Entries Tagged 'Corporate' ↓

There are 6 Easy but Powerful Tips for Job Seekers to Research a Company’s User Experience Culture. Prospective full-time or consultant applicants can use these tips to be better prepared when contacting a company.

I had recently asked on Twitter what usability topics I should blog about next. This reply from Jonathan Hung seems to me very timely, because I actually am investigating companies and their corporate user experience cultures right now.

I have been working in marketing, branding and user experience with large and small corporations since 1982, and during that time I’ve seen quite a few examples of how companies incorporate user experience in their culture.

I have grouped them into 5 models of corporate user experience cultures. These 5 models are based on where in the corporation the user experience practice resides, and what types of interactions the user experience practice has with the rest of the organization.

In Part I of this article, I reviewed the 5 corporate user experience cultures and provided a brief description of each. I included the pros and cons of the 5 models, as based on how the culture could best provide a business value to the company.

In this article, which I’ve decided to cleverly call “Part II,” I’ll explain the 6 tips I use to learn and research which of the user experience cultures a company may have – based from a the perspective of either a prospective consultant looking for a gig, or a job hunter looking for a full-time position.

For this article, I’ll use an example of a job that was recently posted on Yahoo’s HotJobs for a User Experience leader. This job posting, which was recently posted by Verizon Wireless, is a typical example of how I use the 6 tips to research the user experience culture.

The 6 easy but powerful tips to research a company’s user experience culture.

Tip 1 – Carefully Read the Job Posting Title & Reporting Division

In this example, we can see that the title is “Executive Director – User Experience” implying that this will be mostly a managerial position, with direct reports and responsibility to oversee the management of projects. Most likely, a good fit for this position is someone with prior experience managing user experience teams, which may mean little or no hands-on work. In addition, the reporting division is “Marketing.” This implies that the user experience group is the third of the five models, the UX in Marketing model. There are pros and cons to this model, note especially that political skills will be crucial, as often other divisions in a corporation may feel “Marketing” has little or no bearing on operations or I.T. UX projects.

Tip 2 – Read – In Order – The Job Duties
From years of experience creating job postings, I can tell you that almost always, the “critical” duties will be listed at the top, and the less critical duties will be listed in rank order underneath. Focus on the top 3 duties especially, as this is most likely where the company really needs help, and where you will be spending the majority of your time. Usually, the other duties are nice-to-haves or less important functions that occupy less focus, thus less time.

It’s very important to compare these top 3 job duties, and especially their order, with any Annual Report or other type of CEO communication which spells out the major goals for the Company. Misalignment between these top duties, and the Executive vision for future projects for the company spell trouble. I’ll review this in more detail below, but for now make sure you note the order of the duties.

In this example, note that the applicant will be required to have experience with mobile applications and devices. For the mentioned responsibilities, the top 3 in order are:

1. Building a UX team
2. Creating a unifying vision for UX
3. Driving research, analysis, conceptual and detailed design

Note that the 2nd to last item is Identifying and driving cross-division synergies (this will be important later, after we review the CEO’s vision).

From the sound of the top 3 duties, it would appear that there is heavy need for team-building, unifying and only then researching and designing. From a user experience management perspective, it appears there are multiple areas in the company that must be aligned into a centralized user experience vision and team.

Tip 3 – Research Company News
Now that you have a better understanding of the job and the top 3 duties, it’s time to research the context into which this job fits. Be sure to use Google or Yahoo News search to read news stories about the company, and also visit the Investor Relations or About Us section of the company’s website to see what news has been important to the company.

In this example, a recent merger of Verizon Wireless and Alltel as was announced in 2008 would seem to fit the pattern of the duties noted above, which were to build a centralized UX team and create a unifying vision of UX in the organization. After a merger, unifying diverse teams is very important if a centralized user experience team is going to be successful.

Tip 4 – Research the Annual Report
For public companies, such as Verizon, the Annual Report is a goldmine of information. In it, the executives clearly define their vision or road-map for success.

Carefully note what the executives are defining as being critical to corporate success. If the job duties and descriptions align, then the user experience culture is in step with management and the potential for growth is there.

If however the duties and job description do not align with the executive vision, then proceed with caution. Misalignment of the user experience model with corporate vision spells an uncertain long-term future for the UX team.

