I manage a user experience group situated w/in our business and marketing division. In this organizational location (as opposed to previous positions w/in IT at other companies), I'm better positioned to form strategic partnerships w/ my Product Management colleagues and present the value proposition of our UX team to them in terms of how UX can help them achieve their desired goals as well as how we can help them leverage our UX design research practice into their strategic planning research.
I say this because my group is already at the same table with them due to our organizational structure. Rather than trying to convince them to meet with me (a challenge I always faced when in IT), the expectation is already there that UX will be engaged. I now need to help educate them about the value we provide across the customer lifecycle. Our work model is to essentially partner up and conduct paired research and analysis to best define what it is we should be building, why, and how that fits into a bigger user environment design (aka the business strategic vision) - think of a Venn diagram where UX, Business and Technology are represented and the crux is the sweet spot of user desirability, business viability, and technical feasibility. This partnership enables us to construct a user environment design and utilize it as a tool for release planning and project scoping. We know how the pieces fit together, and in what combinations, to provide coherent solution designs. We also benefit from strong relationships with our IT counter-parts and engaging them early in our work to contribute to the feasibility scoring. If you haven't yet read this article on boxes and arrows, I recommend it. The authors provide a good view into transitioning from a UX practitioner into more of a business owner, i.e. product manager. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/transitioning-from I'm more and more interested, and pushing myself and teams, into UX-informed business strategy work. Where the premise of design as a competitive advantage, and how UCD and UX architecture can help business achieve their vision, is helping me open doors and get more meetings w/ those currently in the decision-making seats. Good luck! -Mark -----Original Message----- From: On Behalf Of ELISABETH HUBERT ... I'm curious as to whether anyone else out there has the same type of role or if this is some unique case? Thanks! Lis ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
