No designer is an island

Sarah Nelson of Adaptive Path recommends a collaborative design process to help navigate through office politics and other hidden stakeholder agendas that can kill a design project.

I advocate for a very specific type of collaboration; I call it structured collaboration. It’s not rocket science but it can be a powerful addition to your toolbox. Unlike simply going into a room and working together informally, structured collaboration consists of thoughtfully designed work sessions, using visually-based techniques, physical materials (stickies, paper, pens) and planned activities to move the design process forward. Structured collaboration is loosely based on Participatory Design techniques, where users are directly engaged in the design process. Since these users are typically not designers, games, activities, and other visual tools help them express their ideas in ways designers can interpret. Structured collaboration does not replace other design tools; it simply helps designers better understand and balance the needs of a diverse set of constituents.