However, working with other disciplines and external partners — all of whom have their own working styles, procedures and cultures — can come with its challenges.
Paul Sissons, Head of User Experience & Design at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in Salford, discusses these potential challenges and how his team works together to overcome any barriers.
Promoting equality
A big part of working effectively with other disciplines and clients is about making a conscious effort to understand people and their roles and giving adequate time and consideration to everyone involved. We also recognise that some people won't understand what we do as UX designers, so we need to take the time to accommodate for this too.
When talking about understanding people, I think it's largely about recognising what motivates them and having patience for their needs. We're all working towards the same core goal at the end of the day and our behaviour should always reflect this.
You can definitely feel that this behaviour is working when you no longer see 'us vs them' within a group dynamic — instead, you just see a group of motivated people getting things done together.
Understanding cultural differences
When starting on a project or welcoming a new relationship with an external partner, it's never a good idea to just hand over a brief and expect people to understand your working methods and culture. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is a complex machine and it's vital that we help everyone to understand this.
In terms of working with other disciplines at the ´óÏó´«Ã½, I always encourage my team to respect other teams cultures whilst teaching others about our own team dynamic. For this to work between disciplines, the consensus to collaborate and learn from each other needs to be mutual. It definitely helps when we take the time to build personal relationships too, whether this is through the work itself or via a shared social event.
Taking the time to build relationships with external partners is equally as important. We encourage this by inviting them to work in our offices and familiarise themselves with our spaces; it can be really uncomfortable for people to have to walk into our buildings not knowing who people are or where a certain person is sat. We also encourage external partners to input their ideas on how we can improve our working practices at the ´óÏó´«Ã½.
Avoiding unintentional exclusion
It's often assumed that external partners get to work on the 'cool' stuff and internal designers can sometimes be left by the wayside. This is certainly something that we try to avoid at the ´óÏó´«Ã½. We largely do this by letting the right people know when something is happening and why it's happening. For example, we almost always partner on projects with internal design team members. It's so important to explain to internal teams why a particular project or piece of work has been outsourced and how their input can still be beneficial.
It's also important to keep communications flowing with external partners on a regular basis, regardless of whether there's an active workload or pressing deadline. Even if there is no immediate need, they may identify other things that they can help with based on this conversation.
The design leader's role
My role isn't just about engaging in the above behaviours, but also about helping others to understand that these changes don't just happen overnight. It takes time to build relationships and understand other processes and cultures — especially when no one team or company is the same.
For me, I also think it's important to promote and actively engage in different types of communication, whether it's regular phone calls or face-to-face interactions. It's fairly easy to fall into the habit of sending emails for convenience or just contacting someone when you need something. Having those impromptu conversations with partners can really help to build relationships and create opportunities for future work.
This article is part of our Studio Culture series, which explores the important factors that help design teams excel and collaborate effectively.
