Repositioning User Experience as a
Strategic Process
operational
Interaction
organizational
strategic
Liam Friedland
Jon Innes
TM
Workshop Slides
UPA ‗03, ‗04, ‗05, ‘06
CHI ‗04, ‗05, ‘06
User Friendly ‗07

Conceptual Framework for Tutorial
key processes  Moving to a strategic orientation
 Framework as a means for thinking
operational about UX activities as they relate to core
business processes
Interaction
 Benefit from a
organizational systematic, structured, approach
 Process areas function as lenses to
focus thinking and approach
strategic
 Interaction between key processes to
TM
create business value-add
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Definitions
User Experience
The user experience group deals with all aspects of
user‘s interactions with the product: how it is
perceived, learned, and used. It includes ease of use
and most important of all, the needs the product
fulfills.
-Don Norman in The Invisible Computer
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Definitions
The structured work processes which lead to a
operations
desired set of outputs (physical, knowledge, etc)
Interaction
Groupings of people that provide concentrations of
organization specialized expertise, work experience, and skills.
A detailed plan for achieving success in situations
strategy such as war, politics, business, industry or
sport, or the skill of planning for such situations.
-Cambridge Dictionary Online
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Why We Must Reposition UX as Strategic
 Non-strategic organizations are targets for downsizing
 Our role is unclear to many key decision makers
 Shrinking margins lead to closer analysis of costs & ROI
 Global, offshore, and outsourced production models
 Maturing technology markets—design as differentiator
 Scope and sophistication of technology-based products
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Why Is UX Strategic?
 UX becomes a differentiating factor in a commodity market
 Technologies mature and become mainstream
 Competitors develop comparable offerings over time
 Mainstream markets value UX more than early adopters
 Effective UX organizations lower costs and reduce risks
 High quality design specifications improve project planning
 Allows management to accurately determine value of end product
 Improved communications = reduced errors and improved efficiency
 High technology businesses are maturing
 Design becomes a more distinct phase separate from development
 Development of products becoming more like manufacturing
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

One External Worldview of UX Group
Standard View: Consulting / Service Organization
 Design: Makes things look good
 Usability: Tests to find bugs after the code Need to
is working move from
this…
 Not a core business competency
 Important but not essential
 Practitioners don‘t have a good sense of
business issues
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Strategic Worldview of UX Group
New Framework: Strategic Function
 User-centered product planning informs all
aspects of product direction
 Essential to product development—cannot
be done without UX …to this
 Key contributions throughout the
development cycle
 Business value is large, wide-ranging, and
demonstrable
 Quantifiable, reproducible, high-quality
processes
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Run UX Like a Business
Optimize based on the following:
 What you produce
 How efficiently you produce it
 Justify what you charge to your customers (ROI)
 Effectively leverage your value-network
 Market your products and services effectively
 Tap into the market trends for UX
Could you sell your business plan to investors?
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Operational Processes
key processes  Core technical skills and
deliverables
operational
 UX and the product development
lifecycle
Interaction
organizational
 Cost and benefit models of UX
 Business Value: Identifying the
strategic visible & hidden value propositions
in UX techniques
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Symbiotic Operational Skills
Design
Research
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Complimentary Outputs
Field
Studies
Information Interaction
Architecture Design
User
Experience
Concept Visual
Prototyping Design
Usability
Testing
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Areas of Expertise—User Research
 Cataloging detailed information on users
 Key activities
 Goals & Tasks
 Needs & Wants
 Understanding human factors relating to product design
 Cognitive
 Physical
 Focusing on contexts of product use
 Communities
 Interactions
 Collaborations
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Deliverables—User Research
 User research is only useful when the information it creates
reaches others and impacts organizational behavior
 The tangible deliverables are reports and presentations that
capture:
 User requirements and profile data (formative)
• Surveys
• Field studies
• Formative usability tests
 Design defects and enhancements (refining)
• Heuristic reviews
• Cognitive walkthroughs
• Field studies
• Usability tests
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Areas of Expertise—Design
 Creates tangible artifacts by synthesizing data from multiple
requirements streams
 Marketing
 Technical
 Legal
 Usage
 Aesthetics
 Problem solving
 Exploring multiple solution spaces
 Rapid, iterative processes
 Visualization
 Information / Messaging / Branding
 Structure / Behavior
 Form / Ergonomics
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Deliverables—Design
 Design is only useful when it generates specifications
from which products can be built
 Prototypes & specifications serve as detailed plans for
building products and should cover:
 Software
• Information architecture / Navigation
• Interaction
• Screen layout / Terminology
• Branding elements (product graphics & identity)
