Thread by @joenatoli

If decisions about requirements, #productdesign and #UX are being made without you, I have a suggestion:

Stop waiting for an invitation.

Start inviting yourself.

(a LONG thread ahead...settle in)

1/13

I’m sure in your organization there are strategic meetings you’re not part of, where product strategy or requirements or sprint plans are made and decided without you.

Everyone else knows things you don’t; information upstream never makes it to you.

2/13

You feel marginalized, left out, disrespected, OK, fine. I get it. That happens, more often than it should, I agree.

So what are you gonna DO about it?

Where do you need to be to know what they know — when they know it?

What activities? Conversations? Meetings?

3/13

Think about your company: what do those cross-departmental interactions look like, where do they happen, how do they happen?

Who’s currently invited — and why?

Who lives on the front lines of these bigger, more strategic, upstream problems?

4/13

Are you hanging out with these people regularly? If not, why not? What’s stopping you? Well, if I had to guess, it's the fact that you’re not invited to any of those discussions.

But guess what? You do not have to wait for an invite.

Invite yourself.

5/13

Ask: “hey, can I sit in on that meeting? It'd really help me understand the larger business goals driving the work I’m doing. It'd help me make sure the choices and decisions I make are in line with what you’re after, in line with the goals of the department (or business).”

6/13

You’re asking to be a fly on the wall, under the guise of learning.

And that’s an honest ask, but make no mistake: the goal of being in these meetings is to eventually *hijack* them. 😎

To be there to speak up and contribute to those conversations.

7/13

To demonstrate that you get what goes on at the big kids table.

To show you're uniquely positioned to clear the road for those outcomes they want.

To have the opportunity to point out and speak to #UX issues that you know can drive customer and business results.

8/13

Your focus in those meetings, what you’re listening for is how issues affect *people,* not the organization as some nebulous whole.

Other people in other roles in other departments who have strategic influence on product decisions.

What are they struggling with?

9/13

Are those issues persistent?

How would solving them make them (and you) look like heroes?

Why this matters:

YOUR BEHAVIOR REINFORCES THEIR BELIEFS.

10/13

If you’re a passive order taker or someone who only preaches the gospel of UX and design — or worse, says nothing at all — you are reinforcing all the things you hate about how they see you.

You're saying "this is what UX and Design work looks like."

11/13

You're saying "my work happens at the end of the process; I make it pretty; you dictate, I do."

Your business counterparts do not realize they can get something more, something better from you; this is all they know.

12/13

It is up to you to change that perception.

And in order to do that, you must find a way to get more face time with those people.

I teach UXers + Designers how to do this and other things that raise their profile + respect at my UX 365 Academy: learn.givegoodux.com.

13/13