1 min lesson
Put stakeholders in the room
Put this idea into your own words: "Budget for stakeholder observation as a feature of the study, not a nicety."
Step 1 of 2
Put stakeholders in the roomwatching one user struggle beats any deck
The single most impactful influence move costs you nothing to produce: get the skeptic to watch a session. A PM who sees a senior engineer give up on a feature they championed will internalize it harder than any chart you could build. Bring them as silent observers and let the user do the convincing.
Observation converts skeptics
You will never argue a stakeholder out of a position as effectively as a real user will show them out of it. When someone doubts a finding, the answer is rarely more slides - it's "come watch the next session." Budget for stakeholder observation as a feature of the study, not a nicety.