It is idea generation, innovation and, most of all, hard work.

Many entrepreneurs I know – whether they’re self-employed or hired in specific innovation roles for leading companies – find the toughest and most rewarding part, execution.

Here are three pieces of advice to help you overcome challenges and fast-track your ideas to execution.

1. Entrepreneurship, Mindset & ‘The Learning Loop’

Execution is where we face our biggest fears – will the idea work, will customers like it, what if it doesn’t succeed?

It’s important we recognise that this is a natural part of the process. If we don’t go through this, we cannot learn.

This is why the best entrepreneurs I know treat execution very differently.

They switch their mindset. They take on the perspective that every time an idea doesn’t work, it isn’t ‘failure’, it’s ‘learning’. And we must go through learning in order to make our ideas stand out in the world.

This learning loop is the secret of success for some of the world’s business leaders.

Ray Dalio, leader of one of the most successful financial institutions in the world,Bridgewater, went through many obstacles and major challenges to become successful and at every step of his journey, leveraged this learning loop.[1]

2. Understand The Creative Cycle of Innovation

In 1926 Graham Wallas, a social psychologist and co-founder of the London School of Economics, shared a model on creativity that explains how ideas move through different stages toward execution.[2]

The model outlines four stages of the creative process.

• Preparation: when we’re working on an idea, this requires us to gather and sift through information, as part of our preparation activities.
• Incubation: as the name of this stage suggests, this is where our conscious and unconscious sorts through information in order to weaken lose threads, strengthen ties of our central ideas, and identify innovative concepts.
• Illumination: in this stage we become aware of the connections of our ideas. What seemed disconnected, starts to form an order that makes sense to us.
• Verification: verification is the stage where, having realized and given shape to an idea, we communicate it to others to validate it.

This model has largely held up until this day, though subsequent studies have elaborated upon each of its phases.

The first two stages are where ideas come easy. It’s not unusual to wind up with hundreds of ideas. Our minds are alight with possibility and it’s an incredibly exciting process.

When we shift to illumination and verification, this is when we start to get into the execution of ideas.

At these stages, we have to treat ideas differently, because suddenly they will require many more processes if we’re to illuminate and verify them – concepting, prototyping, testing with customers, and investing in their development.

Because of all this effort, it’s not possible to work with all the ideas we held at the previous stages of preparation and incubation.

We need to filter and prioritize our ideas, so that we take only a handful through to the next stages, so they have the best access to our resources. If we take too many ideas through to the final stages, we split our focus, and it becomes harder to thoroughly test ideas.

James Dyson is renowned for taking 15 years and 5,127 prototypes before he launched the first cyclone technology design. While he worked on many prototypes, he never lost sight of the one central idea that drove his entire process – the bagless vacuum cleaner.

Entrepreneurs who take too many ideas through to verification may often find themselves overwhelmed by the competing demands of testing many ideas or in a constant state of juggling resources. Prioritizing which ideas will go through to verification and commence their execution journey is a good way to overcome this.

3. Prioritize & Filter What We Take To Execution

When we’re dealing with hundreds of ideas, we need a way to filter and prioritize what we’ll take through to execution.

Many companies have different methods to do this, including:

• Rank & Rate: Some put all ideas into a spreadsheet and rank ideas according to different lenses. For example, having a lens of ‘market growth potential’ and ranking the idea from 1 to 10. Usually, teams doing this work target five to seven lenses and no more (or the system becomes too complex).  Only the ideas with the highest scores go through to subsequent stages.
• Expert Panel: Other companies might use a panel of experts, and use this panel to rank and rate ideas, before they go through to execution. The panel of experts acts like a ‘shark tank’ for new ideas. But with this, even experts cannot always spot what will be a success.
• Lite Market Testing: Some teams use a ‘lite’ method to rapidly market-test ideas as part of their prioritization process. Without going to a full prototype, for example, they might use online surveys to test initial concepts, as a way to filter out weaker ideas.
• Forced Constraints: Another method is  to apply a ‘forced constraint’ to make sure that resources aren’t over-expended on too many ideas. This constraint might involve “only allowing three ideas to be tested at one time”. Until an idea exits the verification process, the team simply does not look at any other idea.
• Internal Critiques: every company has access to their own in-house expertise. We can tap into this experience, by running internal critique sessions to examine, refine and eject ideas, before they go to execution. Apple’s Industrial Design Group for some time has used a pattern of workshopping and critiquing ideas amongst the sixteen or so designers that form part of this group.[3]

Whichever the method, the most important thing is to ‘narrow the field’ of ideas that will proceed through to execution. The goal is to avoid over-stretching ourselves by having too many ideas to execute (or illuminate and verify) and the best way to do this is to only allow a handful to go through to execution.

