Building a UX Brand

Building a
UX Brand
Bob Thomas
Director of User Research
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Alison Decker
Manager of Product Research and Design
Jen McGinn
Senior Director of User Experience
CA Technologies
UXPA International Puerto Rico
June 28, 2018
BOSTON

@Deckerdynamic @bobthomas @jenmcginn
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What is a brand?
“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or
other feature that distinguishes an organization
or product from its rivals in the eyes of the
customer.”
– Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand

#UXPA2018 @bobthomas
Then it communicated
a message – a
commitment to one
product or company
compared to another
That is, a brand is
the commitment
a company makes
to its customers
What is a brand?
A brand started as
an identifying mark

#UXPA2018 @bobthomas
Coke changed how soda
bottles looked… as a way to
stand out from competitors
What is a brand?
Sources: Coca-Cola and The Brand Evolution. The images used here are for personal, non-commercial use.

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BRAND + YOUR
TEAM

6

1. Creating core principles
2. Evolving core processes
3. Developing a visible presence
4. Hiring the best people for you
Establishing a brand commitment
#UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic
5. Demystifying user experience
6. Collaborating with other teams
7. Establishing a UX community
8. Demonstrating UX success to execs

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1.CREATING CORE
PRINCIPLES

• For us, our UX brand is:
1. a commitment our UX managers make to employees we manage
2. a commitment our UX team makes to our organization
3. a commitment our UX team makes to our customers
Core principles for your brand
1. Creating Core Principles #UXPA2018 @bobthomas

• So if a brand is the commitment a company makes to its customers…
• …And keeping to our original definition of a brand as what distinguishes
us from our rivals in the eyes of the customer
• Then what commitment does Liberty Mutual Insurance
make to its customers that differentiates my company?
Commitment of your brand

OUR COMPANY’S BRAND
We believe progress happens when
people feel secure.
OUR UX TEAM’S BRAND
We guide people through uncertainty
by creating experiences that make
them feel secure.

• How do you establish your brand?
▪ Determine what you stand for
▪ Make sure everyone knows it
Creating core principles

• Determine what you stand for
▪ “Usability Bob”
▪ “Research early and often”

1. Don’t lead with the method, lead with the goals
2. Findings are based on the behavior observed
3. Research with project teams
4. Finding problems is a victory, not a failure
5. Know who your users are

Challenges coming in as the first UX executive:
• UX was equated with UI
• UX + UA was a newly formed group
• UX activities were “contained” in the development
group
• UX wasn’t tied to business outcomes
1. Creating Core Principles #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn

• UX+UA team needed a shared
mission + vision
• Used Gamestorming
techniques
• Educated the rest of the
company on our new span of
control and connection to the
business

UX+UA Vision
To make Veracode’s user experience
a competitive differentiator by
exceeding customer expectations at
every touchpoint.
We help our customers be heroes so
they are advocates of Veracode’s
software solutions.
UX+UA Mission
We simplify the process of
securing the world’s software
by using research-based
design practices.
We support our customers’ success
by designing elegant solutions to
complex security problems.

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2.EVOLVING CORE
PROCESSES

• Collaborating
Evolving core processes
2. Evolving Core Processes #UXPA2018 @bobthomas

• Collaborating
• Documenting

• Collaborating
• Documenting
• Sharing

• Collaborating with
development
• Articulating that
process
• Articulating our
own processes
2. Evolving Core Processes #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn

• Collaborating with
development & PM
• Articulating that
process
• Showing the value
of that new process
2. Evolving Core Processes #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn

6
3.DEVELOPING A
VISIBLE PRESENCE

• Publicize your wins…
• …And shout them out
Developing a visible presence
3. Developing a Visible Presence #UXPA2018 @bobthomas

Primary Persona
Usability Bob
GOALS: What is he trying to accomplish?
BACKGROUND: Who is this person?
TASKS/BEHAVIOR: What does he do?
● Director of User Research
● Has worked at Liberty Mutual Insurance for 10 years
● Believes in customer research as the foundation for design decisions
● Is self-directed. Likes to be in control of the situation
● Has a kick-ass team of 8 user researchers
● Has anger management issues, but is working on it
● Explain the benefits of customer research and usability companywide
● Facilitate design thinking workshops for every eCommerce team
● Ensure that user research is part of the development process
● Incorporate research into every sprint
● Scale the culture of user research (so that anyone can do it)
“Research early and often”
FRUSTRATIONS: What are his pain points?
● Older than the hills
● One wife, one cat
● Lives in a condo in Chelsea, 5 miles from Boston
● Owns a 4WD Subaru (this is New England, dammit)
● Many accidents and claims (do not ever ride with him!)
● Martial artist, 3rd degree black belt
● Starting with the usability method, not the project goals
● Hearing “we already know what our users want”
● Hearing “user research takes too long”
● Hearing “usability testing is too expensive”

