Expanding your influential power as a designer
There is an almost universal desire shared by designers the world over: “gain a seat at the table”. Naturally, we don’t just want a seat at the table, we want to be viewed as a trusted strategic partner with the other key functional areas of the business. We want to have impact and we want to deliver outcomes. In essence we want an increased capacity to improve customer lives, but feel powerless to change it. It doesn’t need to be that way. You can ship better experiences and have a bigger impact on the business, but you can’t do it alone. Neither can I. Neither can anybody you’ve ever met. Many call it ‘political capital’. I like to call it “influential power”.
The tactic of developing and using influential power is one all successful leaders use, yet many designers and new design leaders are unfamiliar with it. That is what I’m here to change today.
Influence is everyone’s job
The first step to having more influential power is to truly view influence as your job. Too many User Experience Designers prefer to leave influence, business decisions, financials, OKR setting, and the like to others. Either because they view “business politics” in a completely negative light or because they feel powerless to impact it.
The truth is, however, that we DO have the power to impact it. Many of us just don’t know it yet. Anything that harms the user experience is a UXer’s job. If not us, then who?
Mike Monteiro illustrated this point well when he said:
“Walt Disney created user experiences. You create user interfaces.”
—Mike Monteiro
But how? Structure & culture often feel like they prevent us from putting the user first. Each department has its own goals and objectives. Objectives that can seem to have little to do with crafting a great user experience. Objectives driven by their own targets and how management assessed their effectiveness.
Paul Boag described this problem in his book User Experience Revolution well when he said:
“If your company is to survive in the modern world, things have to change.
Gone are the days when companies could get away with offering a substandard experience, where pumping money into advertising could cover a multitude of sins. The world has changed and there is a new generation of empowered, connected consumers—consumers with higher expectations than ever before. If your company does not meet those expectations customers will go elsewhere. In fact, according to Customer Think, 89% of customers will stop doing business with a company after a single poor customer experience.
At its heart, that is what user experience design is all about. It is not about designing pretty interfaces or creating compelling brands. It is about better serving today’s connected consumers. It is about recognizing the power they now wield and ensuring you offer them outstanding service. It is about serving and not selling.”
—Paul Boag
I would add that to do that, we as user experience designers need to reinvent our thinking when it comes to what we view our job to be. We need to do the hard work to unify objectives and rally the company around what level of experience is possible—but first we have to view influence as our job.
Understand your partners & stakeholders
We in the UX field should be the best in the world at understanding others’ circumstances, motivations, goals, and pain points. We do a great job at this with customers, but often fail to do this with our partners and stakeholders.
Before we can influence or help anyone, we need to understand them. You already know how to do user research, so I’m not going to re-hash that aspect today. Just take those skills and translate them into understanding your partners.
What I do want to bring to light is that there are 2 ways of influencing others: manipulation and inspiration. Manipulation is the act of “handling or controlling” others. When we’re attempting manipulation we view others as objects to be overcome, to be handled, to be controlled.
Inspiration—on the other hand—is focused on the individual needs, wants, and desires of people. Unlike manipulative leaders, inspirational leaders—those that have the most influence on others—view those around them as people with wants and needs as valid as their own.
In their book The Anatomy of Peace, The Arbinger Institute shows how when we view others as objects we have a Heart at War, and when we view others as people we have a Heart at Peace.
One of my favorite passages from the book illustrates this point well:
There is a question I have learned to ask of myself when I am feeling bothered about others: am I holding myself to the same standard I am demanding of them? In other words, if I am worried that others are getting a “pass”, am I also worried about whether I am giving myself one? Am I as vigilant in demanding the eradication of my own mistreatment of others as I am in demanding the eradication of their mistreatment of me?
If I’m not, I will be living in a kind of fog that obscures all the reality around and within me. Like a pilot in a cloud bank whose senses are telling him just the opposite of what his instrument panel is saying, my senses will be systematically lying to me — about myself, about others, and about my circumstances. My ’opposition’ may not be as prejudiced as I think they are.
When I see others as objects, I dwell on the injustices I have suffered in order to justify myself, keeping my mistreatments suffering alive within me. When I see others as people, on the other hand, then I free myself from the need for justification. I therefore free myself from the need to focus unduly on the bad that has been done to me. I am free to leave the worst behind me, and to see not only the bad but the mixed and good in others as well.
But none of that is possible if my heart is at war. A heart at war needs enemies to justify its warring. It needs enemies and mistreatment more than it wants peace.
