My presentation from the Oz-IA 2007 conference (http://www.oz-ia.org/). The focus is that UX practitioners need to think about and deliver UX messages in terms of business and user strategy. Touches on several social media topics including community building, collaboration, etc. Full speaker notes below. Audio to come. Slide 1 - Today I’m actually not going to actually talk to you about IA or UX as such. I’m going to talk to you about frustration, about people, about business, about communities. I’m going to talk about how you can talk to the businesses you work with about UX, especially when they apparently don’t “get” what you’re on about when you speak with them about your work. Slide 2 - So, why “Love in an Elevator” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_an_Elevator)? Well, I’m not talking about these guys, who certainly do deliver a user experience, but not the sort we’re talking about today. What I AM talking about is your elevator pitch for the strategy you’re bringing to your client or organisation from a UX point of view. Slide 3 - So, who am I? A little about me. I’ve worked in the web industry for around 12 years. I’ve done web apps development, business analysis, project management and even network security in the past. These days I run acidlabs. It’s an independent consultancy that works with people and organisations on building collaborative communities around information and knowledge sharing, web strategy and social computing evangelism - particularly in a business context. And, relevant to today, I also does user experience and information architecture work. Slide 4 - Now, before we get into this, a word of warning. Slide 5 - I’ve got, what, 45 minutes to talk to you today? And there needs to be gossip time at the end. So by NO MEANS is my intention today to give you any ACTUAL ANSWERS as to what your UX strategic approach should be. Slide 6 - That said, what I DO WANT TO DO is get you thinking. How many of you here are responsible for communicating UX strategy to clients - whether those clients are the organisation that employs you, or you’re contracting or consulting? I know there are a few of you here - Shane (http://blogs.msdn.com/shanemo/default.aspx), Matthew (http://magia3e.wordpress.com/), Andrew (http://facibusreviews.com/blog/), Stephen, Donna (http://www.maadmob.net/donna/blog/). Me, when anyone will listen. How many of you are NOT doing that work? Why not? Do you not care enough about what you do? “It’s not my job” is NOT AN EXCUSE OR A REASON for this. I actually think it’s CRITICAL that no matter where you sit in the UX process or pecking order, you should be taking a BIGGER PICTURE look at your work and asking yourself what it’s really about. I don’t think you can really do the best job possible unless this is your mindset. Slide 7 - So, what prompted me to pick this subject to speak on? Well, I was in a meeting not all that long ago - we were talking with a PM, a couple of platform techs, some BAs and I heard this... Slide 8 - Take that in for a moment... Slide 9 - Language warning here, but “What the fuck?” Slide 10 - Now, here’s the thing. This isn’t a lightweight project. It’s a major effort that actually has a very significant budget and potentially affects the lives (in REAL, life and death terms) of people. Yet, the non-UX people on this project have no idea what we do nor how it fits into the work that they do. Slide 11 - So, NO, UX is ABSOLUTELY NOT “here with UAT”. But that issue, or similar issues that I’ll discuss shortly, is something that in very many places forces UX into a place where it’s just unable to deliver real value. Slide 12 - Of course, there is an alternative. UX can be done well, and it can be done strategically. Slide 13 - In my ideal world, and I don’t think I’m talking pie in the sky, UX touches business (in a good way) across the board. It comes on to the project RIGHT AT THE

1. Love in an elevator
UX as business strategy
Stephen Collins
acidlabs

3. Who am I?

4. WARNING!

5. I’m not here to give
you answers

6. But I am here to get
you to think

7. Not long ago, I
heard this in a key
project meeting...

8. “You guys are here.
With UAT. Right?”

10. This project is worth millions
of dollars and governs
things that happen in
people’s lives!

11. No. We’re bloody not!

12. Done properly...

13. UX should be a
strategic
discipline that
touches all points
and all layers of
business

14. I’m sure we’ve all seen this
http://jjg.net/elements/

15. Largely, business doesn’t
“get” what we do

16. We’re “arty”

17. Weird

18. Right-brained

19. We don’t fit in

20. Things I’ve
heard
about UX

21. “UX is no different to BA.”

22. “You’re just a roadblock.”

23. “You never have good news.”

24. Is your UX
strategy right?

25. Does business
understand what
you want to do for
them and why?

26. We often don’t explain
UX very well

27. Um... Well...
It’s like a...
Y’know...
Thing...
About users.
And it makes
your stuff...
Better!

28. Strategy redux:
UX should be a
strategic
discipline that
touches all points
and all layers of
business

29. User strategy
http://flickr.com/photos/shawdm/820926627/

30. What is the user
expectation for
your product?

31. Are you credible?

32. Or not?

33. User needs considered?

34. Do user needs drive the IA?

35. Or is IA driven by
something else?

36. Do you even know?

37. Business strategy

38. What’s it supposed to do?

39. Why?

40. What problem are
you trying to solve?

41. Are features
driven by user
and business
needs?

42. Are business
goals
influencing
“brand”?

43. How do
business goals
influence
design
strategy?

44. Truth and consequences

45. Non-strategic
business gets
downsized or
vanishes

46. The almighty dollar

47. Solve problems
early and cheaply

48. Measure. Measure. Measure.

49. UX as change agent

50. Relationships

51. Business

52. Community

53. Karma

54. Imagine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnight_trucker/376653652/

55. Licensing
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
http://www.slideshare.net/trib

56. Like the cool pictures?
iStockphoto.com, LuckyOliver.com and Flickr

57. Stephen Collins
trib@acidlabs.org
skype: trib22
+61 410 680722
www.acidlabs.org
twitter.com/trib
www.linkedin.com/in/stephencollins
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=692035946
strategies, tools and processes to empower knowledge workers