If you've ever worked in a restaurant you'll appreciate the age old battle between the "front of the house" and the "back of the house." For the uninitiated, the "front of the house" are the customer-facing folks, i.e. waiters, bartenders, hostesses, etc. The "back of the house" is the kitchen staff, i.e. line cooks, sous chefs, dishwashers, etc. In theory both groups are working towards the same goal: to create a pleasant experience for the customer. In reality, they're often pitted against each other via a narrow focus on their own tasks. Digital design and development projects mirror this dynamic in many ways.

You can go straight to...Sizzler?!

I’m a UX Designer. In the digital world, I’m the waiter. What I mean is that I’m the one responsible, largely, for interfacing with the customer, listening to what they want, making suggestions and ultimately delivering, at least in their eyes. I’m the face of the place, which means when something goes wrong I take the heat (ok, PMs, you probably take more heat).

I’m not a Developer, but someone is. In the digital world, they’re the cooks putting together the thing that will be consumed. Guess what, I’m the face of that too and when things go wrong or the customer wants to make a zillion changes (or when I push to make those changes) the ire of the creators (developers) is focused on me, the messenger.

It’s only natural to want to shoot the messenger. Nobody likes to redo work or be told how to do their job, but sometimes that anger is carried to unreasonable extremes. I recall working in a restaurant, bringing back lamb chops to be cooked more to the customer’s liking and the chef telling me, “No way, it doesn’t go over medium rare. If that’s what they want they can go to Sizzler!”

I have no doubt that once he realized what he’d suggested he felt awful. Nobody should ever go to Sizzler, but in the heat of the moment he snapped. From my point of view he was being unreasonable. From his point of view I was being unreasonable. There was a lack of mutual understanding and empathy for each other’s situation.

Bridging the divide

So how can we mitigate this? Well, in some well-run restaurants there are people called expeditors. They serve as a bridge between the waitstaff and the kitchen. On paper their job is really about efficiency, getting orders out and correcting mistakes, but in practice their job necessitates developing a rapport with both parties. All the really good ones I’ve worked with were facilitators and understood the mindset and challenges of both front and back of the house.

In the digital world, people like to say it’s part of UX’s job to do that, and it often is. It’s also something done by PMs, Scrummasters and Developers. Point is, you don’t need a job title to be a facilitator. The only thing you need is a willingness to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. This is important because increasingly, in our complex world, digital teams must work more closely together in order to better understand, communicate and deliver products and services that fulfill our customer's needs. To do that, teams must develop awareness and empathy for the different challenges we face in our respective roles.

After all, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

#userexperience #webdevelopment #teambuilding #communications #facilitation