Speaking business—designing for senior senior stakeholders
This article is based on a talk I did to a group of product designers (*all opinions are my own!). I believe context is everything in design and I wanted to provide designers with knowledge rarely communicated when studying design at colleges and universities.
So why start with senior stakeholders? It’s important to understand how your organisation, or the organisation you are working with, is structured, what its vision and mission are and how to incorporate this into your day-to-day work. I’ve noticed a faster adoption of feature ideas, less pushback and fewer iterations when designing with these aspects in mind. When we design in a human-centred way, we are designing for both internal and external users. You may help get your boss a promotion. You may help get your boss’s boss a promotion. If you channel your company’s strategic and annual goals, you are likely aligned with the people who put passion into writing them.
So what is covered?
- The who’s who of senior senior stakeholders
- Some key activities senior senior stakeholders take part in
- The language senior senior stakeholders use
“Business is an area where I see designers falling short the most”
Kate Aronowitz, Design Partner at Google Ventures
The who’s who of senior stakeholders
*A quick preface to say that these are sweeping generalisations — all organisations and individuals are different and there is never any substitute for understanding who you are working with by getting to know them on a personal level. These are purposefully simple summaries to give you a rough overview as a starting point.
The Board
The Board’s function
Every public company, and many private companies, have a Board of Directors. The Board’s main function is to ensure that the company flourishes, whilst meeting the interests of shareholders and stakeholders. Is it compliant, is it moving in the right direction, has the strategy been thought through thoroughly, is it financially sound? The Board is there to question, check and help senior management follow the right path.
Who is on the Board?
- The Board tends to be a mix of internal (C-suite — covered later in this article) and external people (union rep, private equity position, industry expert, etc.), led by a Chairperson.
- Board members are generally nominated by the Board but elected by the shareholders (people who own a percentage of the company — if it is a Public Company this could be huge numbers of people). Public Companies usually hold Annual Meetings of shareholders where Board members may be voted in or out of the team.
What do they discuss?
- Strategy
- Financial performance and funding requirements
- Evaluate the job performance of the C-suite (especially the CEO)
- Staff salaries and bonuses
- Dividends for shareholders
- Governance and controls
- Mergers and acquisitions
A Board member
Let’s look at an example of the qualities of a typical Board member, Board members vary greatly so this is more of a guide.
Often:
- Industry specialised knowledge (e.g. financial market experience)
- Concerned about ethics and standards
- Ensure legal compliance
- Very strategic
- Well-connected
- Confrontational and questioning
Love:
- Good lunch
- Very thought through plans, plus updates and follow through
- Facts
- Accurate, timely data
- KPIs and OKRs (discussed later in this article)
- No surprises
Presenting to the Board:
- Make sure you know your figures and stick to facts
- Make it snappy but attach appendices with further information about your business case
- Link designs to the long-term strategy
The C-suite
The C-suite’s function
C stands for ‘Chief’. The C-suite are the people with the top management positions in a company. They are paid employees and the Board oversees their performance.
Meet the senior team
A CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
The head of the C-suite, a CEO, is a master delegator and multi-tasker. If the company is not a startup then generally the CEO’s goal is to ensure it makes a profit and reaches its strategic goals. If the company is a startup the goal will likely be to find and prove its business model. The CEO will be tuned into market trends and will be fantastic at presenting and selling. They also pitch for investment and maintain partnerships. At Board meetings, the CEO recommends plans and strategies.
Often:
- Big picture people
- Time poor
- Inspirational
Love:
- Return on investment (discussed later in this article)
- Futuristic tech
- Presenting
- Other very successful CEOs
Presenting to a CEO:
- Keep things high level, snappy and short
- Look for ways your designs may incorporate future technologies or give your company a competitive edge to get investors excited
- Link design decisions to ROI and OKRs (discussed later in this article)
The COO (Chief Operating Officer)
Normally the second in command, responsible for the business operations strategy internally. This includes people, policies, procedures and processes — the how of the team’s strategies. They oversee all departments and keep the proverbial engine running.
Often:
- Very pragmatic (what’s the plan?)
- Data and numbers driven
- Decisive
Love:
- Excel
- Efficiency
- Reports
- Structure
- KPIs and OKRs
Presenting to a COO:
- Link designs to KPIs and OKRs
- Communicate ways designs may make processes more efficient
- Communicate how designs will be implemented
The CTO or CIO (Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer)
The CTO is responsible for the technological strategy of the company. They look to ensure that technologies are used efficiently, profitably and securely. They monitor IT budgets and build quality assurance and data protection processes.
