How to make stakeholders your User Research allies

Involving stakeholders in User Research? It’s key to building a research-informed culture and making user insights everyone’s business. With the support of influential voices in the room, research moves from behind-the-scenes to center stage, gaining visibility across teams and making collaboration second nature.

Stakeholders help drive awareness and can set off a ripple effect, creating an organizational culture that values and integrates user insights. But identifying the right people to engage — and finding the best ways to involve them — can be challenging. 

Here’s how you can strategically bring stakeholders into the User Research process, enhancing your Research Operations and impact.

Who are the most common stakeholders in User Research?

So, who are the go-to stakeholders in User Research? It depends on the organization, but you’ll typically find a few familiar faces leading the charge:

• Product Leadership: These folks are close to the product vision and can help steer research initiatives in ways that align with product priorities.
• Design Leadership: Champions of user experience, design leaders bring creativity and empathy that take research insights to the next level.
• C-Suite and Executive Leaders: When executive leaders understand the role of User Research, it signals organization-wide support and can unlock further resources.

But it’s not always about titles. Often, influential individual contributors (ICs) carry a lot of weight without needing a leadership position. ICs are particularly valuable allies if they regularly interact with senior leaders and are well-respected within the team. As you scout for potential stakeholders, ask yourself:

• Who has influence but isn’t overloaded with other priorities?
• Who has a genuine curiosity for research and is open to learning?

A simple way to start is by reaching out regularly — schedule a weekly chat with one or two potential advocates. A quick 30-minute conversation with a product manager, for example, can uncover their goals and challenges. You’ll start building a network of research advocates across the organization by showing how research supports their objectives.

What makes involving stakeholders in User Research difficult?

Bringing stakeholders into User Research isn’t without its challenges. Here are a few common hurdles:

• Time constraints: Stakeholders are often busy and may not immediately see how research can directly support their goals.
• Lack of awareness: Some stakeholders might view research as a nice-to-have rather than a strategic advantage in decision-making.
• Effort requirements: Setting up a structure for involving stakeholders — while ensuring research integrity — takes planning and clear boundaries, which can feel like a big lift.

But while these barriers are real, investing in these relationships pays off. With the right strategies and tools, building a structure to bring stakeholders into research becomes much easier. Rally makes this simple by offering intuitive ways to share insights, bring stakeholders into sessions, and foster a solid support base for User Research.

What’s the value of involving stakeholders in User Research?

Getting stakeholders actively involved in User Research brings a lot to the table. Here’s how their engagement can transform your research:

• Greater impact and visibility: When stakeholders are involved, research gains visibility and influence, building a culture that values user insights.
• Integrated insights: With more voices in the room, research findings are more likely to be implemented across the organization.
• Empathy building: Firsthand exposure to user feedback helps stakeholders see and feel what users experience, deepening their understanding of user needs.
• Increased investment: When stakeholders see the impact of research, they’re more likely to support it with resources and talent.
• User-driven decision-making: Engaged stakeholders help drive the organization towards user-centric decisions.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Product and design leaders can rally (😉) their teams to contribute meaningfully to research, creating a more collaborative approach to innovation.

Five effective ways to involve stakeholders in User Research

Here are a few practical ways to bring stakeholders into User Research in ways that work with their schedules, interests, and roles:

1. Invite stakeholders to participate in research sessions with Observer Rooms

Rally’s Observer Rooms give stakeholders a front-row seat to user interviews — without disturbing the participant (or seeing sensitive participant data). With Observer Rooms, stakeholders can watch interviews live, getting a firsthand look at what users are saying and experiencing. It’s an easy, low-lift way for them to see the magic of User Research in action.

As Kait, a Rally user, shared, “Observer Rooms are an easy win. It’s really beneficial for team members to see what an interview looks like and hear from actual customers.” Recently, a Senior VP of Global Customer Success at Braze joined an Observer Room to watch an interview — a level of access that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. This direct exposure often sparks new excitement and advocacy for user insights.

And when the opportunity allows, bringing stakeholders into in-person sessions can make a powerful impact. Meeting users directly creates an experience that sticks, deepening their commitment to the value of research.

2. Report on research activity and maintain governance

Keeping stakeholders in the loop is essential for building trust and credibility. Rally’s Dashboards make it easy, giving a clear snapshot of all Research that funnels through your organization — from study volume to participant engagement. This transparency builds confidence in your work and shows stakeholders how research is pushing the organization forward.

Rally also takes governance seriously, so every interaction with participants is ethical, secure, and respectful. From data encryption to HIPAA compliance, Rally’s built-in features protect participant data, offering peace of mind for everyone involved. You can set cool-down periods between studies, build panels of participants safely, and protect participant data from stakeholders, helping you uphold ethical standards in every session.