 Hardware
• Form
• Materials
• Branding elements (colors, finishes, product graphics)
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Development Cycle & Potential UX Activities
Planning Alpha Beta GA
Field studies Design refinement Design refinement Analyze support calls
Task analysis QA of the UI QA of the UI Site visits
Use cases Usability testing Next cycle planning
Usability testing
Market analysis Develop visual identity Finalize visuals UI post-mortem
Competitive evaluation UI Walkthrough Baseline studies
Develop resource files
Feature planning Beta site visits
Project plans & dev Documentation review
estimates UI Walkthrough
Task flows
Documentation plans
Heuristic evaluations
Info architecture
Visualizations
Prototypes
Testing prototypes
Design specs
(flows & screens)
TM
User Research Design Hybrid
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Development Cycle
Planning Alpha Beta GA
UX Sweet Spot: ROI Highest
TM
Ability to influence product direction
Cost to make changes to product
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Development Cycle
Planning Alpha Beta GA
Other UX Opportunities:
UI QA & Usability Validation
TM
Ability to influence product direction
Cost to make changes to product
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Typical Activity Levels: Design Orientation
High
Level of Effort
Low
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Typical Activity Levels: Usability Orientation
High
Level of Effort
Low
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Typical Activity Levels: UX Orientation
High
Level of Effort
Low
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Moving Beyond Cost Justification
 Discuss Business Value
UX Other  Design happens—with or without professional
insight
40% 60%  Unprofessional design process is inefficient
design process
 40% of typical project budget are spent on UX
design and related development activities
 Validation of design before development reduces
project risks dramatically
 Wasting $$$ is NOT an option
 Wrong requirements = wrong product
 Poorly specified = lost time in meetings, dead end
coding & low quality
 Hard to demonstrate = lost sales
 Hard to learn = higher training and support costs
 Hard to use = lost productivity
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Measuring Operational Success
If you can‘t measure it…you can‘t improve it
 Measurement is key to creating a feedback loop in any
system. Without measurement how do you know if things
are getting better or worse?
 How is your team evaluated?
 Promotions and bonuses should be based on results
 It is important to track metrics on a variety of levels
 Does your executive management track usability like other
key performance indicators?
 Give executives metrics so they understand the return on the
investment (ROI)
 Everything becomes easier when senior management tracks
usability metrics and understands how they relate to success
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI Framework
3 Types of
Benefits
ROI Framework*
$
Lower Costs
(improve efficiency)
Dollars x Volume
* Addresses what‘s important to business leaders
$ Increase
Profits * Consider the visible & hidden benefits & issues
* While numbers are important, rhetorical points can
also be highly persuasive when used systematically
J Increase
Market Share
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI Focus Areas
Internal Focus External Focus
 Risk Management  Productivity
 Increase Revenues  Training
 Reduce Costs  Error Reduction
 Support Costs
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI: Internal Focus (company)
Focus Area Metrics Talking Points
Development (Time for changes) x Creating the right product / features for the
(risk mgmt) (# changes) x (Developer market
pay)
Design & design validation can be done
before coding begins
(x 100 if change is post ship)
Eliminate large-scale, mid to late-stage
change orders
Majority of product scope is known up front
Development (Time in discussions) x Design process is managed and
(risk mgmt) (# times) x (# Employees) x coordinated and time spent discussing
(Pay rate) design intentions is reduced
Increase development efficiency.
Engineering, QA, Documentation can all
develop plans earlier and more completely
based on specs
Development schedule can be more tightly
coordinated
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI: Internal Focus (company)
Focus Area Metrics Talking Points
Sales (Time spent explaining how Product features and configuration
(increase revenue) the UI works) = (Time lost resonate with customers
on selling product benefits)
Reduce time spent explaining what the
product is
(lost sales as potential by-product)
Increase time spent explaining the
business value of the product
If it appears easy to use, it is one less
objection a prospect can make
Technical (Time on call) x (# calls) x Reduce high frequency support issues
Support (Pay rate)
Reduce total time on calls
(lower costs)
Reduce total number of calls
Improve overall customer satisfaction
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI: External Focus (customer)
Focus Area Metrics Talking Points
User (Time on task) x (# times Increase process effectiveness
Productivity per day) x (# employees) x
(Pay rate) Increase process efficiency
Reduce time on tasks
User Training (Time in training) x Reduce or eliminate time spent in training
(# employees) x
(Employee pay rate) Reduce or eliminate non-revenue
generating activities
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

ROI: External Focus (customer)
Focus Area Metrics Talking Points
User Errors Time in error recovery x # Reduce time spent on error recovery
times per day x #
employees x Pay rate Increase process efficiency
Increase process accuracy
IT Support Time on call x # calls x Reduce loss of productivity while
Pay rate (support) employee deals with support issues.