In this example, the 2008 Verizon Annual Report has several statements that clearly define what the corporate vision is:

1. Move from voice and data to content & applications
2. Move from separate platforms to unified platforms
3. Build an application once then deliver it anytime, anywhere on any device

And later on in the Annual Report, the method for how the above strategic vision is to be accomplished is spelled out:

1. Increase efficiency through self-service initiatives
2. Centralize I.T. and Marketing efforts

The good news here is these executive visions and methods closely align with the top 3 duties as mentioned in the job description.

More good news, notice that the executive vision includes “superior customer service experiences as a competitive differentiator.” Clearly, user (in this case customer) experience will have high visibility in the organization, and usability projects designed to improve the customer experience should have an executive champion, and thus executive support.

The only potential bad news, if any, is that there might not be the ability for the user experience team in this particular model to work with other divisions in the corporation on an equal footing. Referring back to the above job duties (noted by the arrow), note that the 2nd to last job duty is:

“Identifying and driving cross division, and product group, product design synergies”

The fact that it’s 2nd to last might mean that it’s not very likely the user experience team will be conducting cross-division synergies, meaning the user experience model of user experience in Marketing might be somewhat of an island.

Tip 5 – Identify Compensation Criteria
It seems more often than not that compensation is left off of many job postings. As a user experience professional, you must try to identify what compensation is available, to try to estimate if the job is a level on par with your experience.

In this case, it would appear from the above Annual Report that a bonus structure may be in place for this position that provides additional compensation besides just salary and benefits.

“Key objectives of our compensation programs are pay-for-performance and the alignment of executives and shareowners long-term interests.”

We could assume this means a bonus plus stock options / awards are part of the user experience compensation for this job posting.

Tip 6 – Use Your Network
It’s helpful now that you’ve done your homework about the position and company to use your network to try to establish contact with someone who works inside the company, preferably in the same division as the job.

Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and your other social media channels to try to contact an employee of the company. Often the employees may be able to provide you with much more information about the culture, the overall job expectations and importantly the stability of the company (especially in these trying times) than you can learn from other sources.

In addition, the internal contact might be able to put you in contact with the hiring manager, so that any general job questions you may have can be answered.

A word of caution here, resist the urge to contact the hiring manager and request an interview or meeting prior to the proper channels being used. It’s enough to gently probe about the position, not make a full frontal assault!

Conclusion – 6 Tips to Research a Corporate User Experience Department

This overview of the 6 tips I use to try to identify the model of the user experience culture is not all-encompassing. There are plenty of other ways to learn more about a user experience model at a company. However, these are the 6 that I use most often, and hopefully they will help if you are in the position of researching a company, either for a consultant or full-time position.

If you have other tips that you use please post a comment below, that way we can all learn and grow smarter together!

I believe there are five general models of Corporate user experience cultures. Here’s a brief overview of each

I had recently asked on Twitter what usability topics I should blog about next. This reply from Jonathan Hung seems to me very timely, because I actually am investigating companies and their corporate user experience cultures right now.

I have been working in marketing, branding and user experience with large and small corporations since 1982, and during that time I’ve seen quite a few examples of how companies incorporate user experience in their culture.

What’s more, from the many consulting engagements and seminar / conference conversations I’ve had with user experience practitioners in other companies, both in the U.S. and abroad, I’ve learned that there seems to be a pattern to how companies incorporate user experience in their businesses.

These patterns are recurring, and can be found in almost all companies that have a user experience practice. I have grouped them into 5 models of how companies incorporate user experience in their culture.

These 5 models are based on where in the corporation the user experience practice resides, and what types of interactions the user experience practice has with the rest of the organization.

In this article, which is Part I of the two part series, I’ll review what the 5 models are, and then in my next article (which I’m cleverly calling “Part II”) I’ll explain how I learn which of the 5 user experience cultures a company may have.

Part I – The 5 Models of Corporate User Experience Culture:

Four of these models I see pretty often in businesses. However the 5th I’ve only seen rarely, even though I think from a business perspective, that it is the most powerful and influential of all the user experience models for business success.

So here’s the list which I have ordered in ascending order of benefit to the business – from weakest to strongest:

Model 1 – User Experience in I.T.

