Gary Barber has set me a challenge on twitter to blog about ‘Educating clients on User Centred Design (UCD) when they have big egos…’
This is something that I have become expert at over the last 8 years in the UCD industry 
So I’ll start with some definitions:
Educating: Countless meetings to describe what you do. You must focus on the opportunities that UCD provides and case studies of things that you have done for clients before (even though they are hard to find because those people with big egos don’t always track the right data!)
- Make this easier by having stuff written up before hand. Even get case studies from overseas and from big organisations that will make your clients listen.
Clients: The person who pays the bill. That is, the person about 2 rungs up the ladder from the ones who really care 
- Find out who this person is and meet them.
UCD: Involving ‘people’ in the process - hopefully those who will use the system in the future. Best if done before any coding is even considered.
- Need I say more.
Big Egos: These people come in different flavours:
- They think they know UCD after one training session on it.
- They have time and budgetary requirements to meet, no matter what, and their project has already started.
- And most importantly, they want to look good in front of their peers by showing that they are doing the right thing…
Solutions:
Big ego flavour 1: These people can be convinced of the best way to do things.
Have patience.
Big ego flavour 2: They need to be convinced to stop what they are doing and ask the person with the purse for more time and money. If you aren’t ‘in‘ with the big nobs already you will be on the back foot. Stakeholder interviews at the start of every project help over come this hurdle.
Have patience.
Big ego flavour 3: This group is the best. Make friends with them (read - understand what makes them tick) and then tell them all the things that could go wrong if UCD isn’t used.
And have patience.