Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

You Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
Gold
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Share the love for this talk
You Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
Speakers: Carl Turner
Link:

Summary

This is a case study of a strategic, enterprise-level IT project that was stalled due to organizational and cultural issues within company. By applying a few familiar research techniques and frameworks (and one unfamiliar modeling framework) towards understanding and solving organizational problems, the project team found its footing and was able to deliver a complex application that will position the company for success.

Key Insights

  • Project delays often arise from deep organizational and cultural issues rather than team incompetence.

  • Engaging stakeholders as co-creators in research recommendations boosts buy-in and eases persuasion.

  • Distinguishing immediate domain (project and industry) from extended domain (monitoring and success definitions) is critical to managing project scope.

  • Edgar Schein’s three levels of culture—artifacts, espoused beliefs, and unconscious assumptions—help reveal hidden organizational dynamics.

  • Cross-functional projects often fail due to siloed reporting and unconscious allegiance to functional areas over project teams.

  • Taking meeting minutes with named action items assigned to leaders reduced conflict and clarified accountability.

  • Pairing technical developers with subject matter experts enables translating complex domain knowledge into actionable design artifacts.

  • Soft systems methodology allows modeling of ‘soft’ organizational influences on project success, including norms and values.

  • Engagement challenges manifest at multiple levels: sponsors, project teams, and external stakeholders require targeted approaches.

  • Grassroots technical collaboration and integration efforts can succeed even when formal management engagement is lacking.

Notable Quotes

"When projects are late or delayed it’s often due to organizational and cultural issues rather than conduct of the project team."

"I like to engage my stakeholders as co-creators and co-discoverers so their ideas and concerns get reflected in recommendations."

"People on the project were reporting back to management in their silo, not talking to one another."

"I found the problem solver in the UI developer and identified the project’s sponsor who really felt the pain."

"Managers were asking for user stories but hadn’t done any analysis or design — they didn’t understand the scope."

"The difference between the way people talk about how things are done and how they are actually done reveals unconscious assumptions."

"Decision making here is basically forge trading — people argue and withhold support until they get what they want."

"Our technical leads started attending other teams’ meetings, helping break down integration barriers."

"At the turning point, the team realized they were in charge of their own process and got engaged."

"The biggest problem was to solve the engagement problem first with the sponsor, then the team, then external stakeholders."

Katie Hansen
Finding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Erin Weigel
UX Lessons from running more than 1,200 A/B Tests
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Justin Entzminger
Risk and Reward: How to Diversify the Field of Civic Innovators and Designers
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Liz Ebengo
The Burden on Children: The Cost of Insufficient Post-Conflict Services and Pathways Forward
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
A Genuine Conversation about the Future of UX Research
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Samuel Proulx
Invisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Aras Bilgen
Who does the math: A designer’s journey in building an AI-based tutoring app
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Nicole Bergstrom
AccessibilityOps: Moving beyond “nice to have”
2024 • DesignOps Community
Sheryl Cababa
Day 2 Panel
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Jake Burghardt
Stop wasting research: Unlock more value from research insights
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Niko Laitinen
Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Jamie Beck Alexander
How can you find your role in climate?
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
JD Buckley
COMMUNICATE: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Charles Lee
Building a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
2020 • Enterprise Community
Jaime Creixems
Best Practices when Creating and Maintaining a Design System
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Daniel J. Rosenberg
Digital Medicine Design
2019 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Jon Fukuda

"Design teams face challenges because inputs live in PDFs, Figma files, Slack messages, spreadsheets, and more."

Jon Fukuda Ellie Krysl

Design Planning and Management Support

October 3, 2023

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Publishing a component library means anyone can update titles or roles, and it updates everywhere at once."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

Cartography for Design Communities

September 10, 2025

Kevin Bethune

"Everything is the way it is by design."

Kevin Bethune

Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation

June 8, 2022

Daniel Orbach

"When teams solve their own problems, they make high impact decisions on their own."

Daniel Orbach

Zero to One: Co-Creating Operating Models with your Team

September 23, 2024

Marc Fonteijn

"We encourage one-to-one video calls to build rapport and feel comfortable reaching out for advice."

Marc Fonteijn Ru Butler

Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

December 3, 2024

Clara Kliman-Silver

"It can be really hard to tell what is AI and what isn’t, and your average user may not know the difference."

Clara Kliman-Silver

UX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design

June 7, 2023

Robin Beers

"Make sure your leadership team knows your name."

Robin Beers Nalini Kotamraju Andy Warr

Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights

March 26, 2024

Ana Maria Montero Barrantes

"I am not throwing away your UX."

Ana Maria Montero Barrantes Aditi Dhar Michelle Kaplan Nate Osborne Matt Laurence

The Authentic UX Talent Show

January 8, 2024

Kristen Honey

"Innovators need a tribe to recharge their batteries because you get no from every direction."

Kristen Honey

"Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design

November 18, 2021