For many business cultures, the user experience practice is a component of the Information Technology division. There are several advantages to this, including incorporating usability as part of the Software Development Life Cycle in a very tight manner, and applying usability standards on all software that is created by the business.

However, I consider this the weakest model because of the strategic miss-alignment between the two functions of software production and user experience. Sounds crazy, right? After all, don’t we preach that usability and user-centered design must be present in software development? Yes!

But, I think the core strategic benefit an I.T. organization brings to a business is the ability to produce software on time, and on-budget, it is that division’s primary reason for being. I.T. executives and management are usually compensated based on their ability to deliver products when required. As such, typically a project plan with drop-dead dates usually rules all decisions. Yes, usability can and should be included in that project plan, and often is.

The truth is that I’ve witnessed many examples where even though problems with the application are revealed by the user experience team, the application process continues without many, or sometimes all, of the recommended changes being made.

Why? Because it would slow down the project and cause the deliverable dates to slip, which is the primary objective of I.T.. Thus the miss-alignment between I.T. and User Experience.

In my opinion, placing user experience into an I.T. organization, although beneficial from a process perspective, can cause the user experience to take a back seat to deliverable dates, and therefore is not as beneficial to a business as other user experience culture models.

Model 2 – User Experience in Operations

I’ve only worked for or consulted with a few companies that use this culture model of having user experience in the Operations division. But it can be a good way to incorporate user experience functions, especially for companies delivering Software As a Service, for which this is actually a fairly powerful model.

Operations is typically where the customer interactions take place, where the “rubber hits the road” so to speak. As many business owners can testify, saving (aka retaining) a customer is much cheaper than trying to acquire a new customer. So smart companies that include user experience functions in operations can continually optimize the customer experience, which means real bottom-line improvements in revenue for the business.

However, the problems inherent with placing user experience in an I.T. division are also present in this model. Because of the needs of operations, it’s possible that user experience issues might have to take a back seat to operational modifications that may help, or hurt, the user experience.

In addition, supporting operations from a user experience can be a very full plate, leaving little resource time to assist marketing or I.T. divisions.

Finally, because the user experience team reports to operations, other divisions may feel that the user experience function does not apply to them, and may either outsource or completely ignore the user experience needs they feel are necessary (or not) to support their division’s needs. This can often be witnessed for example by the Marketing team going to advertising or online agencies to create web sites without internal user experience support, or I.T. divisions that create applications with little or no user experience testing and optimization.

Model 3 – User Experience in Marketing

I have seen many examples of the culture of user experience being a function of a Marketing or Branding division. The advantage here is usability is often focused on driving better sales or transaction conversions, and thus directly benefits the business.

However, having had direct experience in this type of model, and having spoken with other usability practitioners who reported the same, I can tell you that there are significant detriments to this model as well.

First, because the usability function does not have direct influence over the other divisions, such as I.T. or Operations, often the usability function is considered strictly a “Marketing” function that does not apply to software development or customer service applications. The usability of a web site, especially marketing pages, is the normal realm of this model, but internally developed applications or customer service functions are often strictly “hands-off.”

Second, any conflict between the user experience needs and the needs of the other organizations are often handled “upstairs,” meaning the executive team must resolve the issue. Faced with either producing a product on time, and thus keeping investors happy, or modifying a project to suit a better user experience and potentially face delays, Executives will often choose the former, and thus user experience is not maximized.

Finally, Marketing budgets are normally the first to be slashed when the economy slows down, or when the company is faced with financial hardships. I have seen many organizations cut or eliminate user experience functions when these functions are attached to the Marketing division, because the user experience function is not considered a “core business function.” This negatively impacts a company’s ability to provide a superior user experience, especially when the economy is slower. This is bad for a business because when the economy is slower, it’s usually a golden opportunity for a smart business to increase market-share via a superior product.

Model 4 – User Experience as a Unique but Equal Entity

The business cultural model of having a separate, but equal, user experience division that services all divisions in the company makes sense, and seems to be a growing practice based on my experiences.

The benefits are clear, by reporting to none of the other divisions, user experience can operate in a non-biased atmosphere where equal resources are shared among the business units. In addition, the user experience team can operate as the holder of standards and best practices, and leverage learnings from one division across the other divisions.