The Arbinger Institute, “The Anatomy of Peace”
In other words, if we are upset that others “don’t get UX”, are we just as worried that we don’t get their goals, aspirations, and responsibilities? If not, then we might be seeing the world as if through a fog. On the other hand, if we view others as people and consider their wants/needs as valid as our own, we will see the world clearly. We will have a heart at peace. This enables us to wield tremendous influential power.
Jared M. Spool described this concept masterfully in his article Why I can’t convince executives to invest in UX (and neither can you):
Neither I, you, nor anybody else can convince an executive to invest in user experience.
Sure, there may be a few execs that are somehow still unaware of how a delightful, useful, easy-to-use product is better than a frustrating, useless, difficult-to-work product. I haven’t met one in all my years, but they could exist. Even so, I don’t believe a presentation will change their views.
What can you do instead of a presentation?
You can find out what your executives are already convinced of. If they are any good at what they do, they likely have something they want to improve. It’s likely to be related to improving revenues, reducing costs, increasing the number of new customers, increasing the sales from existing customers, or increasing shareholder value.
Once you start talking about what the executives are already convinced of, it becomes easier to get them to make investments. You’re no longer trying to get them to change their focus. You’re playing directly into their main field of attention.
This is the secret to influence. Do Stakeholder Research. Empathize with them. Stop trying to convince them of what you need. Show how you can help them achieve what they’re already concerned about.
The Concept of Influential Capital
Even when we view influence as our job, view others as people, and take time to really understand them, we only have so much capacity to influence others. This concept is called “Political Capital” by many business leaders. If the term ‘Political’ carries too negative of a connotation for you, you can think of this as ‘Influential Capital’.
The important idea is that Influential Capital is a finite resource. No one has an infinite supply. We all need others to help us achieve our goals. This is the true meaning of business politics. (Toxic cultures often come about when employees & managers see others as objects and attempt to manipulate instead of inspire. Thus the negative connotation many associate with the term.)
We all have our own sphere of influence. There are multiple factors that determine our sphere of influence—and it can grow over time—but is never infinite.
The 7 types of Influential Capital
So now you’re probably wondering, “Ok, Jeremy, great, but what is influential capital in practical terms, how do I gain more of it, and how do I move forward if I don’t have much of it? While the exact kind of political capital that is valued most at your company, and which kind you will need in your specific circumstance will vary, it helps to understand the 7 main types of political capital and how they’re acquired. Those types according to Northwestern University Professor William Ocasio include:
- Symbolic Capital
- Human Capital
- Reputational Capital
- Social Capital
- Economic Capital
- Organizational Capital
- Cultural Capital
It is extremely important to understand which type of influential capital is most valued at your organization, to invest in developing it before you need it, and to diversify the types of political capital you acquire.
Let’s dive a little deeper in each of the types of influence capital.
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
Symbolic influence is how your title, background, or degree perceived in your organization. At some companies, title carries a lot of weight. Others dramatically prioritize hiring those with degrees from prestigious universities. This can be frustrating if you don’t have the “right” background, elevated title, or degree, but there are ways of getting things done even in orgs where symbolic influence is prevalent that we’ll go over a little later. However, just being aware if symbolic capital matters at your company can already be a big step forward.
Also, remember that how “high” your title might be is not the only type of symbolic capital. Software Engineers or Product Managers can also wield more influential power than designers at some organizations.
HUMAN CAPITAL
Human Capital is determined by the skills, expertise, and knowledge you posses that you can use for others’ benefit. You were likely hired because you posses a unique blend of these needed in your role and for your team. That is a good place to start. You will want to keep an eye open, though, for skills that are widely respected throughout your entire organization. For example, I know companies that really value Storytelling. Those that are great using narrative to set a vision and communicate results tend to gain a lot of respect across the organization. At others it might be data analysis, financial literacy, or flexibility. Pinpointing which skills or knowledge is highly valued at your organization can help you both now and as you look to grow your influential power.
REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL
Reputational Capital refers to your track record, reliability, and ability to perform—or in other words, your reputation. This is often built up over time as your colleagues gain more experience and history with you. It is important to note, though, that Reputational Capital outside of your company is often just as valued and effective. Referrals, recommendations, and references are a great example of this type of influential capital. When you are well respected in your industry for great craft, helping others, thought-leadership, or a host of other skills, that carries weight within your current company as well. If you have a track record of building great teams in the past (as an example), you are more likely to build a great team in a new assignment. This is why many leaders are shuffled from one team to another (even overseeing domains they’ve never worked in before). They have built up a lot of Reputational Capital and have Senior Leadership’s trust that they can achieve great results again.
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Social Capital is the network you have to tap into and the personal connections do you have to tap into (either directly and indirectly). It is the result of personal branding & networking efforts.