Reduce total time on calls
Reduce number of calls
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Summary: Operational Processes
 UX contributes unique skills to product development
 Leverage the ―sweet spot‖ to maximize impact and ROI
 Analyze where your group:
 Spends its time and what tangible outputs it produces
 How this adds value to the company and its customers
 Quantify these whenever possible
 Establish simple metrics that management at all levels can track
 Embed metrics & talking points into organizational
consciousness
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Analyze the State of UX Operations
 Create an activity audit graph to visualize the current
activity levels for your group
 This shows the current operational ―state of the union‖
 Describe the positive impact of the work your group is
currently doing
 Identify the ROI for at least 2 activities your group
currently performs
 Describe the impact of not performing certain activities
 Identify the ROI that could be derived by increasing your
group‘s efforts in at least 2 areas
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Example: Activity Audit Graph
High
Level of Effort
Low
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Example: ROI Points
High Investment: Impact: Higher levels of development coordination
Design ROI Points:
Specifications:  Dev knows what they‘re supposed to build
 QA can do better test plans and improve coverage
 Writers can improve plans and start earlier
 Reduction in meetings discussing final designs
Low Investment: Impact: Insufficient data to properly inform design
Use Cases ROI Points:
 Design may be based on incorrect assumptions
 High risk that end product may not meet user needs
 Hard to prioritize feature sets
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Operational Analysis
 Take the next 45 Minutes to analyze your group‘s operational
outputs & the associated ROI
1. 10 Minutes: Create an activity audit graph for your group
2. 10 Minutes: Analyze areas of high investment
3. 10 Minutes: Analyze areas of low investment
4. 15 Minutes: Discuss your analysis with partner at table
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Organizational Processes
key processes
 Why UX groups have organizational
issues (myths & realities)
operational
 Effective and efficient cross
organizational collaboration
Interaction
organizational
 Spreading the UX gospel
 UX and how it fits into the
strategic
value network
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Consider Your Value Network
What is a value network?
 The context in which you produce your existing deliverables
 It limits what you can do and defines how you are rewarded
What should you consider?
 Who benefits from your work?
 What partners do you have in creating your value-add?
 Who provides your necessary resources or materials?
Listening to your value network has both pros and cons
 Can help you determine how to improve existing offerings
 May blind you to new opportunities and limit growth
From ―The Innovator‘s Dilemma‖ by Clayton Christensen
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Collaboration is Key
 Step outside of your cube or office
 Make sure you interact with people in other groups regularly
 Take a big picture perspective of the organization
 What groups are responsible for what?
 What is your ―foreign policy‖?
 Define your goals and strategies for influencing other groups
 What have you done for them lately?
 What can they do for you?
 How do you interact with other groups in your company?
 Take their viewpoints to understand how to influence them
 Cultivate allies in other groups to help you:
 Drive UX initiatives
 Educate others and change the company culture
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Formal Organizational Relationships
CEO Exec
Assist
VP Marketing CTO VP Eng VP Sales
Dir Prod
Dir Mar Com Management Dir UX Dir Platform
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Informal Organizational Forces
CEO Exec
Assist
VP Marketing CTO VP Eng VP Sales
Dir Prod
Dir Mar Com Management Dir UX Dir Platform
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

No One Understands What We Do—Why?
Does your  Is this mission clear to everyone in management?
group have a  Can managers in the other groups articulate UE‘s mission?
clearly  Do those at the C-level know your mission?
defined
mission?
Does your  Do you have a group website?
group  Does it highlight what your group produces?
communicate  Does it provide useful resources for those in other groups?
to the rest of  Is it up to date and informative?
the company?  Do other intranet pages link to it?
How does  Is your group‘s work part of the project plans?
your group‘s  Do UX milestones/deliverables appear in the process
work fit into documents?
what the
company
does?
