Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/nature-water-animal-playing-68663/

Part of becoming a Senior Product Designer is learning how to persuade people who have the power to destroy your designs.

Few things can ruin the design process (and companies) more than the Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO). The Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO) problem occurs when decision-making is dominated by the highest ranking (or most senior member), even if their views are not entirely objective.

You may have experienced this, as well. Perhaps you’ve devised an excellent design alternative to address some user frustrations, but it gets shot down because someone else doesn't like it.

However, when I started getting involved in Data-Informed UX Design, I learned to avoid these issues better.

Avoid arguing and delay decision-making enough to gather data

One of the most common scenarios with HiPPOs rearing their head is that it can be sudden. For example, the CEO shows up at a meeting (or sees a presentation) and asks to include a different feature (or change the design).

In these cases, one of the most important things to do is not react immediately. This is to avoid several problems:

1. You don't want to make it seem like Designers can generate designs immediately (although a sketch is fine)
2. You don't want to immediately shoot down the idea without further context (antagonizing the CEO)
3. You probably don't have the necessary data on hand.

The smartest thing to do is to take a moment and say that you’ll look into that idea. This is to buy you time to look for data. Data is essential in these cases because using Data is one of the most reliable ways to tame the HiPPO.

The reason why is that Data helps de-personalize decision-making. If this becomes an argument between you, the designer, and the CEO, who signs your bosses' paychecks, it's no surprise who will win the fight (even if it makes things worse for users).

Data can take emotion and opinion out of decision-making. Instead of what you think or what the HiPPO thinks, it's about what the facts state. The Harvard Business Review states that 73% of managerial positions rely on data to make decisions, so it's unsurprising that it's a way to de-escalate and persuade people.

But then the question becomes, what Data do you need to find to do this? The answer is you need enough data to address a hypothesis.

Hypotheses help show how your designs affect users and metrics

Hypotheses are at the heart of Data-Informed UX Design because it offers a concrete way of tying design to user actions and metrics businesses care about.

In Designing with Data, Caitlin Tan brings up a hypothesis I’ve frequently used that showcases this:

"If we do X, our users will do Y because of Z, which will impact metrics A."

You need to find data for this hypothesis because this will allow you to push back against the HiPPO problem. In addition, you can fill in the blanks more than you think.

If you design an application a certain way, you should have gathered enough user research (or done enough user tests) to know what most users will do and why.

For example, “If we design a webpage with a prominent search bar at the top, our customers will most likely search for what they’re looking for because they come to the website to find something specific.”

The top search bar of Amazon.com drives user actions

Figuring out which metrics are impacted by these actions will probably take a little action (such as asking your business for their “North Star” metrics), but you can worry about that later. Instead, take what your HiPPO suggests, and plug it into the hypothesis. Does it still work? Why or why not?

For example, imagine your CEO dislikes search bars and wants to make the cards a more prominent part of the website. Here’s how the hypothesis could change:

“If we create a collection of cards to show up top with the search bar below, our users would probably browse the cards, with only a few of them scrolling down to find the search bar. This is because our customers want to find something specific and know what they’re looking for.”

A much worse version of Amazon.com that the HiPPO could push for

This design is much worse without even talking about the metrics impacted. But until you can articulate why that is, with data to back it up (such as design best practices, user research, and more), it’s hard to resist the HiPPO.

Once you do, though, it's time to deflect through priority.

Vision vs. reality, or learning to deflect through priority

If your HiPPO is a C-level executive, they're likely seeing what you're designing in a different view than you're used to.

This is because Product Vision drives CEOs, while MVPs drive Product Teams.

CEOs are imagining the final product (which may not exist for years) partially because they have to. So they must understand whether you’re moving in the right direction according to the big picture.

On the other hand, the Product Team is focused on making progress, through each iteration, toward the next deliverable while meeting a timeline. When you compare these two visions, it's clear to see where the HiPPO can throw curveballs.

However, this also guides us on how to best deflect these requests: by prioritizing certain features. For example, suppose you're using the MoSCoW method to prioritize user stories in the Agile backlog. In that case, you can say, “We can add this feature to the backlog, but we need to prioritize other features for this sprint.”

This allows you to refuse politely. At the same time, sometimes you empathize with the HiPPO’s viewpoint (even if you can’t do it now). In those cases, it could make sense to have two mockups for these meetings:

1. A simple and modest prototype for MVP
2. A No-limits vision of the future prototype that you won't tackle in the short-term

Whatever the case, remember that the HiPPO problem isn’t about fighting against one person: it’s about managing them, along with everyone else’s opinion.

HiPPOs aren't always wrong, but they need to be managed

The point of learning to manage HiPPOs is not to ignore the opinions of senior executives.

Instead, it's about ensuring all voices are heard in decisions are made on a comprehensive and objective assessment of all available information. HiPPOs can often be right about certain things, especially if they have expertise in that field.

However, that doesn't mean you should follow everything they say immediately. Instead, you’ll have to learn when to resist by talking about priority and when to note what they’re saying and iterate toward it.

Learning what to do when confronted by HiPPOs requires preparing for the unexpected. While it’s not the nicest way to learn, it’s a critical part of ensuring that your designs (and your process) aren’t derailed.

So if you’ve ever been surprised (and forced to scramble) because of an executive’s opinion, learn how to delay decision-making, gather data, and respond politely through priority.

Doing so can help you figure out how to approach these things and become a better product designer well-equipped for any scenario.

Kai Wong is a Senior Product Designer, Data-Informed Design Author, and Data and Design newsletter author. His new free book, The Resilient UX Professional, provides real-world advice to get your first UX job and advance your UX career.