It is vital to note that Social Capital is not just for when you need to find a new job (though it does, as Jeff Gothelf puts it, make you “Forever Employable). This can allow you to gain respect of coworkers and grow your track record as someone who achieves results. This is why most companies would rather hire referrals than someone random who applied online without any connection to the company.
Someone who has a lot of Social Capital outside their company often can get outside perspectives that can help their company significantly. Often these types of insights are extremely valuable and nearly impossible to gain for those without a high degree of Social Capital.
This is often why so many of us (myself included) spend so much time trying to help and influence those outside our immediate company. It helps others and it helps us as well.
ECONOMIC CAPITAL
Economic Capital mean the financial resources (profits, revenues, investments, etc) you bring to the organization. The perspectives of those who bring a high amount of Economic Capital carry weight at most organizations. It makes sense. If you bring a lot of revenue or reduce costs significantly, you get others’ attention. They are much more likely to take your advice and view you as a partner rather than a resource. As respected design leader Stephen Gates often says: “The work is the truth!”
The great news is that we UXers are great at providing economic value to companies. What we are not as great at is quantifying and communicating the value we bring. If you want to gain more Economic Capital, most likely all you need to get better at is show the value you are bringing to the company in terminology that the rest of the business can understand.
Sales reps are NOT the only ones who can wield enormous Economic Capital.
ORGANIZATIONAL CAPITAL
The authority to make formal decisions and to control the organizational agenda is called Organizational Capital. Companies with top-heavy Organizational Influence culture can be frustrating to work in, but it is important to acknowledge that this type of influential capital exists.
A way I discuss this type of influence with my team is that this is the ability to “direct” rather than just provide “feedback”. It is my aim to use any Organizational influence I may posses sparingly.
Since even UX Leaders often don’t posses as much Organizational Capital as many other leaders, it is important to use other types of influential capital to achieve results and to partner with and “sell” other leaders with more organizational capital.
It is also helpful to note that other types of capital can influence Organizational Capital. For example: if you bring in a lot of revenue, have a storied history of delivering great work, or have a great reputation in the industry, your perspective on company decisions will be greater.
CULTURAL CAPITAL
How effectively you represent and communicate the history and culture of the organization is called Cultural Capital. Those who are seen to influence and embody the desired culture of the company can wield influence. This can be everything from how you embody the cultural values of the company to how involved you were in the history of the company.
For example, I’ve worked at companies that have existed for decades. At these companies, the opinions & ideas of team members who have been around since the beginning are highly valued. They have the benefit of hindsight and know the ‘why’ behind foundational decisions.
How to increase your influence beyond your own capital through internal promoters.
So what do you do when you have identified the types of Influential Capital most valued by your organization and you find yourself falling short? You are hitting a wall. You need to improve collaboration, increase UX maturity, or stop your designs from getting watered down? How do you proceed when you’ve tried everything you can think of without much success?
When we run out of our ‘own’ influential capital, we can of course work on acquiring more—but that takes time. What happens when you need to make progress in the near term?
The best way I have found is to seek out internal “promoters”. These are people who have more Influential Capital than you do that you can “get on board” with what you are trying to do. It works best if you both are already aligned on solving the same problem or achieving the same results. Once you have gotten them on board, they can help you sell your idea or evangelize the value of your product to any other stakeholders or customers needed to achieve the needed impact.
It is also important to note that these are not always those with higher titles than you. (Remember, Symbolic Capital is only 1 of the 7 types of influential capital).
Let me provide 3 examples from my own experience.
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
I once was working on a project where we were trying to revolutionize the user experience & code stability of a legacy platform. Both were atrocious. It took days (sometimes weeks at larger orgs) for users to complete their jobs to be done. As we dove into understanding users better we realized that the problems were deep rooted in the way the data model was architected, the technology used to write the code, and various other technical limitations. It simply wouldn’t have been possible to make more than minor usability enhancements without solving those fundamental issues.
I involved my PM partner in the user research I did. We brainstormed various solutions and evaluated various user workflows. From a business standpoint, we were losing customers due to this problem. It was the main entry point into our ecosystem and it was having a significant business impact. He prioritized solving this problem, but I was able to help him see that a quick fix just wasn’t going to be possible.
He was very technically savvy and knew our database schemas and data model well. He also had a high degree of Cultural capital and had more Organizational capital than I did. He was able to help illustrate the problems with the architecture. (Problems the engineers already cared about). At first we got pushback from some of the engineers, but we found a Lead Engineer with both the right Symbolic Capital and Cultural Capital that caught the vision (both from a technical and user perspective). He helped us convince the rest of engineering leadership. He was able to use language and arguments that resonated more effectively with engineers than I could have. The PM helped translate the feedback we received from users and the vision I had for what the experience could be into actionable data architecture ideas.