What are the methods your team uses to work through entrepreneurial ideas?  You might consider leaving a comment below so others can learn from your perspective.

—

References

1. Principles, Ray Dalio
2. The Art of Thought (1926), Graham Wallas.
3. Chapter 7, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, Leander Kahney

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But we don’t have to be frustrated by this question. I’m just happy when people ask.

That’s because there’s a bigger risk when we think that CX and UX are the same thing.

They are related, but they’re also very different.  And both are highly relevant to helping companies compete in the experience economy.

Unfortunately ‘digital’ as a specialisation has not been kind when it comes to buzz words. When we talk about things that sound the same – like User Interface and User Interaction and User Experience – it’s easy to see why our specialisation is confusing to many people. Likewise, it’s no wonder customer experience and user experience are often intertwined.

In this post I share my perspective on how CX and UX fit together. These principles are not set in stone….rather they’re intended as a guide to help clarify these concepts and avoid confusion.

How to Define Customer Experience and User Experience

Customer Experience is an umbrella concept encompassing all channels and all products and how people feel and place value on experiences (broad or narrow) with a brand.  It involves a broad concept of experience, where CX “encompasses the sum of all interactions between an organisation and a customer over the entire relationship”.¹

User Experience refers to a “person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service”.² The term became more widely used in the 90s but has origins that stem from the machine-age.

While User Experience can relate to physical products, it is most commonly aligned with computers and, even more recently, the development of interfaces that have emerged via websites, smartphones and mobile apps. As a result, User Experience is (in the majority) focused on digital experiences and is concerned with the question ‘how can the end user achieve their goals’.  It’s worth taking a look at Peter Morville’s seven perspectives of user experience that can help explore and validate product design.

The practice of User Experience supports a brand to design digital journeys that solve the “right problem for the end consumer in an efficient and enjoyable manner.”³

Okay, But What Are The Practical Distinctions?

If we stick with the definitions only, we risk missing the distinctions between CX and UX. So here I’ve considered CX and UX across a variety of dimensions.

Now these are generalisations, so please don’t be upset with me if these are not 100% accurate. Generalisations are useful, but they do not always capture the full reality. I recommend a soft focus when we consider these to help us spot the larger differences between CX and UX:

A Working Example….

While CX and UX can be pursued as seperate activities, better value is achieved when they’re used together.

Let’s consider an example.

Several years ago I worked with a team to design a new mobile app. We used CX to conduct high level data gathering about what might be important to people when using this future service, which interactions these customers performed frequently, how a new service could help them with these behaviours, whether they would use the new service when at home, the office or on the go. (For interest, Designing CX has some excellent resources for CX journey mapping.)

We also explored with customers whether they would place value in a mobile app and what features they would expect to see within an app. We used this information to develop some broad concepts of what the mobile app might do, and then explored through focus groups how these concepts could fit into peoples’ lives. I would consider all of this work to be Customer Experience.

When we shortlisted features for the app, we developed paper wireframes for the app’s main screens as well as some typical tasks we might expect users to do (like ‘register for an account’). We used these paper wireframes to run one-on-one user research sessions with customers, the input from which we used to refine our designs. From paper wireframes, we created an interactive prototype. Again we tested this with users, using the prototype to ask users to try a series of tasks.  We asked users to score how ‘usable’ they found the prototype. We also used these results and insights to refine the prototype further. Eventually we did a final round of testing before launch of the app. I would consider all of these activities User Experience.

Both CX and UX worked together in this project. Without CX we would not have known whether a mobile app would be useful to customers and how it would naturally fit into and complement their lives. Without User Experience, we may have built an app that was not fit-for-purpose and didn’t help customers to perform tasks as simply as possible.

This example shows how both CX and UX are discreet activities but add value to one another when used in combination.

I found Digitalgov‘s article on the differences between CX and UX particularly useful. However, I would adapt their model to show CX and UX overlapping (as is shown under the ‘Bingo!’ heading).  While both can operate together, both also have their own specific disciplines and practices, and thus can operate separately.  I suggest showing UX as a smaller discipline, to reflect it’s narrower focus when compared to CX.

