What are some methods in which you have helped engineers or other technical team members understand the perspectives of your customers or stakeholders?

Remember to include a variety of techniques in your answer. Cross-functional teams are likely to have members with differing learning styles. Offering more than one way to learn about the customers a team serves demonstrates a candidate's ability to teach in multiple formats.

"I use a number of techniques to communicate the perspectives of customers and stakeholders. I feel this fosters an environment of shared accountability and success on behalf of our customers. On an ongoing basis, I share the news I receive in customer meetings. I like my team to stay in the loop as much as possible and share the feedback I receive about our work and any changes in direction.

In addition to sharing the basic news I gather in customer meetings, I have walked teams through the current state processes to help them understand how our customers function. I like to use metaphors and figurative language to help them better understand difficult concepts.

I have posted the business goals of the users in team rooms or virtually to help keep them fresh in our minds as we work. I have also developed personas, orchestrated shadowing opportunities, taken team members to customer meetings, and facilitated 'ask the customer' lunches to help them get to know their users and develop relationships with them.

Finally, I encourage the project managers and analysts I work with to use similar techniques. I coach them to understand that the more they can do to help the team develop user empathy and the ability to anticipate customer needs, the more effective their work will be."