Often:
- Budget-driven as well as technology-driven
- Highly concerned with data protection and GDPR
- Highly concerned with security and compliance
Love:
- Automation
- New technologies
- Long-term future-proofing by choosing the right technologies
Presenting to a CTO or CIO:
- Explain how designs may reduce IT costs
- Mention considerations you’ve made about data protection or compliance
- Mention you have addressed security aspects and discussed them with your team
- Show how your research and work assists developers with their builds and identifies risks ahead of time
The CPO (Chief Product Officer)
The CPO is usually present in product organisations. They head up strategic product direction and departments like Product Management, Product Design, Data Science and Analytics. They are also responsible for instilling a product culture throughout the business.
Often:
- Have a lot of engineering knowledge
- Look to Silicon Valley for inspiration
- Take a mentoring approach to leadership
Love:
- Marty Cagan
- Product OKRs
- Roadmaps being followed
- New products
- Data, metrics, dashboards, data-driven decisions
- Continuous discovery (I will discuss what this is in more detail in another article)
Presenting to a CPO:
- Tie work to product OKRs
- Include clips of user testing sessions
- Take a prototype to every meeting
- Use product metrics and data to support design decisions
The CMO, CPMO (Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Product Marketing Officer)
The CMO or CPMO are responsible for overseeing the planning, development and execution of an organisation’s (or product suite’s) marketing and advertising. They want to generate revenue (discussed later in the article) by increasing sales through successful campaigns and activities. They set marketing objectives through OKRs and KPIs.
Often:
- Great at presenting
- Like designers, they focus work around personas and research
Love:
- Data
- Market research
- Experiments
- Growth hacking
- Famous advertising and marketing campaigns
- Clear plans, roadmaps and high-level documentation of features and initiatives so they can plan ahead
Presenting to a CMO or CPMO:
- Keep the customer/user at the centre of your presentation
- Present and share user research findings that may be helpful for marketing teams
- Tie decisions to quantitative and qualitative data as much as possible
The CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
The CFO guides the finance and accounting teams and monitors cash flow but has a more strategic view of finances — fundraising, financial planning, improving weaknesses and forecasting. The CFO investigates new investment opportunities and prepares financials for investors and the Board.
Often:
- Pragmatic (needs data, numbers and a plan)
Love:
- Profitability
- ROI
- Graphs
- Financial strategy
- KPIs
Presenting to a CFO:
- You guessed it, include metrics, if possible, in your presentation to tie to design decisions
- Explain how your designs or initiatives are a good return on investment
- Ensure you cover the commercial angle — why would clients / customers care about what you have designed? Would they want to spend money? Are there any opportunities for them to spend more?
As we’ve seen, there are a number of senior senior stakeholders. Positions and responsibilities can vary between businesses and there are a whole host of other C-Suite job titles out there. There’s no need to be intimidated getting to know these people — reach out to them, ask them for advice, hear more about their successes and failures. More often than not they’ve been in your shoes at one time or another, just make sure you are respectful of their time and take a real interest in what they have to say. They love young, hardworking people that can push the boundaries and bring new perspectives to the company.
Some key activities senior senior stakeholders take part in
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is all about company direction. The goals set are mid to long-term, created in year one of a company’s life and are typically reassessed every 3–5 years.
The key questions addressed are:
- Where are we now?
- Where do we want to go?
- How are we going to get there?
Key activities include:
- S(trengths)W(eaknesses)O(ppotunities)T(hreats) analysis
- Company visioning workshops
- Creating one key metric
- Re-branding
The output of these activities are clear and rousing statements about the direction of the business. Including purpose statements, vision statements, mission statements, value statements.
Here are some examples from company Birdie Care which I think are really well written:
Vision (10–20 years in the future; where do you want to be?)
-> “To build a world where we can all age with confidence”
This is a great vision statement because it focuses on impact and behaviour change — it is very ambitious and helps align employees around a greater purpose.
Mission (Actions now)
-> “To reinvent care so that older generations can age safely in their homes, surrounded by families and their communities, and with the independence to live happier, healthier lives.”
I think this is a fantastic mission statement as I can see as a designer exactly what kind of features to prioritise. If I link back to this mission statement I can ask myself— is this making the elderly person live a healthier life? Is this feature providing the elderly person with more independence, is this allowing someone to age safely, etc.
A company’s vision, mission and values are a direct link to the senior senior team. These have been agreed by them as a wider plan for the company. When you are presenting and have prioritised a feature which answers part of your company’s vision, mission, or values, link back to them when presenting it. You will appear aligned with your organisation’s strategy and in tune with the big picture.
Annual planning
To look at annual planning, we first need to look at accounting.
Accounting is typically at the centre of how we plan work in a business.
The UK financial year runs April to April (sorry international readers, but tailor this to your own geography!)
