.^6 Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and
author of a few of the most fascinating books on human behavior, provides
a fundamental example on anchoring in his first book Predictably Irrational:
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions: “A few decades ago, the naturalist
Konrad Lorenz discovered that goslings, upon breaking out of their eggs,
become attached to the first moving object they encounter.6 Daniel Kahneman, “Anchors”, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2 Apr 2013, pp. 119-129.