Aligning Visions: Connecting Customer Needs with Business Goals

How structured workshops helped teams move from silos to shared understanding.

Setting the Stage

True alignment across teams isn’t achieved through a single meeting or top-down direction.

It comes from first understanding users, then methodically bringing diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision — one rooted in real customer needs and business objectives.

Across projects like a Hawaii Tourism Bureau’s website revamp, AB in Bev's platform workshop, CJ Food's digital transformation, and UNSW university website redesign, we built a structured process to align stakeholders with clarity and purpose.

How We Approach Alignment

Step 1 — Start with the Customer

Alignment starts not with internal opinions, but with understanding the customer.

Across projects like CJ Foods and AB InBev, we reviewed existing customer research — from desk studies and keyword trends to social listening insights — to identify unmet needs.
At UNSW, we conducted direct user interviews and surveys to uncover firsthand pain points across different user types.

This step ensured that discussions would be grounded in user realities, not assumptions.

Methods Used:

  • We analyzed publicly available data, keyword trends, and online conversations to uncover emerging user behaviors, needs, and sentiment.

  • We audited existing research reports and studies provided by the client to build on past insights and avoid duplicating findings.

  • We directly engaged with users through interviews and surveys to validate assumptions, discover pain points, and gather firsthand feedback.

Step 2 — Listen to Stakeholders

Internal teams have critical knowledge — but often fragmented across silos.

Through in-depth 1:1 interviews, we mapped stakeholders’ perspectives on customer needs, pain points, operational challenges, and future goals.

At CJ Foods, these conversations uncovered misalignments between regional marketing teams and HQ leadership, especially around digital data access and usage.

Step 3 — Understand the Current State

You can't move forward without understanding today’s landscape.

We conducted heuristic audits of client websites, evaluated engagement across social channels, and benchmarked competitors — helping teams clearly see where gaps and opportunities existed.

Focus area:

  • We evaluated site structure, navigation, and content clarity using heuristic methods to identify friction points in the user experience.

  • We reviewed digital engagement across platforms to assess messaging consistency, audience interaction, and content effectiveness.

  • We benchmarked peer organizations to uncover industry standards, UX best practices, and positioning opportunities.

Step 4 — Build Personas and Journey Maps

Using insights from research and interviews, we built personas and user journeys that reflected the real needs and experiences of end users — not just assumptions.

This step gave stakeholders a shared language to frame discussions: Who are we solving for? What are their key moments of need?

(Read more on Persona & Journey Mapping Work →)

Making Alignment Real: Facilitated Workshops

With clear user insights, internal perspectives, and audit findings in place, we brought teams together through carefully designed workshops.

Rather than "presenting" research, we guided teams to interact with findings, challenge assumptions, and co-create action plans together.

Workshop Formats:
Format Tools Used
Hybrid (Offline + Virtual) Figjam, Figma, Google Slides
Fully Offline Whiteboard, Post-its, Google Slides
Fully Virtual Figjam, Figma, Teams/Meets

Each workshop included:

  • Lead facilitator + real-time notetaker

  • Pre-workshop dry runs and simulation

  • Custom interactive templates

This structured approach led to a shared digital growth roadmap, aligning cross-functional teams, improving collaboration, and strengthening digital marketing capabilities.

Reflections & Outcomes

✔ Teams moved from fragmented perspectives to shared priorities — faster.

✔ Workshops grounded decision-making in user needs, not internal politics.

✔ Co-created roadmaps increased ownership and post-workshop momentum.

My article about UX workshops in LBB

I and my co-worker wrote an article together about running workshop in cross-cultural team. Click here to read full article

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