In a mobile, networked world, we participate as much as we consume. We expect experiences “built for me”, accessible from any place and every device. As consumers, we conflate product, service, advertising and information into a single brand experience subject to harsh scrutiny. Smart companies can no longer just “sell product” — they must build ecosystems of genuine value, comprised of dynamic, interconnected touch points that stoke customer interests and support their needs. And in this dawning era, digital strategy becomes the product, marketing evolves past persuasion and into value, and technologists design complex webs of functionality. Everyone works differently.
Drawing from experience developing strategies and designs for multi-channel ecosystems at R/GA, this presentation will explore six ways in which evolving customer expectations are changing our roles and the way we approach our work. From what we research to how we collaborate and design, her hope is that you’ll walk away from the presentation armed with some practical insight that will help your team prepare for the advent of these challenges.
6. DEFINITION OF AN
ECOSYSTEM
A business strategy that seeks to leverage
digital technology to create dynamic,
interconnected touch points and product
extensions that provide additional value to
customers, deepen their connection with a
brand, and, ultimately, feed business growth.
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10. DEFINITION OF
FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION
The art and science of orchestrating
products, services and the underlying
business systems to create holistic customer
experiences that are both valuable,
desirable.
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11. The model of the ecosystem is about
business strategy.
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12. The design of the ecosystem is about
how it all fits together.
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15. A tool used for user experience design is
now an important input to strategy.
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16. THE PHASES
consider evaluate purchase use/enjoy advocate
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17. THE CHANNELS/CONTEXTS
consider evaluate purchase use/enjoy advocate
TV
web
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18. THE JOURNEY (across the ecosystem)
consider evaluate purchase use/enjoy advocate
TV
web
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19. THE OPPORTUNITY SPACES
consider evaluate purchase use/enjoy advocate
TV
web
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20. KEY
POINTS
Personas are not enough to support
customer-centered strategy and
design.
Customer-centricity requires UX
leadership at the table with business
leads.
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22. In the context of an ecosystem,
marketing has a whole new meaning.
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23. Online
photography Photo
classes sharing
Inherently
This product Photo blog awesome product exhibit
will make you
feel artistic
and creative.
Customer service
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= value! 23
24. right “thing”, right context
consider evaluate purchase use/enjoy advocate
TV Spot Social
TV breaking sharing
assumptions
Tool
web for comparison
Onboarding
mobile app
Social
chat
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25. KEY
POINTS
UX and marketing must cohabitate
and collaborate.
Mono-messages are no longer useful
or relevant in context of an ecosystem.
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27. Iteration and constant learning are the
foods that feed the ecosystem.
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28. DESIGN PROCESS
DISCOVER & PLAN DESIGN & BUILD & ITERATE MEASURE & REFINE
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY DESIGN TECHNOLOGY ANALYTICS
Learning Learning Learning Learning
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29. DESIGN PROCESS
DISCOVER & PLAN DESIGN & BUILD & ITERATE MEASURE & REFINE
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY DESIGN TECHNOLOGY ANALYTICS
What is it? How does How do we How is it
it work? build it? performing?
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33. OVERLAPPING DESIGN & DEV SPRINTS
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4
UX
Dev
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34. KEY
POINTS
We need to shift our mental model of
process from linear to iterative.
We need to learn to be flexible and
adapt to new inputs along the way.
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36. Ecosystems are pushing us to reinvent
the way we work together, literally.
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37. THE OLD WORLD:
SINGLE PROJECT MODEL
Client/ Agency/
Business lead Project lead
Team Team
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38. THE NEW WORLD:
MULTIPLE PROJECTS
Client/ Agency/
Business lead Project lead
Team Team
Team Team
Team Team
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39. THE NEW WORLD:
MUTIPLE CONNECTIONS
Client/ Agency/
Business lead Project lead
Team Team
Team Team
Team Team
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40. THE IDEAL: ONE INTEGRATED TEAM
Client/ Agency/
Business lead Project lead
Team Team
Team
Team Team
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41. THE IDEAL: ONE INTEGRATED AND
CROSS-POLLINATED TEAM
Client/ Agency/
Business lead Project lead
Team Team
Team
Team Team
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42. KEY
POINTS
We need to pull in folks from outside
our domain.
UX needs to lead collaboration and
evolve the processes of XF teams.
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46. What should
personalization
personalization we display?
engine
engine
What content
CMS
CMS do we need?
