Partnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
Summary
How often have you found yourself wondering how to begin or improve the partnerships necessary within Enterprise environments? Trusted partnerships are a key ingredient of effective design teams when navigating large enterprise-level organizations. Through practical examples, find out how to get started or expanded your practices with partners as you all work together to realize and deliver valuable products and services.
Key Insights
-
•
The partnership pyramid consists of three levels: connection, communication, and collaboration, each requiring increasing effort but yielding greater benefits.
-
•
Effective partnerships require engaging both decision makers and influencers, such as subject matter experts, early to inform design efforts.
-
•
The 'three in the box' model—business, design, and technical representatives—should be expanded in regulated industries to include legal and compliance stakeholders.
-
•
Starting with a clear, concrete ask when connecting helps quickly identify the right stakeholders and saves time.
-
•
Building your own communication table with regular routines (executive updates, design demos) fosters predictable engagement and broad inclusion.
-
•
Active feedback is critical; absence of feedback in ongoing meetings can mask misalignment until final stages.
-
•
Collaboration demands continuous evaluation of connection quality and communication dynamics as teams and project phases evolve.
-
•
Workshops and ideation sessions reinforce alignment and keep engagement active across diverse stakeholders.
-
•
Successful collaboration leads to design advocacy from business partners who use design language and advocate for design practices to others.
-
•
Organizational culture grounded in mission and values like service, loyalty, honesty, and integrity provides a strong foundation for effective partnerships.
Notable Quotes
"When you put in that effort, you’re going to get the advocacy not only from your team but within the organization."
"I’d argue you couldn’t be effective in any role without some sense of how to create partnerships and move forward."
"The three in the box model is business, design, and technical representation, plus legal and compliance in regulated environments."
"Lead with the ask, lead with the value, so people understand what you’re looking for from the start."
"A seat at the table versus building the table means setting routines where all the right partners come together regularly."
"Setting extra places at the table is important because people will join and leave meetings depending on the project phase."
"The absence of feedback during design demos was a red flag — we missed information and had to realign quickly."
"We connect design decisions back to business performance and risk metrics to answer the concerns of our partners."
"Engaging influencers early helped them appreciate being included sooner than later, which improved the project."
"We want to hear our partners speaking design language and advocating for design activities across the organization."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The act of naming, organizing, structuring information is itself a foundational design decision plan for the future."
Sean Baker Sara RomanoskiWeaving Knowledge Management into the Fabric of Our Design Practice
September 11, 2025
"We are asked to produce more and more work with fewer people and smaller teams."
James Wieselman SchulmanResearch is a team sport: advancing the work when everyone does the research
March 11, 2026
"When Jack Dorsey launched Square, people hated it at RISD. Two years later, it was everywhere on campus."
John MaedaMaking Sense of Enterprise UX
June 9, 2016
"It became important that human judgment should remain in control because there were contexts that AI cannot have."
Joy KendiMwitiDeciding when to automate: Integrating AI in high-stakes systems
June 9, 2026
"In the wickedness of enterprise UX, craft keeps you grounded amidst competing perspectives and political eddies."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
"Language is imprecise; banning crutch words like MVP forces people to clarify real meaning."
Joshua GravesWe Need To Talk: Managing Ludicrous Requests at Work (Part 3 of 3)
May 12, 2025
"If we don’t lead technology change, others will, and we want that change to be design-led and human-centered."
Greg PetroffEverything is About to Change: Software as Material
June 8, 2016
"Transparency can be a master source of efficiency when people are trusted to share."
Niko LaitinenAdaptable Org Design for Resilient Times
June 10, 2021
"Design impact doesn’t exist separate from the work with others – it’s part of the initiative's success."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX
July 13, 2023