Exceptions That Challenge CX and UX Conventions

These guidelines are not fixed in stone. While the insights above are useful, it’s important to point out some exceptions and emerging issues.

Recently I’ve been thinking about three examples that provoke new thinking.

#1 ChatBots:
According to Business Insider, the global chatbot market is expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025.⁴ ChatBot’s go well beyond simple screen design, relying on content and conversation to respond to customers. While ChatBots occur within a digital experience, the ways in which ChatBots engage with users departs from many of the conventions of user experience.

#2 Voice (eg. Google Home)
The emergence of voice-enabled computing and artificial intelligence, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, also challenge the concept of user experience. Customers understand these services because they are an extension of services we have come to know that are primarily digital. For example, ordering an Amazon product on Alexa is an extension of ordering an Amazon product on their eCommerce website. However, over time these services will create completely new interactions and services. These products blend digital and physical interactions and require a larger concept of experience. While the specific task we seek these products to perform on our behalf might be considered User Experience, the study of how we use voice-enabled devices in the home and how these change our perception of convenience, are really questions for Customer Experience.

#3 Digital, Data and Push services
Services that blend digital experiences, with rich data and proactive notifications, will also stretch our perceptions of UX and CX. User experience is often concerned with solving a customer pain point or increasing customer delight. Yet, many of these new services focus on small increases of convenience. For example, when Google Now prompts you to try a different restaurant from the one you’ve eaten at last week, this may uncover a problem the user didn’t know they had (eg. the need for more variety / something novel). Whereas people used to either ask friends for recommendations of restaurants or turn toward review aggregation sites to discover new restaurants, this interaction pattern blends these two worlds with Google’s understanding of the user’s previous behaviour (eg. in this interaction, Google is the trusted friend and review source). Though the interaction may be digital, the ways in which it challenges existing behaviour redefines the concept of ‘looking for a restaurant’ which challenges broader concepts of customer experience.

These three examples aren’t cause to throw out the models above, but they do point out some of the emerging trends to consider.

That’s a wrap! I would love to hear how you view CX and UX. You can share your thoughts using the comments area below :).

References:

1. Understanding Customer Experience, HBR.  https://hbr.org/2007/02/understanding-customer-experience
2. User Experience vs Customer Experience: What’s the Dif, Digital Gov. https://www.digitalgov.gov/2014/07/07/user-experience-ux-vs-customer-experience-cx-whats-the-dif/
3. User Experience, Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
4. The latest market research, trends & landscape in the growing AI chatbot industry, Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/chatbot-market-stats-trends-size-ecosystem-research-2017-10/

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Customers used to put ‘stock’ mainly in a brand. Sure, they judged products and whether they fulfilled their purpose, but the ‘perceived value’ of a company’s brand was open to significant influence through advertising.

In recent times the emphasis customers place on brand has been accompanied by the value of experience. This shift commenced 20 years ago as the Experience Economy emerged and has now become mainstream.

Major innovators of today – Uber, AirBNB, Netflix – do not rely on advertising. They let the experience of their products sell their product, because they know this is what their customers will talk about. For these companies, advertising is a way to supplement their service, not justify their service.

Lately I’ve started to see something new in products. Products are increasingly providing a sense of assurance to customers through small micro-experiences that bolster the product’s brand value. We can refer to this emerging trend as “experience assurance”.

Experience assurance reinforces a variety of intangible attributes of a product – from quality, safety, through to the alertness (ie. the product is ‘listening’).

The role of experience assurance is to provide feedback to the user that reduces anxiety, instills confidence and reinforces the connection between the user and the product.  We can consider experience assurance as one of the factors available to companies to incrementally disrupt an industry’s value chain.

Consider these examples:

• Dyson Vacuum: when various tools of a Dyson vacuum cleaner “click” into place, precisely and audibly, this affirms the user’s perception of quality and reliability
• Apple iPhone: in recent years Apple has explored the connection between it’s software and physical attributes. When Apple let customers change the haptic feedback of the Home Button for iPhone 7, this increased the physical connection and feedback between the user and their phone.
• Ember: the award winning Ember travel coffee mug alerts you when you coffee reaches your desired and perfect temperature, acknowledging that your preference has been fulfilled
• Amazon Alexa: when Alexa’s light comes on and circles the cylinder, we know Alexa is alert and listening. We might be reminded of the spinning wheel on Apple Mac or the timer on Microsoft Windows. This same pattern that used to exist on software alone, has bridged to the physical product, and provides assurance back to whomever is speaking with Alexa.