Publicize your wins

Publicize your work

Company-wide personas
• Printed and framed
• 24” x 36” and 8” x 12”
• Hang in Sales, Support,
UX, Development
• Burlington, MA,
London, UK,
San Francisco, CA
Publicize your work
3. Developing a Visible Presence #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn

• Brand campaign for UX
• Laptop stickers to
encourage developers and
scrum masters to follow our
process
• Given to UX Guild members
Publicize your work
3. Developing a Visible Presence #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn

These video logs give you
an inside look into the role
Research and Design play
in our new way of working.
These four episodes of
“High Contrast” are part of
our new vlog series where
Bob Thomas and Stacey
Messier discuss how
Design and Research are
helping shape our culture
to the Digital Garage.
Publicize your message

Publicize your team

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4.HIRING THE BEST
PEOPLE FORYOU

Hiring the best people for you
• Align your job description with the qualities that fit your brand
4. Hiring the Right People for You #UXPA2018 @bobthomas
OUR UX TEAM’S BRAND
We guide people through uncertainty
by creating experiences that make
them feel secure.

• Align your job description with the qualities that fit your brand
▪ Coaching
▪ Collaboration
▪ Engagement
Hiring the best people for you

• Recruit interns from college and graduate school programs
• Leverage apprenticeship programs (technical development program)
Establish your networks

You’ve got one shot
4. Hiring the Right People for You #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic

hiring for
humbleness.
You’ve got one shot

Misperceptions

Misperceptions
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: U.S.

Helping Others Shine

Heightening team strengths

Diversity and inclusion

Health hypothesis

Honest Design & Research

Challenge of perception

Have a slice

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5. TRAINING TO
DEMYSTIFY USER
EXPERIENCE

• “Lunch and learn,” “sip and see” get-togethers
• UX fairs
• Digital garages
Demystifying UX
5.Training to Demystify User Experience #UXPA2018 @bobthomas

UX apprenticeship
5.Training to Demystify User Experience #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic

To increase the understanding of human-centered research and design
methodologies by providing hands-on training to professionals involved in
the product development lifecycle so that they are better enabled to
represent the user’s needs.
UX apprenticeship
5.Training to Demystify User Experience #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic

6
6.COLLABORATING
WITH OTHER TEAMS

• Quantitative data
▪ Data analytics
▪ Market research
Collaborating with other teams
6. Collaborating with Other Teams #UXPA2018 @bobthomas

• Business Cases
▪ Launched a new project to create a
new experience for customers to
manage their claims based on data
analytics

• Use Cases
▪ Recruited participants who would most likely file and
manage property claims online based on highest-
frequent, lowest-severity scenarios

The roadmap
6. Collaborating with Other Teams #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic

Our UX strategy pyramid

The nCredible Framework

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7.ESTABLISHING A UX
COMMUNITY

Humbleness
7. Establishing a UX Community #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic

The butterfly effect

Branding

Accessibility initiative

Annual state of UX survey
@deckerdynamic

6
8.DEMONSTRATING
SUCCESS TO
EXECUTIVES

What do executives care about?
According to Jared Spool, there are only 5 things
that executives care about:
• Increasing revenues
• Decreasing costs
• Increasing new business/marketshare
• Increasing revenue from existing customers
• Increasing shareholder value
8. Demonstrating Success to Executives #UXPA2018 @jenmcginn
https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/06/08/why-i-cant-
convince-executives-to-invest-in-ux-and-neither-can-you/

Driving down the cost of support

Net Promoter Score (NPS): How do
we increase it?
• Analyzed all of the
qualitative feedback
• Categorized the comments +
sentiment analysis
• Segmented by persona
• Found that a small number
of issues resulted in 50% of
the negative feedback
• Focused engineering efforts
on resolving those top
dissatisfiers
Increasing customer satisfaction

8. Demonstrating Success to Executives #UXPA2018 @deckerdynamic
Leverage success to request assistance

@deckerdynamic
State of UX action items
Most Common
UX Research
& Design
Deliverables
% UXers Facing
Challenges
Gaining Buy-In
Full-Time
UX Role vs. Part-
Time/ Non UX
Role
Location in
org.
structure
Top
Deliverables
UXers Want
Top
Challenges
Facing UXers

1. Creating core principles
2. Evolving core processes
3. Developing a visible presence
4. Hiring the best people for you
5. Demystifying user experience
6. Collaborating with other teams
7. Establishing a UX community
8. Demonstrating UX success to execs
Establishing a brand commitment
Bob Thomas
Director of User Research
Alison Decker
Manager of Product Research and Design
Jen McGinn
Senior Director of User
Experience CA Technologies

Building a UX Brand

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