Anyone working in the digital space in, or for, government should be aware of the wide range of standards, guidelines and methods such as Australia’s Digital Service Standard, UK’s Service Standard, and USA’s digital.gov and their Web Design System. These frameworks provide invaluable resources for creating customer-centric websites and systems. A common theme across these standards is the emphasis on multidisciplinary teams including product managers, business analysts, user researchers, designers and technical roles. However, these standards lack detail about how these teams should collaborate effectively.

Having worked in and for government and large organisations over 20 years, I have learnt the hard way about the importance of engaging stakeholders to get buy in – from the Executive Director to the Director General, and everyone in between – and ensure the change is successful (and retained). In this article, I outline some methods that we typically use in our consulting work to take these important stakeholders on the journey – lessons that are relevant to anyone working in large organisations, not just those in government.

Lessons learned from a Government website redesign

In 2003, I had the opportunity to lead the UX work for a major state government website redesign. Although I had budget, time, and resources – a rarity at the time – the outcome unfortunately felt like an episode of Utopia.  Here is how it roughly went:

  • On the first day I secured my first UX lead role working on government website redesign, we secured funding and there was light.
  • On the second day we kicked off the project, established an executive steering committee and agreed on user centred design approach.
  • On the third day we interviewed the Director General, general managers and executives to understand their needs.
  • On the fourth day we conducted user research.
  • On the fifth day we involved users in card sorting workshops and created wireframes.
  • On the sixth day we tested our concepts with users, iterated our designs and presented our findings to an executive steering committee.
  • On the seventh we got executive buy-in and approval, we rested and all was good.
  • On the eighth day, production began and all hell broke loose as we forgot to involve the right stakeholders. The whole project came to a grinding halt as we had not engaged the right business stakeholders (middle management and content owners) who felt excluded and refused to provide content.

The result? A massive, time-consuming roadshow to gain stakeholder buy-in. It was slow and painful, but ultimately necessary.

10 tips for engaging stakeholders

So, what's the key takeaway? Applying every digital standard and customer-centred design process won't guarantee a smooth and successful project without the engagement of the right business stakeholders. Here are some high-level tips to achieve this.

  1. Engage stakeholders early.

    Involve stakeholders from the start of the project to understand their expectations, identify potential challenges, and build buy-in. Don't wait until the project is underway.  Do this anyway you can such as inviting all key stakeholders to kick-off meetings, interviews, and workshops.

  2. Exposure stakeholders to the users.

    Break down stakeholder assumptions by involving them in user research (interviews, testing, journey mapping). In their Service Handbook, Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) recommends that “each member of the team should observe at least 2 hours of user research every six weeks’ but observing even a little user interaction builds empathy and reveals real user experiences.

  3. Provide ‘bite sized’ research insights.

    Stakeholders often do not have the time to read big, chunky reports. Deliver key research takeaways in easy-to-digest formats (e.g., ‘postcards from the field’, video clips) regularly, to keep their interest. Avoid long reports to maintain engagement and momentum.

  4. Group research analysis sessions.

    Conduct joint synthesis workshops with stakeholders and researchers. This allows stakeholders to directly hear research findings and user stories from those who actually conducted the research.

  5. Own stakeholder engagement.

    Don't assume others will engage stakeholders. Proactively communicate and involve them yourself.

  6. Test stakeholder ideas and objections.

    Stakeholders sometimes have preconceived ideas that don’t always align with the actual user experience. Validate their suggestions (and concerns) with users, even if you're skeptical. Share test results (completion rates, quotes, videos) to demonstrate what works. Let the data do the talking!

  7. Use evidence to bring stakeholders ‘on the journey’.

    Use both qualitative (user videos, quotes) and quantitative data (task completion, satisfaction) to support your design decisions and address stakeholder assumptions.

  8. Present evidence-based recommendations.

    Don’t show 3 designs and ask stakeholders which design they prefer – they are not the user! Test options, analyse findings, and present data-backed recommendations for endorsement.

  9. For conflicts, conduct guerrilla testing.

    As you move closer to the end of the Alpha phase and defining your Minimum Viable Product, you will invariably have some heated discussions with key business stakeholders about aspects of the design. When facing design disagreements, suggest “we should test this”. Conduct rapid, informal testing with users to gather quick data for decision-making. Engaging users within their typical environment and asking them to conduct just a couple of tasks will give you some real user data for informed decision-making.

  10. Involve stakeholders in co-design workshops.

    Facilitate collaborative workshops with your team and stakeholders to design concepts and prototypes using tools like personas and empathy maps. This builds consensus and gives stakeholders a sense of ownership. Ask participants to sketch designs for the page you are working on, then use sticky dots to identify the favoured elements. This can be a little bit of ‘design by democracy’ but it helps build consensus (and it can also be a humbling experience for senior managers if their design concept doesn’t get any sticky dots).

Final thoughts

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I hope others can learn from my experiences. My main message is to ensure you not only engage stakeholders but ensure you engage the right ones. If you fail to build empathy, foster collaboration, and take stakeholders on the journey, you will pay the price.

We explore this topic and many others in our Masterclasses and live training. Sign up for our newsletter (below) to stay in the loop about upcoming training opportunities and how you can book your spot at a discounted rate.