UX Vision, Strategy and Teams by Susan Wolfe, Optimal Experience

User Experience Vision, Strategy & Teams UX Marathon 2009 14 October 2009 Susan J. Wolfe Managing Director susan.wolfe@optimalexperience.com www.optimalexperience.com 1 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 1

Today’s session Part 1: Defining the UX strategy – What is a UX strategy and how do you develop it Scoping your strategy and creating a vision – Obstacles and opportunities Knowing your organization Part 2: Implementing the vision – Making the UX team successful – Techniques and user-centered design Some of today’s top methods and techniques – Measuring the success UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 2

Sources Multiple surveys of our colleagues about practices and viewpoints Usability Professionals’ Association survey Previous workshops and presentations over the years And lots and lots of experience… UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 3

Usability vs. user experience UI design Cross-functional Deep Customer Knowledge UX Design User-Centered Methodology Design Generalists Usability Evaluation Experts UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 4

Why user experience? Here’s Cat, a project manager and mother of 2 teenagers, answering emails using her Blackberry on the NY subway. She sees an email confirming an order she placed for her daughter’s birthday, but it’s not going to arrive in time. When she gets out of the subway she calls the company to cancel the order. The customer service person helps her select something else, guaranteeing it will arrive on time at no extra cost. Cat feels… UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 5

Part 1: User Experience strategy 6 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 6

Optimal is the key word Business goals User goals UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 7

Customer experience from all angles Shops Shop design Customer facing staff Shop staff Purchase process Ability to solve issue Attitude and tone Web Sales staff Web visual treatment Information architecture Staff knowledge Ease of use Tone Ability to deliver on promise Products Materials (doc, Brand promise packaging etc.) Visual treatment Visual treatment Packaging Brand experience Use Findability UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 8

Customer experience over time Web Sales staff Shops Materials (doc, Product(s) packaging, shipping etc.) Customer facing staff UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 9

The UX challenge Web Sales staff Shops How to keep the whole company focused on a How to keep the whole company focused on a consistent customer experience vision? consistent customer experience vision? Materials (doc, Product(s) packaging, shipping etc.) Who owns the customer experience vision? Who owns the customer experience vision? Customer Facing Staff UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 10

How to develop a UX strategy Creating a vision and strategy to support it 11 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 11

Developing a UX strategy Identify the organization’s business goals Decide where to focus UX design: computer systems, products, services and/or processes Vision Derive user experience goals Research customer values, needs and context of use Align goals with customer research findings Combine UX goals with UCD-derived data Scope the strategy to be achievable Strategy Build a scalable strategy over time Create a UX approach which supports the vision and strategy UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 12

A UX strategy implements the vision It addresses both what and how Business goals / drivers Product(s) Process & Team What and How Who and When Constraints UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 13

UX strategy model What The UX vision Why The business goal(s) Who The cross-functional team members When Schedule for: - communications among team members - presentations/updates to stakeholders - when milestones will be reached How Success metrics UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 14

Example What Accessibility Consistency Usability Why Government sales Sales demos License Revenue renewals Who Product team A Product team B Product team C When Weekly team mtg Weekly team mtg TBD Monthly senior manager Quarterly exec mtg check-ins How Checklist Education efforts 8-step process Expert reviews Documentation Evaluation UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 15

Focus your UX design efforts Don’t overextend your team. Make your efforts manageable. Interactive Customer Facing Other Experience Experience Experiences Websites Tech support Packaging Software products Customer service Instructions Sales Store design Training Order management Billing UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 16

When the UX team owns the vision Share techniques, resources and knowledge with other groups in your organization. Deep Customer Knowledge Cross-Functional User Experience UI Design Design Techniques User-Centered Design Usability UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 17

The UX vision Corporate goals Corporate goals & brand objectives & brand objectives Business Factors Viability Costs Costs Reality checks along the way Vision Customer Customer Opportunities Opportunities research research Actionable Initiatives & skills & skills Design Applied Technology Desirability Feasibility Based on IDEO’s Innovation Engine. www.ideo.com/images/media/DMI_IDEO_W02.pdf UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 18

