Communications dept wants to show UX test footage

I was asked by our communications director to provide video from my usability tests so they can use it in a company sales and marketing conference. I don’t want to because my intent for recording was for research purposes and to show management what should be improved. What would you do? Anyone been in a similar situation?

UX testing is a new endeavor for us; I’ve only run 2 so far, so communications wants to show our UX efforts at this conference. It’s all internal employees in attendance (hundreds), but I’m still wary even though I want exposure so that UX is widely adopted in the company.

Yes, all recorded participants signed a standard consent form after I explained that collected data was for research and improvement purposes. The relevant blurb said that product/service/marketing management may watch the recordings so they can improve the product/service, and that no one else will see the recordings. Everything is anonymous, and comments will be confidential.

I’ve already sent my consent forms to our lawyer and explained the situation so that he can weigh in on the matter.

Any feedback from other, more seasoned UX practitioners is welcome!

Edit: UPDATE
Lawyer is on my side!

Could you do the fuzzy America’s Most wanted thing of pixelating their faces? Or another idea is to find some stock footage of people in a boardroom with lots of post-it notes and put some inspirational music like Chariots of Fire or The Flight of the Valkerie and just dazzle them with vague amazingness. Businessy types love that stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

Haha, yes I suggested blurring faces and muting audio to use in a very quick montage. You know what, I could make my own footage of a UX workshop and have that handy just in case. Thanks for the inspiration!

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Sounds like a good plan. I think in these situations stakeholders often just want to show they’ve “ticked the UX boxes” rather than getting in the nitty gritty. If you can somehow show that user testing picked up a few usability issues that hadn’t previously been considered (or were ignored to meet deadlines/costs) than you’ll have been a great advocate for all of us.

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