How to get stakeholder buy-in: From skeptic to research advocate

If you’re reading this, you likely already know the value of user research.

You don’t need us to tell you why investing in UX research is important. You already know it’s fundamental for avoiding costly product discovery mistakes, building game-changing designs, and gathering data for informed decision-making.

But chances are, there’s still a few research skeptics in your organization, which leads us here. Part of the work of a UX research professional is the arduous task of convincing stakeholders of the value of UX research in business growth and success.

But how do you win them over and ensure resources are allocated to UX research?

Stick with us for six actionable tips to show stakeholders the value of UX research, and secure stakeholder buy-in on your next project.

Stakeholder buy-in is crucial to secure resources, support, and team alignment for your proposed UX research strategy or project. Without stakeholder buy-in, UX researchers struggle to conduct user research projects effectively and spread the value of user insights. At worst, the research function in an org can come to a total standstill.

Stakeholder buy-in is vital across multiple dimensions:

UX research can be challenging enough without feeling like you’re fighting for budget and buy-in. By bringing stakeholders on board, you release user research from operating in a vacuum, so everyone in the organization can benefit from customer insights and, ultimately, build better products.

So, what are you up against?

Given the benefits, we wouldn’t blame you for wondering why stakeholders aren’t lining up to make UX research an integral part of their product development process.

While each company is unique, with their own reasoning behind stakeholder decisions, some of the main barriers to stakeholder buy-in include:

Buy-in can be difficult—but it’s by no means impossible. Let’s get into how you can win the investment your UX work deserves.

Amat victoria curam. Victory loves preparation.

This Latin proverb hits the nail on the head when it comes to winning stakeholder buy-in for UX research. Preparing your discussion ahead of time and bringing relevant data—quantitative and qualitative—about the value of research is a key element in getting buy-in.

Speaking with Geoffrey Crofte, Senior UX Lead Designer at Foyer Group, we’ve compiled six expert tips to leave your stakeholders swooning over everything from user interviews to task analysis. Let’s dive in.

When making decisions, your stakeholders have several priorities in mind. These are always tied to wider business objectives and long-term strategies. The trick is to acknowledge these priorities and illustrate how UX research ultimately helps fulfill them sooner.

In the same way you research your users and build UX personas, you want to research your target audience and learn what’s important to them.

What are the business goals? Perhaps stakeholders are concerned with increased churn throughout last year. Maybe it’s all hands on deck for increasing acquisition within the quarter. It could be all about reducing overheads. Whatever it might be, identify the business objectives stakeholders have laid out for the whole team, and show them how user research aids this journey.

Geoffrey emphasizes the power of speaking to stakeholder motivation:

“You need to do your job the best you can, but also understand what motivates your stakeholders (money is obvious, but what else?). Demonstrate the benefits for the end users, yes, but also speak to the stakeholders’ motivations to get buy-in.”

Both you and your stakeholders are working towards shared goals of better products and fulfilling wider business objectives. It’s just a matter of putting it in their terms. Speaking directly to stakeholder interests and showing them how UX research can help navigate uncertainty and achieve success is crucial for securing buy-in.

While talking the talk may convince some of your stakeholders, you’re likely to run into pushback. You'll more than likely be thrown a few curve balls—which you’ll need to be prepared to hit out of the park.

That’s why it’s best to anticipate objections beforehand. The key here is empathy. What are the concerns and constraints your stakeholders have? If you can pinpoint these concerns beforehand and address them upfront, stakeholders will be more likely to buy in.

Some of the common objections include:

Every company is unique, so stakeholder objections will vary. Consider holding stakeholder interviews to get an understanding of what matters to your leaders. Once you’ve identified key objections, move on to preemptively answering them.

A picture’s worth a thousand words. It turns talk into tangible examples of UX success. Instead of simply telling stakeholders that UX research will solve their problems and produce better business outcomes, show them. Aim for case studies with wireframes, prototypes, storyboards, and visual data representations—everything you need to walk stakeholders through how UX research gets results.

If you’re already running research operations, show stakeholders what you’ve been working on. Present final designs, key user insights that informed design decisions, and the processes that got you there.

Perhaps you’ve conducted usability testing in the past. You can show stakeholders a Clip of a user struggling to complete a task, and detailing why the task at hand was so difficult. You can then follow up with the insights you extracted and how you implemented it in the design to improve usability, increase customer satisfaction, and, subsequently, boost customer retention.

Alternatively, if you’re on the Product team and trying to get your first UX research tool or investment for a new research project, show them case studies and results from similar organizations. Highlight the impact on business goals, improvement in customer experience, or use an ROI calculator or quotes from user interviews to highlight positive feedback.

Working in a story alongside your UX visuals turns your presentation into a cohesive narrative—giving it a start, middle, and end. It provides stakeholders with a framework detailing what they can expect from UX research.

A narrative makes your case more engaging, relatable, and memorable—just remember to still include key data points, usability metrics, and focus on real user problems.

To build a narrative stakeholders will love, focus on these three key elements:

Geoffrey suggests testing out your story with colleagues before presenting it to stakeholders:

“To make a consistent story, you need a good mix between facts and vision. The advice I try to keep for myself is this one: if you can tell a good story and get buy-in from non-research colleagues, you’re on the right path.”

Talking of colleagues…

Getting stakeholder buy-in can be a difficult task for even the most confident UX professionals. The good news is you don’t need to go at it alone.

There’s power in numbers. Bring together the voices of other team members who believe in the power of UX research. With a team of experts championing the cause, you’ll have an increased chance of persuading your stakeholders.

Ask your allies to act as advocates for the benefits of UX research from their perspective. They can help you showcase all the ways user insights help across the business, from customer support to sales and marketing.

Utilize any UX research repository you have to highlight the far-reaching impact of research; and ask your colleagues to demonstrate how research helps them do their job better, to build a complete picture of research’s impact.

You’ll also benefit from the power of social proof—where stakeholders are subconsciously persuaded by the fact you’ve already got support from other stakeholders.

Geoffrey emphasizes creating an internal pilot project and showing it to your allies who have closer connections to stakeholders: "The best way to start is with an internal pilot project. Find allies in your organization who know how the political stuff works, and what strings you need to pull, then ask them to get involved from their own position."

Keep in mind to look for allies high and low. Designers aren’t the only ones who are passionate about user research. You’ll find developers, product managers, and marketers who are all on board with using user research to build organizations that learn.

Finally, when presenting your solutions, research findings, and business case to stakeholders, remember to put your most important points at the start of the conversation. Your stakeholders are likely in meetings for a large part of the day. Attention spans dwindle, minds wander, people get bored or have to duck out early. Starting with the good stuff ensures you pique their interest and keep their attention. (It’s also a benefit when sharing the meeting notes or slide deck around the business later.)

For example, there’s no need to dive into the processes and methodologies you used during your last usability project from the get-go. What your stakeholders are really interested in are the business implications tied to your user research.

Start with quick, important takeaways that grab their attention and are too good to ignore. Once you’ve made the benefits abundantly clear, you’re ready to set your story in motion and cover the details while maintaining their undivided attention.

Getting stakeholder buy-in can be challenging, but it’s by no means impossible. The perfect recipe requires lots of preparation, some well-informed strategies, and just enough schmoozing. Follow our tips above, and you’re more than ready to show stakeholders the UX research light.

When you do get the buy-in your UX research initiatives deserve, you’ll need a tool to see you through to success. Maze is the ultimate user research platform that helps you take UX research to the next level. Plus, with Maze’s visual-rich, automated reports, you can show stakeholders the fruits of your UX initiatives, making the benefits apparent and your case too good to ignore.