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


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…


Usability vs. user experience

UI design Cross-functional
Deep Customer Knowledge

UX
Design

User-Centered
Methodology Design Generalists

Usability

Evaluation Experts


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…


Part 1: User Experience strategy

6

Optimal is the key word

Business goals User goals


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


Customer experience over time

Web Sales staff Shops

Materials (doc, Product(s)
packaging,
shipping etc.)

Customer facing
staff


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


How to develop a UX strategy
Creating a vision and strategy to support it

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


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 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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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


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


Experience definition

Articulate the overarching experience you want your customers
to have

Feel
Do
Think
Values
Action


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


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


Obstacles and opportunities
Know your organizational culture

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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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


Challenge: aligning the UX vision

Customer service

Tech support

Shops

Sales

Product design

Marketing

Branding

Legal


Part 2: Implementing the vision

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


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?


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

One ideal world

Chief Experience
Officer (CXO)

Product Product
Marketing
Marketing Design


Models to structure your team

Five basic models:
– Consulting
– Distributed
– Review & Approve
– Educate & Administrate
– Hybrid

Project
Project Project
Project



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


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


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


Characteristics to seek out

Good communication skills: written and spoken
Facilitation and collaboration skills
Listening skills
Team oriented
Attention to detail


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


Fitting into existing methods and processes

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

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


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


User-centered design techniques

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


User involvement

Steve Mulder


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)


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


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


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…


Final questions and thanks

62

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

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

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