3 Ingredients for Effective Remote Collaboration on UX Projects
Critical considerations for successful remote UX projects with clients.
At one point in my career, I worked for a UX consultancy where every project kickoff involved a plane trip with at least two or more people, and then there were workshops that were often multi-day affairs with anywhere from 10–20 people and a catered lunch. A client once joked with me that a 3-day workshop was “like planning a wedding.” I’m not saying that these face-to-face extravaganzas are not valuable; they can be very valuable if clients want to invest in them.
However, many clients can’t or don’t want to invest that much for every UX research project. And of course, at the moment, there’s a global pandemic that means most of us are avoiding travel. Whatever the reason, we are pros at collaborating with clients from afar at Marketade. We’ve been doing so for years. As a fully remote company, we’ve had a lot of practice finding ways to get some of the same benefits of face-to-face interactions without the hefty price tag of travel. This is especially important for clients with whom we have long relationships, whether it’s through a retainer or repeated project work. So here are 3 key tips for collaborating with clients like a pro without ever leaving your office.
1 — Meet them where they already are… online
If you’re a UX professional in 2020 you’re likely on Slack and probably also Basecamp or something like it. These can be helpful tools, but the reality is that not all clients use them. Clients in bigger companies often have their own systems, possibly with stringent security restrictions, and non-technical clients likely aren’t used to dealing with apps like Slack. Instead of applying your own standards and tools to every client, treat your clients like you treat your users: ask them what’s most comfortable and indeed possible for them.
Some examples from our work:
- One of our largest, long-term clients uses WebEx Teams for chat. They gave our entire team accounts on their system and we also log into WebEx Teams so that we can be available to communicate that way with them.
- Some clients just aren’t comfortable with Basecamp or can’t access it through their VPN. We keep track of project work through email with them. Pro tip: you can share emails on Slack and BCC your Basecamp projects.
- We use Google Business Suite and share G-docs liberally. However, not all clients are able to access them or understand how to use shared online documents. We fall back to Microsoft products as necessary in those cases and use Dropbox for Business to share links to larger documents.
2 — Make status communication a habit
If you can’t be face-to-face with a client, over-communicate. I don’t mean flood their inbox with one-off messages but do consistently communicate the status of your work and how it lines up with the original plan. One template I use to communicate status to one of our clients each week looks like this:
[Project Name] — [Client contact], [Marketade contact]. RAG Status: [Red, Amber, Green]
- Last week we XXXX.
- This week, we’ll XXXX.
- We [are/are not] on track to XXXX by YYYY, as planned.
If you’re wondering what a RAG status is, it’s just a simple way to communicate a project’s ability to move forward. As any driver knows, red means stop. We use this to communicate if a project’s progress has stopped and there is no clear plan to begin moving forward again. Amber is the British way of saying yellow and, to continue with the driving metaphor, it signifies cautious or slowed progress. An amber status tells us there are some issues but we’re still moving forward and figuring it out. Green means “all clear.”
This is a great template for communicating the status of several concurrent efforts, and it can be adapted to work for a single effort as well. Whatever template you use, I recommend keeping it simple, scannable, and consistent. Seriously, resist the urge to write a novel. No one will read it!
Try to have a standing meeting with one person each week to talk this over. Ideally, the person leading the work on your side can connect with someone on the client side who feels ownership over the relationship between your org and theirs. It is worth it to really do some work to foster a relationship between these two people even if the client is a little bit resistant because human connection and trust is an important element of productive collaboration. Speaking of which…
3 — Acknowledge everyone’s humanity
Face to face interactions offer the benefit of allowing us to easily and quickly connect as humans, which builds trust, affinity, and connection. These factors all grease the wheels of collaboration. When you interact largely or solely online, it’s still important to do that. Maybe even more so. Here are some ways we do it:
- Turn on the camera — We turn on the camera during meetings like kickoff meetings or remote workshops. And, any time there is anything that might be controversial to talk about, having the camera on really helps keep things friendly.
- Pick up the phone — We try not to email or text chat about controversial, challenging or complex subjects. Voice (or better still, video) is second only to physical in-person communication when it comes to communicating about challenging subjects without escalating.
- Think the best — We make an effort to stay curious and avoid assumptions about clients, especially negative ones. In fact, we assume positive intent.
- Ask about life — That minute or two at the beginning of the meeting when everyone is getting settled is a great opportunity to ask questions about clients’ lives. You could ask about their family, recent travel, recent time off, recent holidays, the weather where they are, or any other innocuous subjects. It’s not about the content, it’s about connecting.