However, the problem of “separate but equal” causes the same conflicts that occur in the other corporate user experience cultural models. Any differences between the user experience needs and the needs of the other divisions are often settled “upstairs” with Executives, who have the need to produce products on time.

For those of us in the United States, the term “separate but equal is inherently unequal” is a well-known phrase relating to Civil Rights and a famous Supreme Court decision to overturn the practice of separating people by race. Although less significant, the same phrase can be applied to the practice of having a separate user experience division as a business model.

The illustration above, showing the user experience division as being off to the side of the main business functions is sometimes an accurate display of the feelings of the business segment owners, who may feel that when pressed, their own division’s goals must come first over user experience goals.

As with the other models of corporate user experience culture, differences of opinion will often be settled “upstairs” by the Executives.

Because there is limited or no real control over the user experience, there may be fewer opportunities for the user experience to be maximized to the full extent possible across all divisions, causing missed improvement opportunities for the business and thus missed revenue enhancements.

Model 5 – User Experience as a Unique but Superior Entity

This is a rare corporate user experience culture, but examples are out there. If you replace “UX” in the above illustration with “Customer Experience” you’ll have an accurate description of certain Companies that take customers, and their satisfaction, very seriously (think Zappos, Google or Apple).

In some of these businesses, there is no actual user experience entity that oversees the other units (so remove the box in your head, or better yet, widen it so that all divisions are within the user experience box), but by providing incentives to the business division owners to continually improve the customer/user experience, the same goal is achieved – all divisions are focused on providing an optimal user experience.

In certain gaming and software companies, this corporate user experience culture drives all aspects of the business, which in turn drives continual optimization and improvements in the user experience.

Of all the models of user experience culture, this model by far can have the greatest impact on a business, because all divisions in the business are focused on maximizing the user/customer experience. Maximizing the user experience means more revenue and/or savings for the company, which over time adds to the profitability of the company, pulling it out ahead of it’s competitors.

So, that’s my vision for the 5 models of corporate user experience culture. Do you agree, disagree or have other models? Please share them in the comments.

Part II of this post will answer the question; “how do you determine what type of corporate user experience culture a company has?”

Human Factors International Recently Published their “User Experience Maturity Survey 2009″ Report, and there’s good and bad news about usability – especially about usability champions

User Experience is Not Yet Mature, Based on the Lack of Usability Champions

Reading the User Experience Maturity Survey that HFI recently conducted is a lot like reading your 401k statement. Sure, the good news is you have money in there, but the bad news is it’s a lot less than you were hoping for. Likewise, the User Experience Maturity Survey has good news and bad news, most especially about Usability Champions.

Over 1,000 survey responses were received (1,123 to be exact) which is a nice surprise, as I didn’t realize there were so many companies out there with usability practitioners on-board who were willing to share their experiences in usability with the rest of the world. Hurray for us and for usability!

More good news! The majority of survey respondents reported that User Experience (aka UX) fit into their business for:

#1 – Building web sites (excellent, usability in websites is very important)
#2 – Creating Applications & Software (great, usability helps there too)

Conducting usability work on web sites and applications is like putting a nice warm fuzzy blanket around the web site and giving it the tender loving care it needs to truly be successful out there in the big cold world. Well, not really, but you get the idea.

Half of Us Don’t Have a Usability Champion

But now to the bad news, almost half (48% to be exact) of the survey respondents said their organization does not have a visible, committed Usability Champion supporting user experience design.

Let’s stop right there for a minute. Let’s you and me put down our Blackberrys for a second and focus.

Most of the people who responded to this survey are doing usability work, and they are doing usability work for important things like building websites and creating applications. But barely half have a usability champion! Why, that’s like NASCAR drivers without a Pit Crew! It’s like a horse race without Jockeys! It’s like your wedding without a piece of wedding cake you can mash into your Spouses face (even though you were warned NOT to do that).

Folks, without a usability champion it’s going to be very hard to have a clear and actionable usability practice that operates as one of the core business units for your company! You’ll be stuck doing last second usability testing as an after-thought on almost completed projects that someone is realizing only now is totally screwed up and needs some sort of help, any sort of help, for the life of your career at your company! That’s sad, it’s like having to live in Seattle and constantly be rained on.

