Dealing with stakeholders who don't understand the value of UX Design

3 steps to change your stakeholders POV on UX design

Feb 02, 2025

👋 Hey UXers, Miranda here! Hope you’re ready to survive another week.

Today, I want to share an interesting challenge from one of our community members that I think quite a few of you will most definitely relate to:

“Working at an org with low UX maturity, like not even close”

There is no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of designers experience a company or team that really has no idea what the value of UX even is.

Often that translates into just pushing pixels around and debating endlessly for even the smallest improvements for users…

Let me tell you what I found to work and have now helped several other designers do the same.

The "Design Factory"

In 2017, I joined a team where the only other designer was constantly bombarded with requests.

"Make this email" "Create this graphic" "Design this feature."

It was brutal—he was a factory worker. It became clear that no one understood the value a designer could bring to the table; they saw us merely as pixel pushers full stop.

Time for change

I hadn’t ever been in a space quite that bad but I knew I had to at least try and make and effort to show people the real value of UX before considering looking for another job.

This transformation wasn't overnight—it took 4-6 months of investigation and over a year to see real impact. But it can be done.

So let me break down what that actually looks like:

1. Lead with Curiosity, Not Conclusions

It's super easy to jump to the conclusion that everyone is against you and wallow over it. But more often than not I’ve found it boils down to a lack of understanding.

Before jumping to conclusions:

Ask stakeholders about their perspectives on the current ways of working
Identify the pain points that each side is feeling

This approach accomplishes 2 things: it helps you gather valuable context and demonstrates your willingness to help improve current processes.

2. Set clearer expectations

It might seem a bit scary at first but start pushing back on prescriptive demands.

If a stakeholder comes at you with:

“We need this featured designed by EOW. Here’s what it needs to do.”

✅ Try: "Would you mind helping me understand the background/context of this feature? It’ll help me create a better design proposal for you."

✅ Try: "Can I have 2 extra days to run this feature through usability testing so I can provide you with more confidence in the design solution?"

You see how both focus on the value you can provide them, if given what you need.

3. Educate without assumptions

The reason your stakeholders might have no idea how to work with UX is probably not because they hate you…

It’s more likely one of two things:

They don’t have experience working with designers, or very little. So they actually have no idea what a designer is suppose to do.
They’ve worked with inexperienced or unwilling designers previously. This is a tougher mountain to climb because your stakeholders are jaded in their perceptions of what value a designer can bring.

The good news is if your stakeholders are even remotely open to seeing what value a designer can bring, you can educate them.

🛠 Practical Application

Let me share with you exactly what I did in 2017:

Instead of wallowing in self pity or being angry at my stakeholders, I ⬇️

Conducted stakeholder interviews on both sides
Asked the team to take a new approach to working together to address the pain points identified
Track, test, and iterate as needed
Demonstrate the value of the design process at every opportunity

After all this, we saw a significant decrease in the prescriptive demands and a huge increase in bandwidth allotted to design tasks.

Not every mountain in moveable

Before you get too eager and jump into taking action. Let me tell you one more story. A few years ago I worked for a non-profit, volunteering my time, and after a LOT of pushback from the founder we ran some usability testing and the truth finally came out:

🚩 “I don’t care what the users say it’s my product and I want it this way.”

I couldn’t leave fast enough and needless to say that product flopped.

All of that to say is that sometimes you really do work with people who just want the pretty pictures and I’d advise you to jump ship as quickly as possible since it’s not an environment any designer will benefit or grow from.

I challenge you

Take these 3-steps and see what happens:

Step 1: Prepare a set of questions that will help you get to the bottom of why your stakeholders operate the way they do. Want some suggestions? LMK in the comments.

Step 2: Sit down with 1-3 stakeholders and ask your questions

Step 3: If you feel you’re getting a better understanding, keep going! And propose a few changes to the current way of working.

And remember that the changes won’t happen overnight and you’ll likely experience some push back. That’s why it’s always important to reinforce that you’re not just trying to help yourself (or the UX team) but everyone involved.

Final thought

I’ve seen various designers be successful when taking this approach.

In my opinion it’s absolutely worth the effort to try and change the view of design but you gotta know when you are up against folks who are fully stuck in their ways and move on because you will not benefit or grow in a space like that.

What’s your relatable story of working in a similar situation?

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