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Working with Product Management
PM Myths UX Myths
UXconfuses developers by PM doesn‘t care about
adding new requirements ―the user‖ or usability
Usabilitystudies might leak Marketing research and user
information research are not complementary
Nextgeneration UI previews
might stall current sales
Win-Win
Improve requirements processes & documents
Develop detailed use cases based on user research
Better consideration of overall design & tradeoffs
Bring end user versus customer perspective into requirements
Improve communication with development teams
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Joint PM & UX Initiatives
Work together to
 Specify UI designs to support new feature descriptions
define UI details
for requirements  Help provide UI samples for presentations and collateral
Do customer  Document what customers really do and need
case studies  Add UX resources to ensure user profiles and tasks are
together included
Develop a
demo for a  Use as driving force behind UI prototype
trade show or  Helps create a shared vision that can be used in
for a sales customer presentations
presentation
Introduce ―use  Introduce best practices into the requirements analysis
case‖ oriented
phase
requirements
process  Benefits both customers of PM and UX
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Collaborating with Development
Development Myths UX Myths
All this (UX) stuff is impractical Developers are the enemy
It takes too much time to study users They care more about technology
and write specs than users
We need to focus on coding All they want to do is meet the
schedule
UX is a threat. They want to take the
creativity out of being a developer UX doesn‘t need to understand
 Process = Bureaucracy = Bad anything about technology &
development
All it takes to design a usable product
is intelligence & common sense
Win - Win
Buildthe best product possible given the constraints
Improve efficiency and focus – stop wasting time!
Determine the design earlier so we can focus on building it
Avoid iterating in code needlessly and discussing it in endless meetings
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Joint Development & UX Initiatives
Develop a
reusable code  Helps enforce UI consistency
library for UI  Promotes reuse and reduces development time
development
Develop a style  Helps coordinate UI work across all staff & groups
guide for a
 Ensures UI is consistent and UX has voice in process
product or
product line  Design re-factoring = code re-factoring
Collaborate on
prototyping  Reduces project uncertainty and risks for dev and UX
new product or  Helps build a sense of team ownership
features
Work together on  Help the development group specify the UI
development &
 Get involved in review of functional specifications
review of
specifications  Ensures UX specification is feasible & improves planning
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Collaborating with QA
QA Myths UX Myths
UI bugs aren‘t really bugs UX is unrelated to quality
 Unimportant or a matter of opinion engineering
UIbugs are unimportant or QA engineers can‘t help improve
low priority the UI or evaluate usability
Win - Win
Improve the quality of the product as measured by the bug counts
Improve the metrics by which the company tracks quality
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Joint QA & UX Initiatives
Improve the bug
process to better
capture UX  Improve tracking of usability and UI issues
issues
Organize UI
walkthroughs  Decreases QA‘s workload
to catch UX
bugs earlier in  Allows QA to concentrate on functional & stress
the process testing
Collaborate on
testing and bug  Help ensure UI bugs get fixed
prioritization with
QA  Help QA better identify and classify UI bugs
Leverage use  Facilitates the test planning process
cases & UX
specs for QA  Helps QA create better test plans
testing  Facilitates automated testing
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Building Relationships for Success
The following principles should guide your interactions:
 Involving the right people at the right time
 Does everyone in your group know who to contact and when?
 Achieving results through formal & informal channels
 Who owns things and who has the power to get things done?
 Fostering effective give and take relationships
 Build relationships through reciprocity
 Understanding perspectives and agendas of others
 Learn about your ―organizational neighbors‖
 Knowing when to fight and when to compromise
 Its fine to be an idealist in theory, but you have to be a realist in practice
Adapted from the ―Successful Managers Handbook‖
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Summary: Organizational Processes
 UX needs to serve as a ―change agent‖
 Product designs reflect the organizations that created them
 You need to change the culture and influence others to change the UI
 Make influencing others a part of your job
 Put together a plan and execute it
 Don‘t be afraid to share responsibility for UX
 Engage others in your mission as team mates
 You can accomplish much more as a team
 Sharing your knowledge of UX makes other recognize its value and yours
 Introducing new UX processes impact many existing people
 Be proactive, talk to those impacted and partner with them
 Consider other groups your customers—listen to them!
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Organizational Activity
 Who has formal or informal power at your company?
 Analyze these groups
 Determine the best approach for engaging them
 Develop a ―foreign policy‖ for interacting with and influencing them
 What is SWOT?
