UX STRAT Europe, Peter Boersma: Adding Strategists to the UX Team

SDL added strategists to a UX team 
what happened next will blow your mind!
Peter Boersma (@pboersma), UX Strategist at SDL
UX STRAT Europe 2015, Amsterdam, June 5 2015

SDL added strategists to a UX team 
what happened next will blow your mind
Peter Boersma (@pboersma), UX Strategist at SDL
UX STRAT Europe 2015, Amsterdam, June 5 2015

SDL
brings your brand to the world
and the world to your brand

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SDL enables Global Customer Experience Management
CXM is the strategy and practice for managing customer experiences  
online and oﬄine to acquire, retain, and turn customers into satisfied,  
loyal brand advocates and ambassadors.
pre-purchase
post-purchase

Digital Experience
Knowledge
Delivery
Customer AnalyticsLanguage

SDL enables 72 of the Top 100 brands

38
countries
70
oﬃces
1500
enterprise 
customers
3500
employees 
worldwide

SDL UX team from 1992-2009
(before 2009, SDL did not have dedicated UX resources)

SDL UX team in 2009
in 2009, SDL hired a first UX Designer
Philipp&Engel&
UX#Director,#Amsterdam#

Branding Colors
Icon Colors
User Interface Colors

by 2013 there were 14 UX designers
Catalin'Timo+i'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Nikki'Veldhuis'
UX#Designer,#Amsterdam#
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
UX#Strategist,#Amsterdam#
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
UX#&#Visual#Designer,#Amsterdam#
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Visual#Designer#&#Developer,#Sofia#
Riccardo'Russomanno'
Visual#Designer,#Amsterdam#
Carrie'Kim'
UX#Strategist,#Sea<le#
Joao'Lopes'
UX#Strategist,#Mechelen#
ScoG'Darcy'
UX#Designer,#Wakefield#
Brian'Shurtleff'
UX#Designer,#Cluj/LA#
Jaap'Jan'van'den'Bosch'
Sander'Viegers'
SDL UX team in 2013
Philipp&Engel&
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boers
UX#Strategist,#
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Riccardo'Ru
Visual#Designe

slide-in 
navigation
pane
header with user-related items
content area 
using interaction pattern library

one of the big trends in marketing
technology has been the emergence of
a set of“marketing clouds”that
incorporate many capabilities from
across this landscape under the
umbrella of a single vendor.
Scott Brinker, Chief Marketing Technologist Blog editor 
http://chiefmartec.com/2015/01/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2015/

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Guidelines

Catalin'Timo+i'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Nikki'Veldhuis'
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Carrie'Kim'
Joao'Lopes'
ScoG'Darcy'
Brian'Shurtleff'
Sander'Viegers'
Philipp&Engel&
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boers
UX#Strategist,#A
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Riccardo'Ru
Visual#Designe
Brian'Shurtleff' Jaap'Jan'van'den'Bosch' Sander'Viege
Catalin'Timo+i'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Nikki'Veldhuis'
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Carrie'Kim'
Joao'Lopes'
ScoG'Darcy'
Brian'Shurtleff'
Sander'Viegers'
Catalin'Timo+i'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Nikki'Veldhuis'
Adela'Muresan'
UX#Designer,#Cluj#
Elske'Schrauwen'
Peter'Boersma'
Ariel'Vargas'
Fernando'Quiros'
Arne'de'Booij'
Hristo'Spasunin'
Carrie'Kim'
Joao'Lopes'
ScoG'Darcy'
Brian'Shurtleff'
Sander'Viegers'
SDL UX team in 2015
so we assigned 5 strategists, and today, we have 17 people in our UX team.

UX Strategy
Design Thinking, 
Service Design, 
Usage Scenarios, 
Design Goals, Success Metrics, 
Prioritisation of Features
UX Research
User Research, 
Market Research, 
Competitive Benchmarking, 
Instrumentation/Telemetry,
Usability Assessments
UX Design
Information Architecture,
Interaction Design, 
Prototyping, UI/Visual Design 
Design Guidelines, 
Design Specifications

UX Strategy
Design Thinking, 
Service Design, 
Usage Scenarios, 
Design Goals, Success Metrics, 
Prioritisation of Features

warning: Venn diagram approaching!
funny
sexycool
UX STRAT 
attendees

Product Management
Product (Line) Managers
Product Owners
Engineering
Architects, 
Developers, 
Testers, Operations
User Experience
Researchers, 
Designers 
UX Strategists
operate here

