Evaluating the levels of design management in userexperience-oriented companies – experiences from

Finnish metals and engineering industry

Maaria Nuutinen, Maarit Heikkinen, Hannamaija MäättäVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

maaria.nuutinen@vtt.fi

Using UX to make a difference in the industry and business.

9/26/2013 2

FIMECC UXUS 2010-2015 (User Experience and Usability in Complex Systems) is aresearch program targeting to build a new competitive advantage for Finnish metalsand engineering industry by user experience (UX)

Storyline of FIMECC UXUS saga

Part I: Contradictions between ”MEI thinking”and ”Design thinking”– Nuutinen et al. 2011 presented at CADMC 2011

Part II: Learning from design management:– Evaluating the levels of design management in

user experience-oriented companies– Empirical study on Finnish metals and engineering

companies (MEI)Part III: The happy end?

9/26/2013 3

Part I:Contradictions between ”MEI thinking” and ”Design thinking”

9/26/2013 4

Measurableperformance criteria,

productivity of thesystems and cost

efficiency

A more holistic,subjective and lesseasily measurableproduct perception

and quality

Strict R&Dprocesses and

establishedpractices

Design methods& UX ideas thatdevelop through

iteration

“Technologypush” “UX pull”

Nuutinen et al. 2011

UX inB2B

Organizationalculture

Designmanagement

Part II: Learning from design managementThe aim is to explore the potentials of a designmanagement approach– in contributing to solving the contradictions– we claim to reflect Finnish metals and engineering

industry culture and– which might prevent them fully benefiting from user

experience orientation as their new competitiveadvantage.

To this end, we empirically study three casecompanies' selected user experience -related effortsfrom design management perspective by applying aframework proposed by Borja De Mozota (2003, 2010)

9/26/2013 5

The empirical studyA case-study based research approach, a multiple-cases study (see e.g. Yin 2009, Eisenhardt 1989).

Three case companies:At companies A and B foci were on a UX-ledproduct development processes

that were initiated both to develop a product withimproved UX and to increase understanding about themeaning of UX in the organisation

At COMPANY C focus was on a training conceptaiming to change the organisation's mind-set towardsUX orientation.

9/26/2013 6

Empirical data

The interview topics included:– the overall goals and the current state regarding the position of UX in their business

(All) ,– the development processes of the new products aiming to better UX as well as their

sales and marketing, delivery process and experiences from the use of the newproducts (A&B); and

– the background and development of the training concept, the organising and successof the event and the experiences from the last training (C)

9/26/2013

Employeeinterviews

Customerinterviews

Total

COMPANY A 15 8 23

COMPANY B 10 5 15

COMPANY C 6 6

Total 31 13 44

ResultsAnalysis aimed to describe companies' effortsin each level and evaluate them in relation tothe literature.

9/26/2013 8

Level of design managementCOMPANY A

New product development

COMPANY B

New product development

COMPANY C

Training concept

Design action

Design’s impact oncustomer behavior

Design differentiationthrough branding

Direct impact oncustomer behaviour.

Brand renewal as abasis of designmanagement.

Direct impact oncustomer behaviour.

Brand does not yetsupport designmanagement efforts

Indirect but clear impact oncustomer behaviour.

Brand renewal as a basisof design management.

Design function

Design’s impact on newproduct development (NPD)process quality

Design in increasingcooperation between R&Dand marketing

NPD process wasimproved through thecooperation in a largeproject group

Cooperation betweenR&D and marketing isnot systemised

NPD process wasimproved throughintensive working ofsmall group of R&Demployees

Cooperation betweenR&D and marketing isnot systemised

NPD process may beimproved through improvedcustomer and userunderstanding gained in theevent.

The conditions forcooperation between R&Dand marketing may beimproved.

Design vision

Design’s strategicpositioning

Design as an internal andexternal competitiveadvantage

Design is learned byexperience, aim to builda core competence

Internal: Design as aresource (design team)

External: a unique newproduct in the market

Design is learned byexperience, aim to builda competence

Internal: design is on theresponsibility of R&D,some elementsoutsourced.

External: new andinnovative user interfacein the market

Design is learned byexperience, aim to build acore competence

Internal: a large design unitestablished

External: indirect influenceon the customerexperiences

Part III: Is there going to be a happy end?

9/26/2013 9

Conclusions & discussion 1/2The companies in the FIMECC UXUS programmeseem to utilize all levels of design management and– are heading towards the direction of increased

competitiveness through better UX– and ultimately they can drive renewal of the whole industry by

their example.Investigating companies' UX efforts from designmanagement viewpoint gives new insights intounderstanding the direction of these efforts.We suggest that– all the levels of design management are needed and– that the unique situation and present organisational culture

define the useful design management level and the suitableefforts.

9/26/2013 10

Conclusions & discussion 2/2

The more deep impact of the efforts on thecontradictions depends if– they turn into daily practises of the companies as well as

their relationship with other "design managementactivities" (brand building, marketing etc.).

In the future:– There is an obvious need to understand the design

management efforts and their progress in more detail– We suggest that longitudinal studies on how design

management efforts are changing the business logic oforganisations, their networks and the whole industryshould be conducted later on.

9/26/2013 11

To be continued…

9/26/2013 12

FIMECC UXUS information

http://uxus.fimecc.com/sites/uxus.fimecc.com/files/uxbooklet_issue1_online_2_0.pdfhttp://uxus.fimecc.com/www.fimecc.comFIMECC Ltd. (Finnish Metals and EngineeringCompetence Cluster) is cooperation platform thatoffers for research institutes and companies newway to cooperate and perform long term researchContact person: Programme Manager, Dr MaariaNuutinen, VTTMaaria.Nuutinen(at)vtt.fi +358 40 5508615

Thank You!

9/26/2013 14