Finding a Usability Champion

So, if you are one of those unlucky 48% of usability practitioners that don’t have a usability champion, or you live in Seattle, here’s 3 things you can do about that (um the usability part, for the Seattle part your on your own – just kidding all you Emerald City dwellers, I heart ‘ya and your City, especially the Space Needle, it’s cool):

1. Find a Usability Champion – Most marketing and sales VPs are looking for ways to get their bonus achieve their vision for making their ever increasing web site sales goals. If there was a way you could show them that by improving the usability of their eCommerce web site their sales would increase, then you would have an instant Usability Champion (and probably be invited to some of those cool “Marketing/Sales after work parties”). Try researching “usability roi case studies” on Google, you might come across some helpful ammo with which to approach your Marketing VP.

If you don’t have a sales or marketing VP (really? remind me again how your company sells things and makes money?) then you might have a Product or Product Development VP. Here to, if you can demonstrate that by improving the usability of the product more people will find the product easier to use, and that will help increase use (sales?) of the product, then you might have a new friend.

HINT: The product development VP is probably worried about getting their bonus achieving their vision based on delivering a product on time. You’re going to have to prove to a rather skeptical person that you won’t slow him or her down in getting that product out the door while conducting usability work. I provided some hints on how to do faster usability testing which might come in handy here.

2. Become a Usability Champion – Nature abhors a vacuum (so do I when my wife tells me it’s time to vacuum the stairs!) so here’s a chance for you to step in and fill that usability void. Push hard for usability projects to anyone who’ll listen (at your company, your mom already knows you’re the best usability person in the whole wide world – whatever the heck “usability” is).

If you’re brave, you might actually conduct your own usability evaluation of your web site or product and provide an executive summary to some well placed VPs – just for reading material the next time they have to fly somewhere. Try to make friends with the coders and developers of the web site or application and see if they’ll become “usability friendly” – try taking them to lunch, that might help.

Also, read the post I wrote on the 7 enterprise usability tips for ways you can apply usability projects beyond just a web site, if that avenue is closed to you. There’s lots of potential usability projects lurking at your Company, in many different divisions. Consider IVR messages, customer service web sites or applications or even internal applications that all employees have to use.

The point here is perception is reality, and if all you do is talk about usability and how it helps increase sales or interactions or whatever, eventually people will believe you are the Usability guru and champion.

By the way, it’s important that you are a usability Champion that can actually get usability projects approved. Being a usability champion without the authority to use the company pen to sign a company check to pay for a usability project means you don’t have the authority to make usability projects happen, and thus you’re probably not a usability champion. Some of your co-workers in your office might be calling you just a “usability nut,” the mean ones a “usability chump-ion” (ouch).

3. Leave the Company – Guess what? Sometimes an old, non usability friendly door must close before a new, usability friendly door can open. If the corporate culture is dragging you down, and you’ve tried everything you can (see numbers 1 and 2 above) to get a usability champion at your company, it might be time to leave and find a company that does have a usability champion.

Don’t think of it as failing, being a quitter or throwing in the towel. Think of it as your company is not able to incorporate usability as a part of it’s core function, and thus you must find a better environment where you can make a difference practicing usability. Those losers.

According to USNews & World Report, you, yes you, as a usability experience specialist are in one of the Best Careers of 2009. If your current lame unresponsive dimwitted ignorant company doesn’t truly value and support usability, more than likely there’s another company out there who will.

So dust off your resume, dry-clean your interview suit, shine up those shoes and hit the pavement you usability experience specialist you! You’ve got a whole new exciting opportunity just WAITING for you to get started! What are you waiting for? There’s a better opportunity for you and all you have to do is take that first step!

Conclusion – User Experience is Not Mature, Especially without a Usability Champion

According the results of HFI’s recent “Usability Experience Maturity Survey 2009” almost half of those of us who completed the survey are without a usability champion. Without a usability champion at your company it’s going to be very difficult to achieve usability maturity, and include usability as a core attribute of your company’s operations.

If you’re not comfortable trying to accomplish usability without a usability champion, you can either find one in your organization, become one, or worst case leave the organization and join one that does have a usability champion.