3. Leverage Rally’s scheduling solutions to make participation seamless

Scheduling can feel like a juggling act, especially across time zones and teams, but Rally’s scheduling tool takes the hassle out of it. Set buffer times, manage availability, and keep sessions rolling smoothly.

Rally’s Scheduler syncs effortlessly with major calendar tools like Calendly, Zoom, and Google Meet, so coordinating with stakeholders and participants is a breeze. Built with team flexibility in mind, Rally’s scheduling tool keeps interviews on track without disrupting anyone’s schedule.

Want to set up studies on behalf of another team member? Rally’s scheduler and proprietary study builder allows you to add and change interview hosts, add team members to listen in, and make changes to scheduled interviews on the fly.

Whether it’s a single interview or a series of sessions, Rally’s scheduling tool makes sure your research flows smoothly and stays accessible for everyone involved.

4. Bring collaborators into Rally with the right guardrails

Getting stakeholders like PMs and designers involved doesn’t have to be complicated — and with Rally, it’s seamless. Create specific Teams within Rally to give collaborators access to the right participants and studies while maintaining control with user roles and permissions. Stakeholders can check on study progress, view updates, and feel like they’re part of the process, all without compromising participant data or governance.

To go a step further, Rally lets you create templates to involve stakeholders safely in the research process. Whether it’s setting up a usability test or reviewing recruitment, stakeholders can contribute with confidence and clarity. And the best part? Rally’s Collaborator seat is free forever, giving unlimited stakeholders the ability to stay in the loop and engaged with research.

5. Share research insights creatively

When it comes to sharing insights, make them easy to access and hard to forget. Using a centralized repository like Marvin keeps your findings organized and accessible, so stakeholders can check in whenever they need an update.

To make those insights pop, try adding visuals — tools like MidJourney are perfect for creating attention-grabbing images that highlight key findings. 

And to take it up a notch, try something like HelloFresh’s “James Show,” where research is presented as an interactive experience complete with quizzes, raffles, and Slack posts. Keeping it lively and engaging is a great way to make research fun, memorable, and something stakeholders actually look forward to.

Practical tips for building stakeholder relationships

Building strong relationships with stakeholders takes effort, but you don’t have to go it alone. Try these tips to start turning heads and building a base of enthusiastic research advocates in your organization.

• Start small: Find time to learn what drives your stakeholders. Knowing their goals and challenges helps you position research as a tool that supports their priorities.
• Meet them where they are: Not every leader needs to dive deep into research, so find simple, effective ways for them to engage that suit their role.
• Show the value of research: Emphasize how research reduces the risk of building features users don’t need, and highlight its value for successful outcomes across teams.
• Make participation easy: Simplify involvement by aligning research activities with their schedules, such as planning usability tests during development cycles.
• Lead with empathy: As Kaela Tuttle-Royer from Etsy suggests, “We can better influence the work by speaking the language of those we partner with.” Empathy builds trust and opens doors for collaboration.
• Use the right tools: Rally’s Observer Rooms and collaboration features make it easy for stakeholders to engage comfortably. Observer Rooms let them see user research up close without disrupting sessions, offering a unique “front-row seat” to insights.
• Set clear guardrails: Create boundaries for participant interactions and data access to keep stakeholder involvement ethical and effective. Rally’s governance rules and role-based access features support compliance.
• Keep communication open: Share regular updates via Slack, newsletters, or company-wide channels to keep stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the research process.
• Think proactively: Shift from reactive to proactive research by planning studies that align with your organization’s decision-making timeline. Anticipate needs and propose research that supports future goals.

Why collaboration is key to research success

Research hits new heights when teams work together. Rally makes it easy to bring everyone into the fold, with tools that highlight the impact of each role — from product to design to customer success. With a shared purpose, insights flow faster, solutions get sharper, and everyone can see their part in creating a more user-centered product.

This mix of perspectives makes research richer and way more relevant. Collaboration doesn’t just amplify the impact of research — it speeds up the process and leads to more user-centered solutions that can truly shape product outcomes. Bringing stakeholders in early and keeping the lines open for regular updates goes a long way, creating the kind of insights that drive real results.

Rally: The tool for collaborative user research

Rally supports collaboration across your research initiatives with intuitive tools like Observer Rooms, customizable templates, and Dashboards for reporting and tracking research activity. Rally centralizes everything from participant management to incentives, making it easy to manage Research Operations with clarity and efficiency.

As Braden, a Rally user and Senior User Researcher at Webflow, puts it, “Rally is the hub where everything behind the scenes happens.” Rally’s tools bring research and teams together, making it simpler for everyone to access insights and collaborate effectively, whether they’re joining an Observer Room or reviewing insights after the session.

Ready to bring your stakeholders along for the research ride? Share these nuggets with your team today. Rally’s got everything you need to build impactful research collaborations and make user insights a team win!