[IxDA Discuss] Selling the Value of UX to Mgmt

[Nasir Barday]

I think Lisa hit on some of the secret sauce of convincing people that
UX methodologies guide teams to successful designs. Management tends
not to care about *how* a good product is developed-- just as long as
(a) it does well in the market and (b) it doesn't bust the budget.
This is part of why you will see entirely different processes within
the same company.

Jeffrey, I think your question has been answered in depth in this
thread, but I want to point you to this article, which helped me
through a similar situation two years ago:
http://www.uie.com/articles/cost_of_frustration/

If you can associate those "inherent usability problems" with dollars
lost and create an "oh sh*t!" moment and follow it up with a good
solution, you'll be, as a friend in school used to say, "money." I
agree with Lisa's advice not to focus on the "what we do" side at this
point. Let your team show off its great work, and introduce those
methodologies as people get curious.

Ending thoughts: management types tend to think in pictures and
results. The advice in this thread to gather data on existing
products, and show solutions (with data on that too) is golden.

Good luck, Jeffrey. Do let us know how it goes!
- Nasir