A trait of experience assurance examples is that their presence in a product’s design is discreet, elegant and simple.

What will be interesting with the emergence of the internet of things, is that we will see experience assurance gain importance even when the product is not in the physical vicinity of the user. Products will stay connected and interact with us, so that we know they are doing the jobs we need them to, and these virtual connections will build upon the value we place on the physical products that produce them.

The post How Experience Assurance is Adding a Dimension to Breakthrough Product Design appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

While the piece is 20 years old, it is still highly relevant in describing how companies are creating billion dollar valuations and start ups are securing new customers.

In the article HBR suggests “experiences have emerged as the next step in what we call the progression of economic value” and that “an experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event.”

Now it would be tempting to think that experiences only relate to activities like theme parks or concerts…but an experience can be wrapped around any product.

During a recent interview by Jim Courier of Roger Federer at this year’s Australia Open, Federer was asked what role he plays in designing his Nike outfits. The 6 time Australian Open winner went on to say how Nike fashion emulates the story of his successes, as marked by the use of a Flinders Street station symbol on his shoes. He said these are not just products, these are stories.  In that single comment he connected the product to a larger experience, as expressed by his personal story.

Consider Nike’s wider efforts to connect its products with Apple devices, such as with the Apple Watch® Nike+.  Here is a company that is deeply involved in experiences at every level, from Roger Federer’s sponsorship through to the Nike+ app.

Today everywhere we can see examples of the experience economy. Some companies concentrate purely on the experience, whereas others wrap an experience around a physical product.

Here are 5 other examples of how companies are integrating their offerings into experiences:

• Uber: It’s not just about finding a ride, it’s about having a pleasant journey, having simple payment and then ongoing confidence….now it’ also about knowing your ‘rider rating’.
• Netflix: It’s not about finding great content, it’s about knowing whether that content is suited to you, and what other shows you’ll like.  Digital experiences are at the heart of how Netflix delivers for its customers.
• Rent The Runway: it’s not about just getting that special something to wear out, it’s about having an incredible selection of choice, the convenience of that choice coming to you, and super easy returns.
• Dyson: it’s not just about a vacuum, it’s about having the transformer of vacuums (that can change to any nook and cranny), going cordless and having the assurance the product is good for thousands of hours before it breaks.
• Expedia: it’s not about finding a great hotel, it’s finding THE HOTEL that is perfect for you, which others have loved, getting it at a great rate and having trust that it will be an amazing experience.

Can you think of others?  If so, consider sharing your thoughts below.

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First, Netflix removed the five star rating that is displayed across its content. Like others, I assumed that this star rating system reflected the ratings for shows and movies by real users. But as described by Netflix, the star rating system was actually a rating of how various content would be a potential match to your personal preferences. So whilst you might see five stars for House of Cards, your neighbour might only see three stars. In place of this rating system, Netflix introduced a ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’ way for users to cast their vote on content.[2]

The second change is to also replace the stars with ‘match’ (or match rate). Match displays a percentage figure next to each show or movie, almost like a ‘compatibility rating’ to suggest how well this content may be a fit for your preferences.

Now, we have known for many years that Netflix content has been somewhat personalised. Netflix has whole teams whose job is to tag and analyse content, to enable content to be aligned to the very specific niche preferences of its users. To a large degree, the ‘behind-the-scenes’ personalisation of Netflix content has been an ingredient of its success. However, while the recent changes are consistent with Netflix’s strategy toward greater personalisation, there is also a departure from what it has done before – which is to make this personalisation so visible to the viewer.  It is this important shift in viewers’ perception (which is created by the visibility of this measure) that could well be the success or failure of this feature.

‘Match’ is neither a friend nor a review crowd sourced from other people as with Rotten Tomatoes. And I assume it’s not meant to be. It does require a further action on the viewer, which is to imply a question that requires answering, ‘do you agree with this match rate for you’? Much like the ‘swipe left’ or ‘swipe right’ on Tinder and similar dating apps.

Netflix and many others have incredible sway in the way trends are adopted by millions and the way these trends affect mainstream behaviour. In just a few short years Netflix has completely changed the way content is not just consumed, but also made. To accept all this ‘goodness’ and digital disruption, as viewers we have to be prepared for some change we don’t like. Such is the bind of technological advancement that characterises society today.