 Strengths
 Weaknesses
 Opportunities
 Threats
 In the activity for this section we will be doing SWOT-Plus
 Plus planning—creating a plan for engagement
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Example: SWOT PM Group
Owns requirements and feature prioritization
Strengths Owns customer research as part of marketing
Has access to customers and possibly users
Requirements rarely focused on users and tasks
Weaknesses Requirements often too vague for engineers to plan or
implement against
Help streamline requirements by focusing on users and tasks
Collaborateto expand traditional marketing research to
Opportunities include studies of end users
ROI: reduce time and increase quality of requirements docs
May prioritize features over real end user needs
Threats
May perceive UX as encroaching into PM domain of requirements
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Example: SWOT PM Group
Find allies within PM organization
Educate them about User Experience
Identifynew projects where requirements are weak
Assist PM in researching and documenting requirements
Plan
Study marketing best practices
Identify ways to improve process based on UX deliverables
Work with PM to incorporate UX processes into PM activities
Collaborate with PM on the following items:
Competitive analyses
Requirements specifications
Customer visits
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Organizational Analysis
 Take the next 45 minutes to analyze your company
1. Focus first on the groups you want to influence the most
2. Next, analyze your own group (UX) in the same fashion
3. Compare the results with others at your table
 Worksheets for this activity are at the back of the
workbook
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Strategic Processes
 Thinking strategically
key processes
 Aligning UX with strategic
operational corporate initiatives
 Influencing strategy to include UX
Interaction
aspects
organizational
 Adjusting tactics to match
strategy
strategic
 Engaging upper management to
ensure success
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Strategy: Its Not Just for Marketing Anymore
 What is strategy?
 Determining if what you are doing makes sense from a big picture
standpoint
 Strategy example: Types of management
 Operationally focused:
• Row harder!
 Tactically focused:
• Why row, put up a sail…
 Strategically focused
• Are we rowing in the right direction?
• Do we need to go there at all?
 For too long, people in our profession have been
focusing on rowing harder
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Long Term Strategic Planning
 For an organization to endure it must adapt
 All too often managers neglect managing this change
 Too busy with operational work
 Fail to take the big picture/long term perspective
 Drucker* talks about planning from the following perspectives
 What will our business be
 What should our business be
 What new things should we go into
 What existing product lines and businesses should we abandon
 You need to consider these questions both from a UX and a
company perspective
* From ―Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices‖ by Peter Drucker
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Six Forces Impacting Businesses
Power, vigor, and competence of Power, vigor, and competence of Power, vigor, and competence
existing competitors complementors of customers
The Business
Power, vigor, and competence of Power, vigor, and competence of
suppliers potential competitors
Possibility that what your
business is doing can be done
in a different way
From ―Only the Paranoid Survive‖ by Andy Grove
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Strategic Inflection Points
The Inflection Curve
Business goes on to new heights
Inflection Point Business declines
Requires a fundamental transformation from what you were to what you will be
From ―Only the Paranoid Survive‖ by Andy Grove
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Inflection Points in Detail
Home to academic Local to global
Market Usability/design to User Experience
Nuclear family to aging boomer Consumer to enterprise
HTML to RIA/AJAX Pager to Blackberry
Tech Disconnected PC to WWW Lab testing to remote usability testing
CD to MP3 Brick & mortar to eCommerce
iMac to iPod Database to applications
Version 23 to vision project Concept sketch to design spec
Product
Software utilities to enterprise security Hardware to software
Total quality management Balanced scorecard
Process Total design management True UCD Data-based design
Extreme programming Offshore development 6 Sigma
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: Offshore Development
Forces
 Competence of low-cost offshore suppliers
 Ubiquitous high-speed communications
 Competitors leveraging offshore
 Customers (IT) leveraging offshore
Inflection Point
 Process focus
 Competency shifts from manufacturing to
design, sales, & marketing
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: Offshore Development
High
Level of Effort
Low
Before After
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: HTML to AJAX
Forces
 Browser-based applications become ubiquitous
 DHTML and asynchronous updates afford richer
interaction in latest browsers
 Poor perceived usability of traditional web-based UI
 Industry thought leaders launch AJAX applications
Inflection Point
 Technology focus
 Web moves from flat pages, to rich applications
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: HTML to AJAX
High
Level of Effort
Low
Before After
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: EAI Tools to Applications
Forces
 Technology becomes standardized (e.g. web services)
 Many undifferentiated competitors emerge
 EAI tools become a commodity
 Larger companies enter market (IBM, Microsoft)
 Prices drop & margins shrink
Inflection Point
 Product focus
 Existing products become platform for new products
 Move towards a total product solution
 New business becomes selling apps built from EAI tools
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: EAI Tools to Applications
High
Level of Effort
Low
Before After
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: Vision Project
Forces
 Invent a new product or market
 New technology renders old product / line obsolete
Inflection Point
 Product, market, or technology focus
 Create a shared vision around new ways of doing business
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: Vision Project
High
Level of Effort
Low
Before After
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: iMac to iPod
Forces
 Computers become a low margin, high volume business
 Internet & MP3s enable new distribution channel
 Music industry lacks digital-age strategy
 Existing MP3 players provide poor UX
 Third-party accessories market completes system
Inflection Point
 Focus: Market? Product? Process? Technology?
