Why and How You Should Work on Cross-Functional Teams
Introduction
With the speed and volume of information a person consumes every day, it takes a lot to make a product or service stand out in someone’s mind. To create a stellar product for your audience, you’ve got to have a lot of tools in your toolbox. And, no matter what your specialty, you can’t do it alone.
Collaboration across disciplines is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Cross-functional teams—comprising professionals from various departments such as research, design, development, marketing, and product management—offer a wealth of diverse perspectives and expertise that can streamline work and result in a better end product. Better products lead to increased user retention, which in turn helps a business to achieve its goals and hit its targets. In this post, I’ll explore the advantages and challenges of working on cross-functional teams. I’ll be writing from my own perspective as a UX researcher and will share tips on how UXRs can thrive in these environments.
Why You Should Work on Cross-Functional Teams in UX Research
Holistic Understanding of the Problem
Cross-functional teams are designed to bring together people with different skills and knowledge. For UX researchers, this means having direct access to insights from across your organization, all of whom bring different lenses to the problem at hand. This broader understanding will lead to richer, more nuanced research findings and more actionable insights.
For instance, when working with developers, a UX researcher might uncover technical constraints that impact the feasibility of certain design ideas. When collaborating with product managers, the researcher may better understand the product strategy and roadmap. They can then use that knowledge to tie research more closely to key business goals. These insights not only inform research but also ensure that user experience improvements are aligned with both user needs and business objectives.
Faster Decision-Making and Iteration
One of the biggest advantages of working in cross-functional teams is the ability to move faster. Instead of waiting for siloed departments to communicate through a lengthy chain of emails or meetings, cross-functional teams can make decisions in real time, based on a shared understanding of user research findings.
UX research is about iterating and refining. When research insights are shared openly with designers, developers, and other stakeholders early on, teams can adjust course quickly, test new ideas, and ensure that user feedback is incorporated into every phase of the project. The result? Faster time-to-market and more iterative, user-centered product development.
Improved Communication and Stakeholder Buy-in
UX research often faces the challenge of demonstrating its value to other departments and stakeholders. Cross-functional collaboration helps bridge this gap by allowing you to engage directly with those stakeholders throughout the process. When team members from different disciplines are involved in research activities—whether it’s a user interview, usability test, or research synthesis session—they gain firsthand insight into user pain points, needs, and behaviors.
This shared experience makes it easier for stakeholders to understand the importance of research findings and align with the proposed solutions. When everyone is involved, there’s less resistance to design changes and greater buy-in from all sides.
Fostering a Culture of Empathy
UX research is about people—understanding their needs, motivations, and frustrations. But often, team members in non-UX roles don’t get the chance to interact directly with users. Cross-functional collaboration allows designers, developers, marketers, and others to participate in user research, helping them develop empathy for the end user.
For example, having a developer sit in on a usability test or a product manager observe a user interview helps them better understand the challenges users face. This empathy can translate into better decision-making across the team, from prioritizing features to solving pain points in ways that truly meet user needs.
Challenges in Cross-Functional Work
While cross-functional collaboration brings numerous benefits, it also comes with its difficulties. Effective teamwork requires clear communication, mutual respect, and a shared understanding of goals. Below are some strategies to help make cross-functional collaboration successful.
Define Clear Roles and Expectations
The first step is to ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. As a UX researcher, you might find that stakeholders from different disciplines have varying expectations about your role in the process. Or, they may not understand what your responsibilities and expertise are at all. Some might see you as the sole decision-maker on user experience, while others may expect you to simply provide data to inform decisions.
Clarify your role early on, and help other team members understand how they can best collaborate with you. For example, explain how you conduct user research, how data is gathered, and how findings are communicated. Set expectations about when and how you’ll be sharing insights, and establish channels for feedback and collaboration.
Give it Time
Most teams don’t start off as best friends with excellent work processes in place. Like any relationship, it takes time for everyone understand each others’ differences in expertise, opinion, and communication style. Make an effort to learn and ask questions about the expertise and background of the colleagues on your team. Try to find points of connection so that you can show them how you can help them do their work and achieve their goals.
Over time, putting in that consistent effort builds trust and respect. As that trust and respect continues to build, the team will gain momentum and hit a stride.
Encourage Active Participation
Make multiple avenues available for sharing ideas and providing feedback. Collaboration doesn’t only happen during meetings—find ways to integrate cross-functional participation into every phase of the project. Encourage everyone to ask questions, offer insights, and share their expertise, whether it’s about design feasibility, technical constraints, or business goals. The more inclusive the process, the richer the insights will be.
Use a Shared Research Repository
In a cross-functional team, it’s critical to have a centralized place where all research findings, notes, and insights are easily accessible to everyone. This can be an internal wiki, a shared drive, or a specialized research repository tool. The goal is to ensure that everyone on the team has easy access to the latest research insights, regardless of their role.
This is something that’s made a huge difference in the work of me and my colleagues lately. This past year, I created a research repository in my current role. We’re now working on expanding that repository to house past research data from other pockets of the company which have conducted user research in the past on a huge range of topics. Even though the work is still in progress, we’re already seeing impactful results. We’ve identified several redundant research questions/projects we had planned, since we had recent research available on them. In the process of working on research collaboration together, we also discovered some points of overlap in our current work. We’re now able to leverage our repository findings easily and use them to complement each others’ work.
Research repositories are also great for helping to democratize and socialize research. As your repository grows over time, when colleagues come with a burning question, you can point them to a report with the info they’re looking for and answer their question quickly.
Embrace Diverse Perspectives
Cross-functional teams thrive on diversity—not just in terms of race, gender or ability, but also in skills, perspectives, and experiences. Encourage your team members to bring their unique viewpoints to the table. Be open to learning from these different perspectives, and consider how they can enhance your research approach. When all voices are heard, the end result is a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of the problem space.
Facilitate Effective Communication
Strong communication is the cornerstone of any successful cross-functional team. As a UX researcher, this is a golden rule, but as a reminder: make sure you’re sharing your findings in a way that’s easy for non-researchers to understand. Avoid jargon, and use visuals, such as user personas, journey maps, and storyboards, to convey complex information in a digestible format.
It’s also important to listen actively to feedback from your teammates. If a teammate raises concerns about technical or budget constraints, incorporate their input into your research process and findings. Collaboration is a two-way street, and effective communication ensures that everyone is aligned and working toward the same goal.
Conclusion
Cross-functional teams are essential for creating user-centered products that meet both user needs and business objectives. As a UX researcher, working with designers, developers, product managers, and marketers can enhance the depth and impact of your research, speed up decision-making, and foster a culture of empathy throughout the team.
By following best practices like defining roles, encouraging participation, leveraging diverse perspectives, and facilitating communication, you can ensure that your cross-functional collaborations are both effective and rewarding. Embrace the power of teamwork, and watch as your research and design efforts come together to create exceptional user experiences.