It’s quite possible that in months ahead we’ll readily accept ‘match’ as though it has always been there.  As users we are becoming far more accustomed to accomodating new features put into the software we use every day.  The concept of ‘feature shock’ is far less of a factor than it was five years ago.

And yet I can’t help but think of the days growing up when I’d listen to Bill Collins’ midday movie prelude, before sitting down to enjoy an all-time classic like Roustabout. Those days are some time ago, but for now as a viewer if I had my choice, I would be switching off ‘match’….just for now. How about you?

Notes:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/

2. Of interest, Netflix still makes previous user ratings available to individual’s through their Account page – http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/7/15212718/netflix-rating-system-disapproval

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The answer I give is…’maybe’.

It’s certain that ‘mobile’ is one of the fundamental trends changing the internet. So ensuring a business can capture this opportunity is essential for any strategy.

Building an app is one of the options to do this. Another option is to create a ‘mobile responsive’ website. Sometimes, businesses can pursue both strategies with good results.

The presentation below extends the thinking of the blog post 5 Proven Formulas of The World’s Best Mobile Apps.

[slideshare id=61543411&doc=alessiobresciani-5provenformulasoftheworldsbestmobileapps-apr2016-160501053707&w=715&h=550]

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested to read How To Build Mobile App Features That Keep People Coming Back or Why Mobile Apps Win Our Hearts Every Time.

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Businesses are still coming to terms with how to use mobile apps to reach customers.  And there’s been a great deal of debate whether a mobile app should do everything for customers, or only a subset of activities.  This debate can sometimes create a divide in organisations and teams.

Instead of debating whether mobile apps should do all things or some things, I recommend teams first ask the following questions:

• what are the tasks that are most valuable to customers?
• how could we fulfill these tasks exceptionally well?

When we look at it this way it refocuses us on the activities that create value for customers. This is the territory where memorable experiences are created.

To simplify value for mobile apps, we can consider value as a function of importance and frequency.

VALUE = TASK IMPORTANCE + TASK FREQUENCY

Some tasks are incredibly important to customers. For example, when it comes to mobile banking, checking account balance is incredibly important.

Other tasks occur frequently. For example, when using an email app, it’s a regular behaviour to check messages 10 to 20 times a day.

The sweet spot for mobile app design is the subset of user tasks that are both Important and Frequent. So before investing in any feature for a mobile app, it’s worth mapping where tasks fall relative to these two dimensions.

Mapping Tasks for Your Mobile App on a Value Matrix

By plotting user tasks on a matrix, we quickly get a bearing for whether tasks are high or low value. We can encourage teams to do this process for any digital experience, not just mobile, but the exercise is particularly relevant to mobile.  Here’s an example:

Once these tasks are mapped, we can group them according to these four zones:

#1. Mobile App ‘Value’ Zone (High Importance, High Frequency)

This is the high-octane zone for mobile app development. When we invest time and energy into creating mobile app features that fulfill these tasks, we have the very best chance to delight customers.

When I think of my favorite apps, features that come to mind in this category include: the ability to see my most recent notes in Evernote, the notifications feature in LinkedIn, the most recent content updates in Feedly, or the ability in Twitter to quickly send a Tweet.

Ideas in this zone are more likely to generate high value for customers (and potential returns for your business), even if they are more costly to build than less costly features placed in the three other quadrants.

#2. Mobile App ‘Consider’ Zone (High Importance, Low Frequency)

While these tasks are important to users, they will be completed infrequently.

Let’s take Netflix as an example. Netflix provides an incredibly easy process to suspend or cancel an account. However, the Netflix mobile app has an Account link that takes the user out of the mobile app and into the Netflix website to manage these tasks.

While the action to suspend or cancel an account is very important to users, this action is done infrequently, so Netflix has chosen not to build this into the mobile app.

The decision whether to build features in this zone will need to be carefully evaluated, based on how important the feature is to the customer experience.

#3. Mobile App ‘Enhance’ Zone (Low Importance, High Frequency)

Often there are relatively few tasks that fall into this zone.  In addition, tasks that occur with high frequency but are not important are often trivial in nature.

‘Refreshing’ a page is an example of task in this zone.

It used to be enough to navigate to a new page within a mobile app so that data would refresh within an app. However, this experience was replaced in some apps with a ‘swipe to refresh’ feature.

Twitter does this well, allowing the user to swipe to refresh their recent notifications. Prior experiences (such as navigating to a different page) were not particularly bothersome, but the swipe feature is a neat way to improve the experience.