Evolving a vision vs. strategy development Your strategy can evolve, or it is the project Evolving a vision Strategy project Organic Fixed deadline Vision Each project provides Your research is more ideas and feeds targeted at creating a the vision. That vision vision and strategy then informs the strategy. UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 19

Developing a UX strategy Discovery: Definition: Implementation: What How and Who Review Biz Factors Company culture Translate goals into high level Planning design goals (grids) Business goals Development Team set up Scope Evaluation Design research- proposed UX goals Tracking techniques Customer needs and Revise Customer needs Design expectations Resources and tools Opportunities Establish clear deliverables Constraints Tech Deliverable: detailed analysis Deliverable: shared Deliverable: high level of product space resources which embody the findings document vision Strategy & Vision UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 20

What are business goals? Business goals reflect the strategy of an Business goals reflect the strategy of an organization – how to accomplish the mission organization – how to accomplish the mission Goals should be: Action oriented Completed within a target time frame Specific and well defined Achievable, yet challenging UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 21

Example business goals Specific goals from a previous client* Provide customers with choice and develop closer relationships with them Generate domestic organic growth and profitability Generate efficiencies across personal insurance lines of business Maintain reputation and help customers and the community better understand and reduce risk * an insurance company in Australia UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 22

Support business goals Better tech support Improve Consistent user Rapidly find productivity interface solution through search optimisation reduce costs UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams

Derive goals and success metrics Business Goals Issues Business UX Goals Success Objectives Metrics Reduce training • CSRs are often • Improve • Make UIs • Reduce costs of in their first job customer consistent training time customer service • Multiple apps satisfaction by with each from 5 reps (CSRs) with different helping novice other weeks to 2 UIs CSRs sound • Match the weeks expert workflow • Increase • High turnover • Provide just-in- required by time to time help sales proficiency • Provide from 2 customer months to 1 centric month information • Provide visible prompts for infrequently used functions UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 24

Experience matrix Identify attributes for each area and check for alignment Business Product Experience Best User Visual Customer Testing Goals & Features Require- Practice1 Interface Design Service Plan and Success Support- ments Acceptance Metrics ing Goals Criteria Build trust Not a lot Results offer Search Users can Easy to Users can Users find and of ads all options results are find what scan the call and get what they credibility easy to they are search help 10 are looking for both Easy to Consumers under- looking for results hours per for within potential contact gets what stand quickly day three logical and help they expect Friendly, clicks existing The offer is Consumers unin- Trust the Minimize clear are timidat- outcome of customers asking for confident in ing the service Metric: personal their graphics request 1. majority data choices of users rate the site as trustworthy 2. Net promoter score 1Include competitors or companies who exemplify the goal Derived from Donoghue: Built for Use UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 25

Experience definition Articulate the overarching experience you want your customers to have Feel Do Think Values Action UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 26

Keep the UX vision simple Skype – Internet phone to anywhere in the world for free 1. Make communicating with people around the world easy and fun 2. Say hello or share a laugh with anyone, anywhere Feel Easy, straightforward and fun, relaxed. Do Use Skype for personal and business Think This is the best way to connect to people Values I like technology, I like saving money Relax and talk Action Talk for a long time without interruption UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 27

The key: ongoing, deep research Contextual / ethnographic studies Share the resources & findings Discussion forums Web analytics Analyze existing experience Customer panels Identify preferred Personas customer experience Stories Align with business Tech support data goals and drivers Focus groups UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 28

Obstacles and opportunities Know your organizational culture 29 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 29

The big stumbling blocks UX teams and UX strategies fail when… Wrong focus—no alignment to business goals Being unaware of your corporate culture Lack of communication No champion or support UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 30

Know the culture of your organization Business goals are not enough ‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply here Need to understand the culture and politics to make UX team and vision accepted Cultural analysis focuses on: – Barriers – Opportunities – Myths – Values UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 31