 Hardware, software, and content distribution create end-
to-end solution and provide first-mover advantage
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Case Study: iMac to iPod
High
Level of Effort
Low
Before After
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Extend UX‘s Charter: Think Strategically
Develop a UX Influence and drive
strategic initiative corporate strategy
Breadth of UX Vision
that leverages from a UX perspective
existing UX activities
Analyze and improve Align and integrate UX
current UX operations to reflect existing
based on metrics strategic corporate
initiatives
Level of Difficulty
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Putting it all Together
key processes
 Driving strategy into reality
operational
 Focusing your activities
Interaction
organizational  Setting up feedback mechanisms
strategic
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Driving Strategy: Planning
Plan Align Execute
 Understand the corporate strategy by ―tapping-in‖
organizationally
 Identify the thought leaders or their proxies and study what they
are saying
 Inventory your assets and core competencies to assess where
they lie relative to the new strategic initiatives
 Perform a SWOT analysis on your own team
 Assess potential organizational alliances and blockages
 Perform initial business-value benefits analysis
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Driving Strategy: Alignment
Plan Align Execute
 Meet with the organizational thought leaders or their proxies
 Interview these individuals to determine opportunities
 Explain your group‘s position, alignments, and key value add
to their organizations and the overall business
 Determine mutually beneficial points of collaboration
 Ask for feedback and recommendations for additional points
of synergy company-wide
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Driving Strategy: Execution
Plan Align Execute
 Adjust group‘s priorities to align with the new initiatives
 Develop final value-benefit analysis based on new priorities and
activities for UX
 Always be on the lookout for new ways that UX can contribute
 Work with your new partners to ensure successful execution
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Fine-tuning Strategy
 Its all about creating a self adapting organization
 Cybernetics
 Kaizen
 ―The Fifth Discipline‖
 The key to an enduring organization is adaptation
 Organizations that fail to evolve become extinct
 Setup reliable feedback loops and evaluate your strategy continuously
 How does the current strategy impact UX and its deliverables
 Always be on the look out for unique ways UX can contribute
 Be prepared for changes!
 Long term plans are by nature dynamic
 Avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket
 Don‘t drop everything for a strategy unless you have express corporate
mandates to do so
 Always have a backup plan (or two)
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Focus Your Activities
operational outputs
operational outputs
organizational needs
operational outputs
organizational needs
operational outputs strategic vision
organizational needs
operational outputs
organizational needs
operational outputs
operational outputs
TM
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Example: Strategic Presentation
We will review an example of a strategic presentation covering
the following points:
 Company Overview (Business & Market)
 Forces impacting company / UX group
 Inflection points
 Current & planned levels of UX operational outputs
 Areas of impact and ROI points to support planned changes
 Impact on value network
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Strategic Plan
1 Hour Activity
First 30 minutes – Create a 5 minute presentation
 Describe the strategic positioning plan for UX at your
company. This should contain:
 A brief overview of company
 The strategic forces impacting the company
 Inflection points
 Activity audit graph showing current & planned levels
 Required changes in operational outputs
 ROI talking points to justify planned levels
 Impact on value network
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Strategic Plan
Next 30 minutes—practice your presentation
 Present your positioning plan to the other members at
your table.
 Presentations should run no more than 5 minutes each
 As a group, nominate 1 plan to present to the class
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Activity: Pitching Your Vision
Final 45 minutes:
 Nominated individuals from each group present to the entire
class
 Discussion of presentations
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland

Final Thoughts
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route
to victory. Tactics without strategy is the
noise before defeat.
-Sun Tzu
© Jon Innes | Liam Friedland