- Mortensen, D. (2020). How to involve stakeholders in your user research. The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/how-to-involve-stakeholders-in-your-user-research

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

In the context of user research, stakeholders are individuals or groups who can facilitate the research by providing relevant information and support, or who will be impacted by the project's outcome. Involving them is essential as they can offer practical suggestions for product development. Key stakeholder categories include business (e.g., product managers), engineering (e.g., technical support), and UX (e.g., other designers and researchers).

Stakeholders in User Research

Stakeholders References

“In the book, It's Our Research: Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Projects, UX researcher Tomer Sharon divides stakeholders in UX research into three overall categories: Business, Engineering, UX people”(Mortensen, 2020).

- Business stakeholders: people who are involving in the business, such as product managers and salespeople. They help to line up the research with their business goal and provide financial and management support.

- Engineering stakeholders: people who are providing technical/customer support. They help to make sure that the final solution can be successfully implemented without encountering technical problems.

- UX stakeholders: people who are working on the same project and would need the research result to optimize the product through design or research. They could provide different perspectives and knowledge of the user experience. 

Types of Stakeholders

- Research: Collecting information related to the current project, including the relevant works in the past, that helps to learn the project and discover new aspects. 

- Face to face conversation: Kim Goodwin, the author of Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services, suggests that a one-hour long interview could unveil the potential impacts from different stakeholders. The interview should be anonymous and more like a natural conversation, so the interviewees could be more open about their thoughts and provide more honest ideas.

- What to ask: the researchers could use this opportunity to confirm the information and learn more about the project, including the users, what decision has been made, and what are the limitations. It's also important to learn about the stakeholders themselves, such as their role and interests in the project. 

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