What is a “barrier”? A barrier has the potential to prevent or undermine the adoption of usability and UCD Example: Few UCD skills in organization: – No existing systems development methodology – Cannot apply UCD activities to development without skilled people – IT and Business are arguing over where the UX team should live UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 32

What is an “opportunity”? An opportunity offers a vehicle for pushing through user experience initiatives Example: An organization has an initiative to reduce tech support costs – Better UI design of application can improve usability – Search optimisation can speed up call times – Create better support self-service on the organization’s website. The website is about to be redesigned. UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 33

Identify myths and values A myth is a belief held by your stakeholders – UI design is subjective and cannot be measured or engineered – Users don’t need better interfaces, just better training A value is a belief that defines the culture – Developers are rewarded for rescuing failing projects UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 34

Case studies Large government Medium software agency company Barriers Barriers Perceived additional Two usability professionals workload No development Lack of UX expertise methodology Old platforms and out of date systems Opportunities Opportunities New systems development Executive champion methodology Culture of collaboration Increasing resources to Available funding become more self-reliant UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 35

Explore culture of specific groups Marketing Tech Support Barriers Barriers Research appears to be the Time spent learning same technology, not customer Threatened by UX taking service credit for product success Well established field Opportunities Opportunities Customer centered research Rewarded based on the is current trend customer experience Marketing can be more effective Tweak existing activities, leverage existing research UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 36

Find a champion CMO and CEO get it—the number 1 value is customer success. Then product managers feel the pressure to understand the customer. UX Manager, Software As Service company As the company matures, more resources become available for usability, but some prioritization is still needed. At the previous stage, priorities were opportunistic; they must now be more selective. Rather than chase easy wins, you must build spectacular wins for usability to convince executives to move the organization to the desired goal state. Jakob Nielsen, Evangelizing Usability: Change Your Strategy at the Halfway Point UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 37

Challenge: aligning the UX vision Customer service Tech support Shops Sales Product design Marketing Branding Legal UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 38

Part 2: Implementing the vision 39 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 39

A UX team implements the vision Design a team that meets the needs within given constraints Business goals / drivers Product(s) Process & Tea What and How Who and When Constraints UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 40

Establishing your UX team How the UX team fits into the organization Working out the best structure Knowing who’s involved in systems / product development What systems development method is used Maintaining the team Who owns the user experience vision? Who owns the user experience vision? UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 41

And the survey said… Location in the company Percentage Percentage ‘06 ‘08 IT / IS / Engineering 26 12 Product development 23 50 Dedicated infrastructure 16 2 Marketing 13 12 Dedicated business unit 10 4 R&D 6 Product management 3 1 Communications 3 Chief Technology Office 2 Consulting companies not included UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 42

One ideal world Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Product Product Marketing Marketing Design UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 43

Models to structure your team Five basic models: – Consulting – Distributed – Review & Approve – Educate & Administrate – Hybrid Project Project Project Project UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 44

And the survey said… Model % ‘06 % ‘08 Consulting 34 31 Review & Approve 0 0 Educate & Administrate 0 0 Distributed 31 31 Hybrid 34 21 Split team (Research + UCD) - 5 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 45

Consulting and hybrid models Focus Teams Other Models Cisco / IDEO Cross-functional team is Individual UX practitioners assigned to high impact assigned to specific projects projects Central design research team Project manager Experience analysts Generative researcher Ethnographers UI architect Web analytics manager Interaction designer Web technology strategist Visual designer Design research lead Industrial designer JavaScript Ninja Developer UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 46

Characteristics for roles in UX teams The anthropologist The experimenter The cross-pollinator The hurdler The collaborator The director The experience architect The set designer The caregiver The story teller UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 47

Characteristics to seek out Good communication skills: written and spoken Facilitation and collaboration skills Listening skills Team oriented Attention to detail UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 48

