In her presentation at the Warm Gun Conference in San Francisco CA, Kaaren Hanson shared how designers can work with executives. Here are my notes from her talk:
- All executives today get that design is important but most don't "get" design.
- Executives want you to bring energy into the room, not suck the air out.
- How do you describe design? It's hard. You have to feel it.
- Don't bring them an experience you like, ask them what experiences where great for them? To get them to focus on how things make you feel. Focus on emotion.
- Intuit had their executives do a scavanger hunt using their mobile devices.
- Once executives get design, they don't know what to do with it. But they won't admit this. You have to help them figure out what to do.
- Executives love measures. They are rewarded when things are concrete, measurable, and less ambiguous.
- Use data to make your case.
- Lessons learned: create visceral experiences so people feel the importance of design. Once you get their hearts, they are willing to help.
- Give executives a job. Tell them what they can do to help you. What they decide to do on their own might not help you.
- Lean in to the metrics.