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How can I go about getting stakeholders to understand and "buy into" the results derived from UX research? For example, I ran across this great UX research plan by a Google UX researcher today.

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Adam, unfortunately, UX.SE is for "solvable" questions only per our FAQ. If you wish to solicit examples, please post this question on Quora or another discussion board. – dnbrv Feb 3 '12 at 19:10
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Really confused on this one. What makes this question unsolvable? If someone were to post a couple plans they have found that help them get stakeholder buy-in, I'd consider it solved. There are many similar questions. For example, here's one that asks for examples of UI research, which is much less specific than this question. ux.stackexchange.com/questions/3080/academic-papers-about-ui – Adam Feb 3 '12 at 19:25
The question you showed as an example is dated a year ago when this section was barely 6 months old. Enforcement of question guidelines has increased since then (and especially in the last month since we have come out of beta). – dnbrv Feb 3 '12 at 19:35
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I have edited the question to fit better on the site to the best of my interpretation of what @Adam is looking for. – Matt Rockwell Feb 3 '12 at 19:37
@dnbrv Okay. The other question didn't meet guidelines either. Cool. Can you help me understand what aspect of the question you saw as unsolvable so I can understand what part of it conflicted with the guidelines? – Adam Feb 3 '12 at 20:03
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I'm going to get very practical and base this solely on my own war stories:

  1. Part of the trick is speaking the stakeholder's language - actually incorporating some of their vernacular and giving credit even where credit is "don't" ;)
  2. Use mechanisms they feel comfortable with, as in: the mighty Power Point. Even if it's one slide. And the whole thing is a video.
  3. You really need to ease them into your findings. I get so excited sometimes and end up "flooding the engine" by trying to get to the meat of it. Find that balance between "too much fluff" and "straight to the point". Play it by ear. This is art.
  4. Don't get discouraged by lack of immediate buy-in or even opposition. Executives believe they know their customers, they need time to think, or pretend like they are thinking - all to create an appearance that they know a few things too. They come around eventually, unless your work is worthless.
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To #1 I'd add: Use examples/comparisons from competitors in with the stakeholder's language. that gets their attention. – Susan R Feb 8 '12 at 17:17

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