So, in the UK the financial quarters are:
Q1: April–June
Q2: July–September
Q3: October–December
Q4: January–March
Businesses can choose their business quarters but in the UK they often follow the financial quarters. I would recommend finding out when your company’s quarters run.
Why are business quarters important?
If there was any quarter I would recommend to keep an eye out for, it is Q4. Why? Q4 is the time when any budget left over needs to be spent. Have your team got some explorative research you’d love to run? Want to do some professional development training? Maybe there’s some left-over budget available! Q4 is also when the next year’s budget is planned, so if there is a design initiative you want to get off the ground, Q4 is the time to evangelise and promote it.
Annual planning activities
- Your senior team will compare performance to previous years
- Address key learnings
- Select key pillars (focus areas) for the year ahead
- Set annual OKRs, KPIs
- Create an annual budget
These annual plans are tied to higher strategic goals, however things like market or regulation changes can influence things. Conversations with the Board can also alter the annual direction.
The language senior senior stakeholders use
Here’s a jargon and acronym-busting breakdown of the items that crop up in annual and strategic planning.
What are strategic annual OKRs?
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)—OKRs are a framework for goal setting. They were popularised by John Doerr, a Board member at Google. He had heard about them from former CEO at Intel, Andy Grove.
They follow this formula:
We will [OBJECTIVE] as measured by [KEY RESULT, KEY RESULT, KEY RESULT]
The Key Results for each Objective should describe outcomes, not activities and should be measurable. There should be 3–5 organisational annual OKRs and they should be bold and ambitious. Google uses stretch goal OKRs — if 60–70% of them are achieved that is considered good. They promote the mindset of: ‘reach for the stars and get to the moon’.
Here’s an example:
Imagine I work for a furniture company and one annual pillar set is to become a more environmentally conscious business.
My objective could be:
Create the lowest carbon footprint in our industry
Key results (as measured by):
- 100% of carbon offset for calculated carbon dioxide emissions
- 25% of material compostable
- 70% of material biodegradable
Wait, then what are KPIs?
KPIs are Key Performance Indicators — a numeric measure of performance. Your annual KPIs should track the targets that make the most impact on your strategic business outcomes. I like to think of it as — if you were designing a company dashboard these would be figures you would be tracking right at the top of the page.
KPIs are often created using the SMART(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) framework.
They typically follow this formula:
Capture X new inbound leads by Y timeframe using Z strategies
Develop X new qualified opportunities by Y timeframe
Here’s an example:
Back to the furniture company. They want to carbon offset their CO2 emissions. One strategy for this could be lowering their company emissions overall. A KPI for this could be:
Decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 12% by the end of Q4
What are metrics?
Metrics measure the success of everyday business activities that support your KPIs or OKRs.
An example:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) — the total cost of sales and marketing activities, property and equipment it takes to convince a customer to use a service.
This metric can be used together with other metrics to measure success and gain a bigger picture of how your product is performing.
OKRs and KPIs are really important to call back to to show senior senior stakeholders you are on track and that you understand where your focus should be.
Annual budget — Financial terminology
Last, but not least, understanding some financial terminology will help you connect with your finance stakeholders.
The first thing you need to understand is whether the company is a startup (business model experiment) or an established company.
Burn rate: If the company is a startup it may have a burn rate. This is the amount of cash per month the company spends from investment before generating its own income
Profit: Gross profit — the profit after removing the total costs of goods/services sold from total sales (usually used for rough predictions)
Net profit — the profit after removing all the operating costs, interest costs, tax etc. over the period (much more accurate)
Revenue: Sales/income/money coming in
Margin: The percentage difference between selling price and the cost to produce
Fixed costs: Predictable costs like rent, bills, salaries, taxes
Variable costs: Unpredictable costs like marketing, travel, software
P&L (Profit and Loss Statement): A table where you total business costs and total profits to see if you are making a profit or a loss
Cash flow: This can make or break a small company. Positive cash flow is enough money in the bank to pay bills, salaries etc. Negative cash flow can mean you cannot pay your bills. Sometimes clients can pay late and so there should always be some cushion in the business’s bank account to make sure those salaries and bills can be paid
….and the big one:
ROI (Return on Investment): Time is money, as they famously say. Is the effort worth the outcome? If you divide the money invested in an initiative by the net profit you make, you will find out! Senior senior stakeholders really care about this — are your designs going to reduce development time? Is a concept a ‘quick win’ that could see huge results? This is fantastic to mention when presenting your work
Now you have an overview of your senior senior stakeholders and how to help them reach their goals. Hopefully it will also help you reach yours!
Please comment below if this was helpful for you. I’m very happy to share this knowledge with design teams in its original interactive presentation format — it takes under an hour. Just drop me a comment or connect with me on Linkedin if you think it would be useful, or check out my website.