What
customer data profiles
customer data profiles correlations
can we make?
interacts
with an
What’s
interface tracking engine
tracking engine working?
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47. What should
we display?
What content
do we need?
What’s the
desired
experience?
What
correlations
can we make?
What’s
YOU working?
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48. AT SOME POINT, EVERYBODY NEEDS TO
BE IN THE SAME ROOM TALKING ABOUT
THE SAME EXPERIENCE
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49. KEY
POINTS
Designing for experiences within an
ecosystem requires a deep
understanding of data.
Data are the new pixels - they are the
cell units of ecosystem design.
Algorithms are the new rules of style
and composition.
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50. 06/
aligning on vision is
critical…and hard
Both a role and work shift.
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51. Not having a common vision to support
the ecosystem is like having a
confederation of states in a country with
no constitution.
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53. A place to sit and relax and be productive…
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54. Before coming up with a solution, we
need to align on the value we intend to
deliver to our customers.
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55. THE VISION Building trust and helping
the value we intend to create
people work smarter.
THE PILLARS
the strategies that
will get us there
THE PRINCIPLES
the aesthetic and
behavioral qualities
of the experience
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56. SAMPLE
EXPERIENCE PILLARS
GUIDANCE EFFICIENC PARTNERSH INSPIRATI RELEVANC
Provide the information
and education needed Y IP ON E
to make confident Help users create Facilitate collaboration Provide content Deliver a personalized
decisions. tasks quickly and and communication that helps customers experience that
seamlessly. understand and supports unique
that improves our
relationship advocate for the brand. user needs.
with the customer.
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57. SAMPLE
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Simple and intuitive
Guided and directive
Integrated and interconnected
Scalable and fast
Easy to administer and maintain
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58. KEY
POINTS
Vision, strategy and execution are
references for all disciplines.
UX leaders are in the best position to
facilitate the vision for online/offline
intersections with key stakeholders.
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60. THE WAY
WE WORK
From To
Personas Customer Journeys
Message Service
Linear Iterative
Siloed Integrated (and cross-pollinated)
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61. OUR
ROLES
From To
Design leads Strategic partners
Team members Collaboration facilitators
Digital-focused Digital + real-world
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62. THE BIG OUTCOME:
UX BECOMES A PILLAR FOR
BUSINESS
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Audience tally: innies, agency folks, start ups, independents So one of the things that makes our job interesting AND hard is that the kinds of stuff we're making is always changing. We jump from social being the thing to everybody wanting to understand how to design responsive websites. It's what keeps our work interesting and new. But over the last three years, there have been some really BIG shifts that are not only disrupting how companies do business, but are literally disrupting how we work. And that's what I want to talk about today. It's no longer as simple as keeping up with trends, but it's about rethinking our roles----stepping up to new challenges with a fresh perspective about how UX leads contribute. It's also about re-thinking process. Every company is so used to it's own model, that it's hard to get people to go about doing things differently. And the reason I use ecosystems as the starting point is because is the best expression of how dramatically things have changed, especially from a business POV.
For example…
Then it became about a multi-platform experience. Netflix was not only a great service, but it provided the ability to view movies anytime, anywhere and on anydevice. Nike plus was a product connected to a shoe, connected to a mobile app, connected to a website. Experiences like these not only changed businesses, but they changed customer expectations.
And now they have ecosystems. A simple way to think of an ecosystem is an integrated collection of products, systems and services that bring greater value to the customer. It's no longer just about selling a great product, it's giving customers an even bigger reason to do business with you. And it’s something that spans the physical as well as the digital space. This is HUGE. Why? Because it’s suggesting an altogether new business model. In just a matter of years, we’ve gone from companies trying to understand the value of their website, to digital products & services being at the core of their offering. And those that aren’t are struggling to catch up.
WW; Guidance for every aspect of healthy weightloss B&N: surrounds reading with new resources, products and services
So for the purposes of this presentation
It's about how we solve the problem of this thing in the context of all these other things.
This is both a role and a work shift.
Now, if you buy into the idea of building your brand/product ecosystem, the first question is where do we start? What kinds of services do we need to bring greater value? In a pre-eco/system world businesses primarily focused on optimizing their "channels", one of which was the web. In a world where customers have more complex buying patterns, we're starting to see that it makes more sense to throw dollars at the places or things that have the most impact for the customer/user, and hence, the business. The best way to see that is by mapping the journey of your key customers. Some UXers refer to these as experience maps.