#4. Mobile App ‘Reject or Backlog’ Zone (Low Importance, Low Frequency)

Tasks that are done infrequently and are of low importance will create little value for users if fulfilled within a mobile app.

Ideas in this area should be captured (as part of a your idea generation process) and allocated to a backlog, with a fairly low priority assigned to them.

If you do chose to service these ideas within the mobile app, they could be included deeper within the app than other, higher priority features.

An Exception – How Digital Experiences Can Change Customer Behaviour

So far we’ve spoken about how we should build features to respond to user tasks.  And we’ve also classified user tasks based on importance and frequency. But what happens when the features or experiences we create, completely change the way people do things?

Of course this does happen.

Let’s look at an example.  Sharing photos by email used to be a relatively ‘low frequency’ task.  Yet, whenever people shared photos it was usually an important way to connect with others.  So according to our value map, these interactions may have been allocated to the Consider zone (Low Frequency, High Importance).

Then along came Instagram.  Instagram made the process of sharing photos with social networks simpler and faster than ever before.  The result…the frequency of sharing photos exploded.  Suddenly it became incredibly important to share photos very frequently.  This shifted the task from the Consider to the Value zone.

Similarly, the process of adding effects to photos used to be hard work. Once again Instagram made the experience of adding filters to photos far simpler, and suddenly everyone was frequently adding filters to photos before the photos were shared.

So the way we create user experiences can have a dramatic impact on the way users behave and, in turn, the perceived value users place on certain tasks.

I hope you’ve found this article in contemplating what features you could build into your own mobile app.  If you are interested in mobile apps, you might like my other posts on why mobile apps hold a special place in customers’ hearts and how some of the world’s best companies have approached mobile apps.

References:

1. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/mobile-web-vs-app-usage-statistics-2014-4

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Let’s face it, we’ve all had horrible experiences with organisations at some point in our lives. When this occurs, we are far less likely to use the organisation ever again, and far more likely to tell all our friends not to do so as well.

Today the world’s best companies take customer experience very seriously. They invest time and effort into understanding the journey customers go through, and pinpointing the many places where they can improve.

Given the renewed focus on the customer over the last decade it is little wonder that metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Effort Score (CES) have become so important.

In this post we take a look at several examples of customer experience maps. We also look at 8 checkpoints to consider when you start your own customer experience mapping activity.

2 Excellent Examples of Customer Experience Maps

#1. Adaptive Path

Adaptive Path is a world-renowned experience agency. Capital One acquired the agency in 2014 to provide in-house expertise for user experience and service design. In this example from their blog Adaptive Path details what was required to provide an experience map for Rail Europe. As stated in the write up, Rail Europe “wanted to get a better handle on their customers’ journeys across all touchpoints, which would allow them to more fully understand where they should focus their budget, design and technology resources.” Personally, I like the lenses of Doing, Thinking, Feeling that are used to explore the customer experience. The map also does an excellent job of detailing linear and non-linear journeys.

#2. Seek Recruiter Experience

Late in 2014 a user experience team at Seek mapped the Recruiter Experience. The team (Mathew Devey, Tim Crook, and Chris Gray) wrote about the process of creating the map on the Seek Product Blog. In their notes they emphasised the importance of gathering high-quality research and data points that represent actual customer views. Often a limitation of many experience maps is that they draw only upon the internal views of an organisation. The Seek approach avoids this by involving customers in the research process, as well as members of the internal team.  I’m a strong believer in involving customers in research as I’ve detailed in other posts.  According to their blog, the mapping process helped the Seek team to “identify and prioritise the right product initiatives, fostered a user centric approach and will ultimately lead to a better product for our customers.”

Top Tips for Creating a Customer Experience Map

Over the years I’ve created dozens of experience maps. Some of these were all-encompassing maps, covering as many aspects of the journey as possible into a single reference document. Others were far more fine-grain, exploring only very specific aspects of the customer journey in detail.

If you are seeking to create your own customer experience map, here are some 8 tips for creating purposeful maps with your team:

#1. Spend time gathering and building up your cross-functional and highly collaborative Experience Mapping team.

#2. Create a research program that gathers inputs from voice of the customer.

#3. Ensure that you have a process to capture, consider and prioritise insights and data points to inform the customer experience map.

#4. Consider the variables that are important to the customer experience and iterate the map continuously through collaboration.

#5. Be open to ideas new ideas but also defend the insights revealed through customer research.