Weekly check-in with Product Line Manager
Present roadmap for feature X to Developers
Bi-weekly check-in with UX Designer
Work with a UX Strategist on a cross-product research initiative
Lunch
Work with Innovation Team on a cross-product capability
Monthly alignment with UX Designer and UI Developer for product Y
Brainstorm with entire product line team on vision for product line Z
Weekly UX Strategist meeting

vision development 
and concept diagram 
for SDL MediaManager

UX Strategist: Peter Boersma
• information ergonomist
• 20 years experience at interactive agencies
• with SDL since October 2014
• design process freak Peter

managing
images 
(not video)
intuitive workflow
managing large
sets of assets

provide user
with insights
integration with 
other (SDL) tools
global media
management

most common 
usage scenarios

change here
impact
here
and 
here

Lessons Learned
A UX Strategist can help a Product Manager develop a
product vision, by putting customer needs central when
discussing the future of the product.
A UX Strategist can help designers and developers focus on
the big picture for a product, for example by creating
Concept Diagrams together.

Design Thinking for 
SDL Campaigns

UX Strategist: Arne de Booij
• experimental psychologist
• 15 years experience at large corporations
• with SDL since September 2014
• user research is in his bones Arne

Where are
we today?
How useful, usable and
beautiful are we
currently?How useful, usable and
beautiful are our
competitors?
What are our primary
users and what do they
need?
What activities, tools and
contexts are relevant?
What are their
(met or unmet)
needs?
Who are our internal
stakeholders and what
do they need? Why are their 
(met or unmet) 
needs?
What is the business
mission and vision?
What is the current
product strategy?
What trends in the
marketplace are
relevant?

Lessons Learned
UX Strategists can impact the product vision 
through service design & design thinking activities 
and by including a variety of stakeholders.
Personas and scenarios inspire stakeholders 
in designing for the right user context.

defining and validating the
SDL Customer Model

UX Strategists: Peter & Arne
Peter Arne

a comprehensive model to
capture knowledge about customers
and help map products to their needs

IT admin
buyer (not user)
on-site licence
point-solution
enterprise
productivity

marketer
owner & user
cloud subscription
integrated suite
collaboration
experience

‘Opinionated Software’is a software product 
that believes a certain way of approaching 
a business process is inherently better 
and provides software crafted around that approach.
Stuart Eccles, The Rise of Opinionated Software 
https://medium.com/@stueccles/the-rise-of-opinionated-software-ca1ba0140d5b

user research
feedback from implementation consultants
work with product managers
interviews with marketers

Lessons Learned
Personas are not the only way to capture knowledge about
customers; UX Strategists need to focus on customer
organisation models, roles, and work processes too.
Connections with other departments and customers 
are crucial for in-house UX Strategists 
to get the whole picture and have the highest impact.

Product Management
Product (Line) Managers
Product Owners
Engineering
Architects, Developers, 
Testers, Operations
User Experience
Researchers, Designers
UX Strategists
operate here

Product Management
develop product vision 
service design 
design thinking
Engineering
focus on the big
picture 
prioritise based
on customer
needs
User Experience
focus on the big
picture 
start early with
personas &
scenarios
UX Strategists
plan ahead of the roadmap 
think cross-product 
 
customer knowledge

the future of UX Strategists
team growth 
design thinking
cross-product thinking
working closer with product managers
developing business models

To truly scale design, you have to put the
methods of designers into the toolkits of
the people who don’t report to you —
product managers, development teams,
business analysts, marketers, account
executives, and management
Chris Avore, Product Design Lead, Nasdaq Design 
https://medium.com/nasdaq-design/enabling-design-influence-at-scale-8be18638e1b0

Product
Management
cross product-line capabilities: 
single sign-on 
telemetry 
customer processes

UX Strategists at SDL
focus product definition, design & development
activities around customer needs.
work on cross-product capabilities and coordinate
the associated research, strategy & design work.
introduce Design Thinking in the product
definition phase.

Copyright © 2008-2015 SDL plc. All rights reserved. All company names, brand names, trademarks, service marks,
images and logos are the property of their respective owners.
This presentation and its content are SDL confidential unless otherwise specified, and may not be copied, used or
distributed except as authorised by SDL.
Global Customer Experience Management

UX STRAT Europe, Peter Boersma: Adding Strategists to the UX Team

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