I recently attended the inaugural UX Strat conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Yes, it was hot. Damn hot. And yes, several streets there are named Peachtree something or other.
THE INTERSECTION OF PEACHTREE PLACE AND PEACHTREE STREET. SERIOUSLY. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MARC SASINSKI)
The conference itself was enjoyable. Some of the broader themes that emerged dealt with the more strategic issues that UXers are facing at a time when we’re getting out of the deliverables business and beginning to shape business strategy 4 realz.
Things like changing organizational structure and culture to meet the needs of a more holistic end user experience, as well as telling a more complete story using BOTH qualitative insight (which UX is good at) AND quantitative data (not so much).
Customer Experience (CX) was also a hot topic. Not necessarily within presentation content, more so in-between sessions and at the pubs. Attendees tended to see it as either A) an ally; or B), a threat to our discipline and a land grab. Oddly enough, the conference didn’t address it square on, which I found a bit odd, frankly. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Overall, the presentations were solid. Nathan Shedroff from the California College of the Arts really stood out for me. His workshop was inspiring and there were lots of wonderful takeaways, including:
The frontlines of dealing with customers IS the brand and UXers understand them about as well as anyone in a company outside of maybe Customer Support.
He questioned what the hell traditional MBA programs are teaching if they aren’t bringing design thinking into the core curriculum?! Gotta love that one.
MVP candidates have been bastardized. The concept of an MVP comes from a culture of investment-optimizers, where it was more about funding the least amount possible to get a product out the door. However, “we don’t live in a Minimum Viable World anymore.”
Business strategy (e.g., Intent, mission, and culture) and tactics (e.g., Usability, price, and features) are very different. And by the way, MBAs get this wrong all the time, too.
“Design is a plan for action.” - Charles Eames
Apple clearly understood the experiential mandate that people like to carry no more than three things in their pocket prior to their iPod introduction. Yup, you guessed it: keys, wallet, and [insert digital device here]. They also made a fundamental shift to become a phone company after their initial engagement with Motorola created a sucky product. Does anyone remember that first attempt at a phone?! Shudder.
A typical SWOT analysis is a pretty lazy approach to strategy overall because it lacks rigor and tends to be rooted in individual assumptions. Businesses sometimes treat it like Mad Libs when they should actually be inserting empirically-derived research within each category.
UX Strategists need to be looking at what’s happening with tangential competitors and markets to see opportunities and threats. This type of analysis is essential for continued innovation.
A great example cited of how demographical data can be rubbish and how behavior matters is what’s known in the travel industry as hybrid travelers. These folks tend to want to mix up their experiences when visiting a destination. So, they may be well-heeled and go to the best restaurant in town; but, they’ll also hit the local foodtruck scene and check out a sketchier part of town if it’s an authentic experience, etc. This drives marketers crazy because they can’t box them in.
The point where business strategy meets experience is meaning. Values are derived from core meaning. And, relationships and value are built through experiences.
Lastly, I loved Nathan's take on how business is the future of design and that everyone is pretty much in the experience business. Well put!
Some other nuggets of wisdom from various speakers included:
It’s time for UX to start thinking about managing outcomes and impact; not just tracking design deliverables. For example, instead of agreeing to give stakeholders a new sign-up screen, we should reframe it as "well, we’ll gladly work on increasing the sign-up rate.”
Karen Pascoe from PayPal talked about how Lean UX is actually the process of defining the experience. Agile is then more about building it into the stack.
Intuit is doing some rad stuff. They apparently spend about 60% of their time on mature products; 30% on repeatable business; and, about 10% on trying to create products people truly love.
Aarron Walter from MailChimp discussed how UX is great at research, but what we really need to get better at is connecting all of the data(s) in order to see a broader strategy. It's also our responsibility to share and educate.
The story of Tony Shea's Wizard of Oz approach was told in how he pretty much piloted the existing Zappos business model early on. He wanted to know whether or not users would buy shoes online. So, he went and photographed inventory at local shoe stores and then began posting online (based on that inventory) to see if there was demand. He also wanted to see whether the value prop of free shipping might work. The rest is kinda history.
All in all, since UX has finally gotten a seat at the proverbial table, it's time for us to start delivering on the promise. Let's lead with an experience vision that's aggressively tested in the wild - and communicate it in increasingly creative and compelling ways!
Onwards.
Marc