The result was an improved product that had dramatic impact for both the business and users. In fact, some of the customers that had previously quit using our product came back.
ORGANIZATIONAL & REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL
One time at a different company we were introducing new functionality that needed cooperation & collaboration from another department. It was not a priority for them because they perceived it to be unrelated to what was a priority for them and some even felt threatened by the new functionality we were building. They were worried that it would make their work obsolete. Both my manager and I were hitting a wall and being blocked. Our deadline was at risk of being missed, which in this particular case would have had significant business ramifications. One other wall we were coming up against was that we were a satellite office and were perceived to be less important than HQ. (Another type of Reputational Capital).
We sought to understand where the objections were coming from and why they felt our work was a threat to them. We pitched the idea to a few people from the HQ office who had larger titles than we did and had more history with the company. Eventually, we found someone who really caught the vision and could see how our work would ENABLE this other team, not threaten them. He was able to help them see how much more they would be able to get done, and how much more effective the work they were currently doing would be with the two products integrated more. He was able to get the attention of teams and leaders we never could have by ourselves. He had brought significant revenue to the company and helped avoid more than 1 catastrophe so he carried a lot of Reputational and Economic capital in addition to having an elevated title.
As a result, we earned a little more Reputational capital ourselves. We were viewed a little more as partners rather than resources.
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Anyone who has reached out to someone in their network asking them to share a role with their network or let them know if an open role comes available, already has experience with this principle.
We need others’ help and we can always help someone. Any time we tap into our professional network we are employing the concept of influential promoters.
Sales reps know well that “it is all about relationships”. You can achieve better results selling to people you have past relationships with than with cold calling.
Maybe the most poignant example I can recite is a very personal one. A few years back, I felt stuck in my career. It was essentially the same position many new to the UX field find themselves in. I wanted leadership experience at a Fortune 100 company to achieve my future career goals. I made it to the final round with Google, IBM, Amazon, The Home Depot (twice), Honeywell, and others. I was flown out to these companies’ headquarters, but I always failed to get the job.
I needed experience managing larger teams, but all the companies that had larger teams to manage wanted me to have experience managing larger teams.
Through a combination of personal branding (growing my social capital) and seeking out the help of someone in my network with larger Symbolic & Reputational capital, I was able to get hired at Target.
That has opened so many doors, but I couldn’t have done it alone.
Investing your political capital to help others
Much like in governmental politics, you can’t expect to ask for promoters’ help in overcoming your lack of influential power without giving help in return. This isn’t just true in politics, it’s true in networking and life in general. I prefer to just think of it as helping each other.
No one likes someone who just takes, takes, takes, without giving sometimes too. The same is true with influence.
As mentioned earlier, Influential Power is a finite resource. Each of the types of Influential Power are like buckets. They need to be filled to be able to be used, and when used, they empty a little. This is helpful to keep in mind when you see others’ struggling.
Part of why it is so important to “see others as people with wants/needs as valid as our own” is so that we’re not blinded to when others need help. An interesting aspect of helping others is that when you use a little of your Influential Power to help others, you earn a little extra yourself. Anyone who has spent any time serving others knows this. It’s not 1:1 and should be the reason you help them, but it is true just the same.
For example, if a developer approaches you with an alternate solution that might not be quite as user friendly but is WAY easier to develop, if you always push back you won’t have built up the influential capital to be able to push back when it REALLY matters. Give and take.
One framework I’ve used in these situations is to use the “F’s Scale”. Basically this means that there is a scale from 1–10 on “how many F’s do you give?” on a particular topic. (10 being highest and 1 being lowest). When a conflict comes up, I will ask the other person: “How many F’s do you give on this one?” If I am a 3 and they are a 7, then I let them win. The reverse is also true. Sometimes just realizing how strongly someone feels about it can help surface the way forward.
Just like with any investment, choose your ROI carefully. When you make wise decisions in where to invest your influential capital in others, you will gain so much more than you ever could have keeping it all to yourself.
Conclusion
So if you feel stuck and are having trouble influencing others at your org (or even finding a new job that matches your career goals), remember:
- See Influence (doing whatever is necessary to ship great experiences) as your job.
- Make an effort to understand your teammates and stakeholders like you do your users.
- View others as people with wants/needs as valid as your own instead of objects to overcome.
- Identify which of the 7 types of influential capital are most valued at your company (or dream company)
- Do an inventory of what capital you have and what you still need.
- Seek out an internal “Promoter” who can help you expand your circle of influence.
- Don’t forget to help others expand their circles and give during conflict as well as taking.
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