It's a work shift because personas are no longer enough to support strategy and customer-centered design. We need to have solid grounding in the paths as well as the context in a core customer's interaction with a brand. It's a role shift because this tool is putting UX leadership at the table with business, helping companies make smart decisions about what the priorities should be as well as identifying opportunities for new product extensions and services.
Ecosystems have evolved because smart companies are realizing that people are looking for greater value. It's no longer just about the product, but the products and services around the product that create a greater sum value and, hence, a big reason for investing in a brand. Not only is the ecosystem itself the thing that brings value, it puts a whole new spin on what we think of as traditional marketing.
It’s not the TV that tips them over, it’s each consideration along the way. It’s the right message for the right context as well as the right tool.
It's a work shift because it demands that marketing and UX cohabitate. The lines get blurrier as marketing folks come up with ideas for an app and UX folks think of strategies for delivering the right information at the right time as a point of service. It also about the death of mono-messages. With insight into customer journeys marketing and UX can work together to determine where and how to provide real value to the customer.
Okay….I have to admit that if you take this idea back to your jobs someone’s going to freak out…
Anytime you have an integrated collection of products and services, the work becomes more complex. And if you want to ensure that you're creating an experience that's consistent with other brand experiences you have to design the part with the whole in mind. We need to know how things work in other regions of the ecosystem. We also need to understand more than ever about our customers. And we need to have a deeper understanding of the systems and data that drive and support the experience. This is the stuff we need to think about when we’re talking about cross-channel design and functional integration. And if you think about it, all of those things are changing constantly. And because of the complexity, it's sometimes not possible getting everything answered before we start design.
----- Meeting Notes (2/20/13 13:20) ----- This is as detailed as any process diagram you'll see at R/GA. What I love about it is that it's represents a clear idea, but is open to interpretation.
This is shift in the way we work because we now have to adjust our mental model of what a good process looks like and learn how to be flexible and adapt to new inputs along the way. We need to balance the need to move forward with the need to have all the right information. With increasing levels of complexity research and planning are something we're doing all the time: before, during and after we design.
The kind of collaboration required for creating something that needs to be functionally integrated into an ecosystem means that people who are involved with a connection to the thing that you are designing will somehow have to be included in the process. In other words, you can't build a road without connecting to the guys who own the property. And complexity itself demands collaboration because it requires getting all the right people in the right room to solve a problem that cannot be solved by any one person. But in traditionally siloed company and team structures, this becomes one of the biggest challenges to successful planning and experience design within an ecosystem.
This is a work shift because we need to start involving and soliciting input from folks we'd normally consider outside of our domain. This is a role shift because it often the UX team who makes this happen. It puts UX leaders into the role of "collaboration facilitator" sometimes even designing the process for how to connect cross-functional teams
The best ecosystems are those that remember who you are and what you've done so that they next time you engage with the product or service you can pick up where you left off or it can offer recommendations about where to go next. What I'm talking about is not creepy personalization, but what I consider to be an exceptional form of customer service.
Remember those cool (but kind of literal) scenes of personalized advertisements in Minority Report (the original)? Well, we're pretty much there now. Though I have to say this is an example of a really bad experience. It's bad because it feels like it's driven by a bad use of data. And it’s an example of why it's no longer enough to think about the interaction layer of an experience.
Everything we've talked about demands a deeper understanding of the data and the rules that drive it. We need to have a literacy of systems that allows us to talk to the folks who are implementing and maintaining this stuff so that there's a real connection between the desired experience and the data that drives it.
This is a work shift because designing for experiences within an ecosystem requires a deep understanding of data.
One of the most challenging aspects of planning and designing for an ecosystem is about creating things around a common purpose. No matter how much collaboration is enabled, companies and people still have a way of congregating in silos. Nobody ever truly "owns' the ecosystem. It's like a confederation of states in a country with no consitution. Or can be, if there's no alignment. For years I've been talking about experience themes, which became a foundation for how I think about experience strategy and, now, in the context of an ecosystem, these ideas seem doubly important. It's easy to align on vision for a single product, but how do we solve the problem of alignment across an integrated collection of products and services?
This is a work shift because the vision should be a reference point for all disciplines not just the design team. This is a role shift because UX is in the best position to facilitate the definition of the vision with key stakeholders.
See the presentation: UX Professional as Business Consultant for more thoughts on #8.
So I leave you with this. Chances are your client or your company already has an ecosystem of sorts. Almost everyone does, it’s just that very few have a strategy around it. If that’s the case, it’s your opportunity to start teeing up that conversation.