Desirable competencies and skills Building relationships Influence and consultation Critical thinking and decision making Negotiating ability Dealing with End user research ambiguity Visual design Organizational awareness and agility UI prototyping Focus on customers The relative strengths required in any one person depend on the size of the team and how the roles are carved out UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 49

Fitting into existing methods and processes 50 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 50

Several formal and informal methods stakeholder interviews usability testing field studies focus groups usability walkthroughs affinity diagrams expert review / heuristic evaluation workflow diagrams usability goals scenarios card sorting paper mock-ups collaborative design The Hiser Element™ Cooper UPA: Designing the User Experience UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 51

Fitting in with any development lifecycle Business Factors Viability Requirements analysis and Vision definition Design Technology Desirability Feasibility System and software design Implementation and unit testing Integration and system testing Analysis Design Evaluation UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 52

Today’s hot methodology: Agile Agile Development – Adaptive (vs predictive) – Fast (2-6 week) iterations – Small, co-located teams – Experienced developers – SCRUM – Project management method for Agile Design Definition (Requirements and concept) Iteration 1 Design Iteration 2 Development Design Iteration 3 Development Design Development UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 53

User-centered design techniques 54 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 54

Which tools and techniques? Largely determined by your scope – Responsible for initiating the user interface design? – Responsible for evaluating the user experience? – Developing UX vision & strategy? Highly influenced by when you get involved in the project – Need to fit in to any methodology – Any involvement is better than none! Somewhat dependent on your access to users and stakeholders UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 55

User involvement Steve Mulder UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 56

And the survey said… Wireframes Paper mockups User interface specifications Expert reviews Use case scenarios Informal usability testing Functional prototypes Formal usability testing Field studies Personas Style guides Stakeholder interviews Activity scenarios User surveys Content audits Focus groups Card sorting Design patterns Mental model diagrams 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 Number of occurrences (estimated) UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 57

St ak Effectiveness of technique eh ol de 1 = not effective, 5 = very effective ri n Fo ter 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 cu vie s U gr w s se o r u F i su p s el rv d ey st s M u e n E P e di e ta xp rs s l m er on U od t re as se e v ca l di iew a Ac se gra s tiv e sc m ity n s sc ario C en s Pa ar d ario UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams pe so s Effectiveness as sales tools r m rti Fu n nc W ock g Fo ti i u rm ona refr ps In al l p am fo u rm sa roto es al bil ty us ity pe ab t e s s C ility tin on t g U t e es nt tin se ri S t au d g nt D er es yle its fa ig g ce n ui sp pa t d e ec t e r ific ns at io ns Selling to: 58 Management Project teams

Effectiveness as sales tools Most effective Least effective Formal usability testing Mental model diagrams Field studies Content audits Functional prototypes Card sorting UI specifications Focus groups Design patterns Styleguides UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 59

Measuring the customer experience Net Promoter Score – Percentage of customers who would recommend a company less the percentage that would urge friends to stay away Focus groups – Opinions, collaborative thinking, idea generation Customer panels – Recruited group who work on pilot new products or designs Online forums – Collect feedback and ideas from customers Usability testing – Understand how users interact with your products/services UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 60

Measure against goals and success metrics Guiding principles – Helps answer the question: why are we doing this project? – Keep it at a granular enough level by asking “why” until you agree upon a specific, measurable, achievable goal – Can measure both business success & technical success - but technical success should be tied to a business benefit – Aim for 2-5 metrics for every project, written in bullet point form – When possible, tie to a business goal or product goal Process for establishing metrics – Define as part of initial project justification, before the project starts. – Establish whether the metric adds anything to the project, and assess whether it is critical enough to do so – Assign ownership (eg. Business, Division, IT or Usability) – Agree upon when to measure the success metric: during design, at roll- out, ongoing Ongoing measurement is the key… Ongoing measurement is the key… UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 61

Final questions and thanks 62 UX Marathon 2009: UX Vision, Strategy & Teams 62

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UX Vision, Strategy and Teams by Susan Wolfe, Optimal Experience

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