#6. Focus discussion at a level consistent with the goals of the map (If you have a highly explorative team, it’s natural for people to want to dive into the detail of specific aspects of the customer experience. This is an excellent learning practice for the team. Just make sure that at some point discussion returns to an overarching level that is appropriate for the experience map)

#7. Walk-through the final experience map with as many stakeholders as possible and invite dicussion.

#8. Reflect on the customer experience map as a way to plan and checkpoint initiatives, so that the overall experience is constantly improved.

I hope you found this post useful in thinking about how to approach creating a customer experience map.

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While news like this instantly shines the spotlight on Netflix, it is the historical decisions made by the company to continuously disrupt that have ensured its success where others have failed.

In this article we look at the role of digital disruption across industries.

While disruption is often spoken about as large scale change undertaken at a specific point in time, the most significant disruption occurs through continuous change. When companies are able to understand an industry’s value chain and then continuously reinvent it piece by piece through digital technologies, this is when large scale digital disruption is possible.

Digital Disruption Spreads Through Value Chains

Take the airline industry as an example.  Disruption took hold at one place in a value chain, and then spread to adjacent steps.

The game changed when customers began booking flights online.  This occurred at the start of the value chain, at the moment of Purchase.  Then came online check-in and self-serve kiosks at airports. Now digital disruption is happening in the flight cabin itself, with WIFI, on-demand tablet entertainment, in-seat connectivity, and exploration of virtual reality for travelers.²

Virgin America is recognised as a leader in the industry and has drawn upon its agility in digital to connect many of these innovations for customers.  Beyond digital, it has also tied digital innovation to support wider customer experiences, including great music when you board the flight and entertaining safety videos.  In this way digital is just one aspect of Virgin America’s personality.

Of course no one company is immune from change within a value chain.  And just as airlines have innovated, so too they have had to deal with disruption further up the value chain.  Now at the Pre-Purchasing step, customers use services like Expedia and Adioso to compare a wide variety of prices and offers across airlines – all enabled via digital technologies.

In isolation, many of these developments feel like incremental innovations.  But taken in totality, with the period of the last decade compressed, the entire experience of flying is dramatically different due to these changes.

Leverage and Evolution as the New Platforms for Competition

Netflix used leverage to grow its business.  Netflix had amassed 4.2 million subscribers to its online DVD ordering business in 2005, before it launched its movie streaming business in 2007. Later in 2011 it begin to acquire original content, with series like House of Cards.  In so doing it used its streaming business and subscriber base as leverage to evolve further up the value chain, from distribution into content creation.³

Netflix didn’t quit there.  It continued to spot opportunities to make the experience of watching content even better for customers.

Through continuous digital evolution it introduced innovations such as support for multiple viewing profiles, a sophisticated recommendation engine for subscribers (so that its film-picks have the best possible match-rate for viewer preferences) and new forms of application development to ensure Netflix will play smoothly over thousands of device types.⁴

Incredibly, Netflix’s 65 million members can all watch high quality content closely fitting their expectations, sourced and recommended by Netflix, at home or on the move, advertisement-free and for a fraction of the price of the competition. This is disruption of every step of the value chain.

Winning Brands Are Those That Tie Digital Innovation with an Ongoing Promise of Experience

When we read mission statement examples from the world’s leading companies, many of these are deeply connected to digital disruption.

Digital innovation is enough to capture the attention of customers, but is it enough to keep it?

We’ve seen hundreds of examples of companies that launch a new mobile app, or a new website. For a short time these innovations ignite imaginations and attract customers.

But why do some customers stay when others leave?

What makes customers stay connected is where the company can connect further digital innovation with a consistent experience.

When Uber launched its first service in San Francisco it was the new kid on the block.  And after a time it became a brand unto itself, with its own loyal base of fans.

Uber’s customers told the story of how easy it was to use the service, how incredible it was pinpoint the exact location of their driver. If Uber was not able to sustain this promise when it launched other products, it would have fractured its brand.

Source: Mark Warner “Uber…” www.flickr.com/photos/senatormarkwarner/19588717540/

UberX succeeded because it maintained Uber’s ‘experience promise’ with customers.  It brought all the convenience of the premium Uber service, less some of the frills, and fulfilled expectations at a lower price tag.  It did this in close rapport with the brand that Uber had become.

UberX didn’t feel like we were getting a completely new product, but rather the innovation of an existing product we had come to love.⁵

Even when Uber launched a completely different type of service in the form of UberRush, it preserved its brand. UberRush gives customers a simple way to order a courier service and full knowledge of when their parcel will be collected, just as Uber does for drivers.

