UX14 - UX as Business Strategy (Liam Friedland)

User Experience (UX) is too frequently considered as a nice-to have luxury instead of being viewed as a strategic business asset with direct impact on a company's sales and profits. Strategically positioned and empowered UX teams can have direct and positive impacts on product and service company's business models.

This workshop will provide attendees with a hands-on approach for re-imagining and re-positioning UX as a stragetic business process within their company.

Lecture, case studies, and group exercises will focus on: UX activity audits; understanding the business benefits that UX programs provide to companies; developing tangible ways to demonstrate UX group contributions and performance; effective tactics for promoting organizational change and; aligning UX activities to strategic corporate initiatives.

Transcript

1. @liamfriedland | UX India 2014 UX as Business Strategy strategic organizational operational Interaction TM
2. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Acknowledgement The ideas and content in these slides are the result of a 14 year long creative collaboration with Jon Innes. Over the years Jon and I have had many lengthy and animated discussions on the topics of UX strategy, leadership, management, and tactics. The fruits of our chats have resulted in a series of tutorials, workshops, and presentations that have been delivered at CHI, UXPA, UX Strat, IXDA, and now UX India. Any errors in these slides are entirely my own.
3. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Conceptual framework for workshop strategic organizational operational Interaction TM Moving to a strategic orientation • Framework as a means for thinking about UX activities as they relate to core business processes • Benefit from a systematic, structured, approach • Process areas function as lenses to focus thinking and approach • Interaction between key processes to create business value
4. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Why does UX need to be strategic? Effective UX organizations imagine the future • Scenario planning + risk reduction • More accurate + early determination of product concepts UX becomes a differentiating factor in a commodity market • Competitors develop comparable offerings over time • Mainstream markets value UX more than early adopters High technology businesses are maturing • Design becomes a more distinct phase • Design orgs become innovation competency centers
5. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Need to move from this worldview… One external worldview of UX teams UX as consulting / service organization • Design: Makes things look good • Usability: Tests to find bugs after the code is working • Not a core business competency • Important but not essential • Practitioners don’t have a good sense of business issues
6. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy …to a more strategic orientation Strategic worldview of the UX team New framework: Strategic UX • Innovation driver • UCD informs all aspects of product direction • Essential—no product development without UX • Key contributions throughout the development cycle • Business value is large, wide-ranging, and demonstrable • Quantifiable, reproducible, high-quality processes
7. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Operational processes strategic organizational operational Interaction TM Overview • UX outputs • Measuring UX investments
8. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy UX outputs UX Formative Research Summative Research Interaction Design Information Architecture Visual Design Concept Prototyping TM: Jon Innes | UX Innovation
9. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy High Low Level of Effort Measuring activity levels: Design-focused teams Design-focused
10. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy High Low Level of Effort Measuring activity levels: Research-focused teams Design-focused Research-focused
11. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy High Low Level of Effort Measuring activity levels: UX-focused teams Design-focused Research-focused UX-focused
12. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Organizational processes strategic organizational operational Interaction TM Overview • Effective cross-organizational collaboration • Broadening perspectives with joint initiatives • Disciplinary blinders
13. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Collaboration is key Big picture, organizational perspective • Step outside of your cube or office & engage • Perform an organizational audit • Establish a foreign policy • Define your goals and strategies for influencing others • How do you interact with other groups in your company? • Cultivate allies in other groups to help + help you Initiatives of common interest
14. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy UX outputs + organizational synergy Market Research Innovation Mgmt. Project Mgmt. Support Subject Matter Experts Documentation Brand Quality Marketing Sales Engineering Product Mgmt. TM: Jon Innes | UX Innovation UX Formative Research Summative Research Interaction Design Information Architecture Visual Design Concept Prototyping
15. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Disciplinary lenses as blinders Developers As seen by Designers As seen by PM As seen by QA As seen by Developers Designers PM QA
16. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Strategic processes strategic organizational operational TM Overview • What is strategy + what it isn’t • Forces impacting business • Inflection points • Case study Interaction
17. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Strategy Unique + valuable position Strategy is not: • A vision • A plan • Optimization of the status quo, i.e., refinement • Following best practices • Efficiency measures • Innovation or technology Strategy is: • Differentiation activities: Where to play • How to win • Core capabilities & effective combinations • Management systems • Saying no to say yes
18. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Six forces impacting businesses The Business Power, vigor, and competence of existing competitors …of complementors …of customers …of suppliers …of potential competitors Possibility that what your business is doing can be done in a different way From “Only the Paranoid Survive” by Andy Grove
19. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Strategic inflection points Business goes on to new heights Business declines * Requires a fundamental transformation from what you were to what you will be Inflection Point *  From “Only the Paranoid Survive” by Andy Grove
20. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Inflection points in detail Agile UX Distributed development University to online learning Nuclear family to aging boomer Database to big data Blackberry to Smart Phone iPod to iPad to Watch Laptop to tablet Lab testing to remote usability testing Enterprise to pro-sumer Brick & mortar to eCommerce Hardware to software Local to global Software utilities to enterprise security Lean startup Version 23 to concept car Total design management Data-based design West to east Market Tech Product Process
21. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Case study: Concept Car | Forces + inflection point Forces • Acquisition strategy fragments product architecture • Mature competitors integrate offerings • Startups deliver innovative solutions • Users & field teams demand improvements Inflection Point • Product focused: • Fragmented offerings • Unified, cloud-based concepts • Create a shared vision—a new way of doing business
22. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Case study: Concept Car | Current + future activity levels Before High Low Level of Effort Concept Car
23. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Case study: Concept Car | Organizational synergies Synergies • Collaborate with PM’s to build a shared understanding of competitive trends • Collaborate with Architects to build a shared understanding of data technology trends • Conduct market demographic research to understand next generation’s (millennial’s) technology preferences and share with organization • Conduct UI technology research to understand new trends and share with organization • Collaborate with marketing to enhance product branding and extend and renew the visual language • Evangelize and share knowledge company-wide in order to get execs and products teams energized by and enrolled in the new vision
24. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Group Activity
25. @liamfriedland | UX as Business Strategy Group activity | Tying it together Instructions • Form teams of 6 • Select a captain for each team • Read through the provided case study with your teams • Team Work on the case study: • Describe the forces at work? • Describe the inflection point? • Current UX activity levels for your team (provided) • What are the future UX activity levels for your team? • What new activities will be necessary? • What will be the effort levels for new activities? • How do your activities synergize with other teams at the company? • Prepare a presentation to your execs: • 1 page with Forces + Inflection point • 1 page with Activity Levels • 1 page describing the synergies of the activities with other teams at the company strategic organizational operational Interaction TM