Selling Usability in(to) Organizations

Stretch …

Lucky draw!

Lucky Draw

Lucky Draw

Lucky Draw

How did I get here?

Start Your Engines!

Who uses?

Why?

UX culture

http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

What just happened?

Persuasion

“These aren’t the usability specialists you’re looking for…”

•Entertaining•Connecting to UX themes•Familiar examples•…and then usability

Good News

Usability is Sold

Key market trends in 2006 (e-consultancy)

• Market grew by 28% in 2005 to £115m. Likely to grow by around 25% to £144m by the end of 2006

• Growing marketplace understanding of commercial benefits of usability, and the business case for accessibility

• Growing shortage of experience, particular cross-platform expertise, at a time of rising demand for holistic customer experience irrespective of channel

It will no longer be about us selling Usability to Management but showing

where its adding value

Too much demand, not enough supply

http://www.usnews.com/features/business/best-careers/best-careers-2008.html

Usability/User experience specialist

http://www.pewinternet.org/press_release.asp?r=310

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8017178.stm

Business of design

Lifestyle integration

Still not convinced?

I just want to have a shower

Part of something

bigger right?

Not just Usability

• User Experience• Measuring Experiences across channels• Channels = TV, web, mobile, phone, shops• Convergence

“… need to wear numerous hats to survive”

mobile madness

http://www.cw.com.hk/content/hong-kong-mobile-data-usage-hits-147-terabytes

"Apart from mobile data usage, the number of 2.5G/3G mobile phone users has increased by 15 percent on a year-on-year basis reaching 3.35 million in January 2009. The total number of mobile phone users is 11.43 million and this represents a penetration rate of more than 163 percent”.

Frustrations

Frustrations

• “They don’t listen to me”

• “We are not taking seriously”

• “I don’t have a seat at the strategy table”

• “They think usability is usability testing”

• “My team is not big enough”

Get Out Now!

Barriers

Yikes!

Truth: UX Language is Ugly

Thank you John Rhodes

UX Speed Bumps

• Our definitions of UX force us to justify UX– We talk ourselves into a defensive

position– Does it matter what you call it?– Don’t let your ego get in the way

– Let them choose the language to use

– “Usability” vs.. “UX” What’s the value is explaining the difference?

Thank you John Rhodes

Barriers

• No Executive Champion

• Not positioned

• Culture– Developers see UX as an obstacle– Too late in development

• Lack of effective communications (teaching, sharing results, sitting close by)

Know Your Target

Organization TypesEngineer-centric

• Might never have had a UX team.

• Products created from interesting technology.

• Territorial about UI.

Design-centric• View building applications and

websites as a creative endeavor.

• Primary focus may be creating designs that other designers will like and respect.

Sales & marketing centric

• Represented by powerful people who “know” their customers...but don’t know “all” the customers.

Challenges• Tendency to deem a product

usable if it is possible to do the task.

• They rely heavily on their own experience in UI design.

• They feel they are doing the right thing for the customer, even if they don’t have evidence.

Challenges• Define the user experience in

terms of aesthetics rather than ease of use.

• Focus on visuals rather than workflows.

• Rely heavily on their own instincts about users.

• Focus only on data that confirms their viewpoints.

Challenges• Rely heavily on customers' self-

report and customer suggestions to assess usability.

• Disproportionately weight their “biggest” or “loudest” customers.

• Often overconfident in their ability to “know” what the customer needs.

Thank you Paul Sherman

Know your target

• Who is buying & budget allocation (money)• Product vision (plan)• Invest in Research and Development (money &

strategy)• Customer care or just “lip service” (empathy)

Ripe Organizations

Ripe Organizations

• “Culture Patterns” that indicate UX growth– Management is using the lingo – Hired a Director or VP of UX– Usability testing of products is a given– Money is flowing to bring in new UX’ers– Usability Lab in place or being discussed– Product managers claim that UX is strategic

advantage

This is how you know people have “bought” UX

What Sells?

What Sells

• Passion and enthusiasm for UX

• Choosing the right project

• Meeting like minded people

• Simple entry level tools

• Stories (Case Studies)

• Business & Domain knowledge

What Sells

Technology Marketing

Business

UX Change Agent

Be a Change Agent

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000162.php

•Gulf between Project Mgt, Engineering and User Experience•Liaisons between these disciplines - across cultures (“the glue”)

UX Sales Kit

• "Minimum standards" that all UX'ers should meet:– What is usability, user-centered design, UX– Case study - tell a story– Share a delightful product experience– Sell the team services– What else?

Maturity

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2009/id20090429_083139.htm?campaign_id=rss_innovate

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2009/id20090429_083139.htm?campaign_id=rss_innovate

Design Maturity

Rewards

•Launching on time

•Doing what the boss says

•Coding to specification

•Delighting a customer

•Moving up the corporate ladder

Sales Goal?

Product Success

Common language?

Vision

http://www.uie.com/events/uiconf/2007/articles/experience_vision/

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/merholz/2009/04/your-customers-lead-a-multicha.html

http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/ux.html

Google UX

• Every millisecond counts

• Simplicity is powerful

• Be worthy of people's trust

• Add a human touch

What has worked well for Dan?

What has worked well for Dan?

• Industry reading, reading, reading

• Constant state of learning - Conferences, Discussion lists, Peers, join STC, UPA, local Chapters

• Lead

• Reaching out to collaborate

• Look beyond your own field …

Constant State of Self Improvement

http://www.apogeehk.com/articles/constant_cycle_of_self_improvement.html

“Good product managers can look into the future and spot general trends as they begin to impact the market, if not before … There are massive changes going on right now in the global economy, media consumption, spending habits, technology adoption, and social

behavior that will be much more relevant to your product and company than the current fad of the week.

As a product manager, you need to be able to identify emerging trends and capitalize on important ones. This will ensure that your products — and you as a product manager — are relevant

going forward.”

Ignore fads and watch trends

http://www.goodproductmanager.com/2007/02/07/ignore-fads-watch-trends/

Where or what do you want to

be in 2,5,10 years time?

?

• User Tester v Designer

• Closer (issues) v Opener (innovations)

• Loner v Collaborator

• Critic v Creator

• Silo v holistic

“Be more open, more creative, take risks, challenge our assumptions, listen to each other”

Learn more …

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000335.php

Learn more …

Learn more …

Thank You & Lucky Draw