What is interesting is that Uber has drawn on its unique competencies (in branding, mapping and moving people) to create services that jump across industries entirely, from providing competition for taxis to couriers.⁶

This is the next wave of digital disruption that will occur, where innovations hop between industries and value chains to bring new services to customers.

Some of these changes are captured in this slide.

References

1. http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/NFLX/454272674x0x839404/C3CE9EE2-C8F3-40A1-AC9A-FFE0AFA20B21/FINAL_Q2_15_Letter_to_Shareholders_With_Tables_.pdf
2. http://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-samsung-unveil-industry-first-virtual-reality-experience-for-travellers
3. https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/loginPageSalesNetWorksAction.do?contentGroupId=10477
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix#Original_programming
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)
6. http://blog.uber.com/RUSH

The post Digital Disruption: How Continuous Evolution is Reshaping Industries and Brands appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

User Research is the process of engaging with end-users to understand their needs, motivations and actions. A common form of this type of research is 1 on 1 interviews, where users are asked questions as they interact with a specific idea for a digital product.

Companies will often draw on user research at one stage of their creation cycle (eg. prototyping).  However, User Research can reveal valuable insights at all 7 stages of the design process. It is a high useful activity in combination with building a digital product strategy.

#1 User Research to Gather Ideas

Every business has a process for gathering new ideas. Some try to spot trends in the market. Others look at the competition to find the next innovation. Engaging end users is a great way to get a pulse for what’s valuable or, even better, undiscovered. Asking users what they like in a category of services, and why they selected or did not select our product, can reveal insights and new ideas.

#2 User Research to Create a Concept

When a team has defined a specific concept to explore (eg. a Mobile App that collects store discounts), user research can help add colour and depth to the concept. We could ask the user “how do you collect discount vouchers at the moment”, “how do you keep track of these vouchers”, and “if you used a Mobile App to collect these vouchers, what would you expect to be in that App”. Based on the answers to these questions the product team can extend that specific concept.

#3 User Research to Refine Alternative Concepts

Creativity is about exploring multiple concepts and not stopping at the first concept that comes to mind. I always encourage product teams to define as many concepts as possible, because the most original and valuable idea is rarely the first one. From those concepts, they can select the top five they would like to submit to User Research. During the research process, each of the concepts can be tested with users. We can draw out the elements that have the most value to the user across the concepts. We can validate the unique appeal of each concept. Based on this work, the product team can select a preferred concept or choose the best elements of each to create a hybrid concept.

#4 User Research when Prototyping

Okay, so your product team is in the process of building the new digital product. They’re 30% through the work and are rushing to hit their release date. And they’ve taken some interesting directions during their development cycle. This is a perfect time to trial the early prototypes through User Research. Users will help your team validate the design is on track. Insights from research at this stage will also point out refinements important for the product’s success, as well as guard against blind-spots the product team have missed completely by being too close to the project.

#5 User Research Prior to Launch

So you’re digital product is almost complete and Go Live is only two weeks away. The project team is buzzing with excitement. What’s the point of doing User Research at this stage? Because we’ve missed something.

Things change all the time. From going from a concept to a prototype, or from the prototype to the full product; there will always be something we’ve missed or changed that might not make sense to the end user.

You’ll be amazed what User Research reveals just prior to launch, that the product team had not considered. And at the very least, if no issues are picked up, research will validate what a good job the team has done as well as a list of smaller improvements that can be corrected after Go Live.

#6 User Research to Improve After Launch

The highest performing teams include User Research on an ongoing basis to improve their digital product. Customer behaviours and attitudes evolve and trends re-shape markets entirely…so doing fresh User Research at regular intervals (whether it’s 1 month or 6 months) will help to continually tune the performance of your digital product.

#7 User Research when Exiting a Digital Product

By the time a company has decided to exit and switch off a digital product (whether a website or Mobile App), User Research is very rarely used.

But, research at this stage can help understand why people didn’t use the product, so the company can avoid similar services in the future.

It can also show if there are aspects of the service that some customers love, but didn’t use, because it was not a prominent enough feature.

While here I’ve covered some of the moments to draw on user research, in another post I’ve written of the benefits of user research.  For an overall view of strong user experience pratices, I also recommend taking a look at the excellent Usability.gov site.

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The post 7 Moments When User Research Can Make or Break Customer Experience appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.