Peter, Jared, I agree with Peter's two comments here with respect to competition in NGO & charitable organization. And I note the definition of experience strategy I have put forward is largely commercial in stance. I would argue, however, that copying someone else is not much of a 'strategy'; although creating something easily copied by others in an NGO context might not be such a bad thing.
Peter, I don't agree with your Point 2 as a criticism of the article, although I'm not clear on whether you read the article itself, or are just reacting to the definition taken from it. The article talks about intention being a part of the strategy; it talks about being an articulation of both 'the what' & 'the how'; it also talks about vision and specific actions to put that vision into practice. So, I'm not clear in what regard outcomes have been overlooked. With regard to your point about overestimating activities versus planning: I think I'll just need to disagree. I don't think it invites rigidity, nor do I think the activity is more important than the end result - that's why the vision for the experience is so important. But the people on the ground need specifics or else all that will be delivered is an incoherent mess; not the experience desired. Steve 2009/6/8 Peter Merholz <[email protected]> > Two points: > > 1. I agree with Jared's concern. > > In an earlier (and excellent) thread on this list about Strategic > Interaction Design <http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=36819>, I wrote > "I think it might be harmful to equate 'strategy' with 'business' as many > are doing here." > > The point of an experience strategy is less about differentiation and > competition, and more about identifying who/what you are, and making the > most of that. Obviously, the US National Cancer Institute benefits from an > experience strategy, though not necessarily from a unreplicable one. > > It's also worth noting, though, that USNCI *do* have competitors, and have > to identify how the experience they deliver is good enough to encourage > engagement. For them, I'm guessing their primary competitors are things like > blogs and other institutes and even Wikipedia, non-authoritative sources > that may be disseminating what the USNCI would consider potentially harmful > information, and with whose audience the USNCI is vying for attention. > > Anyway, experience strategies need to understand that there are things that > compete for a potential customer/user's time and attention, but don't have > to be about replicability and outperformance. > > 2. Outcomes and results > Steve's post overlooks two essential elements of any strategy: a plan, and > an understanding of desired impact. And any discussion of strategy has to > involve planning, because, at heart, a strategy is little more than a plan. > And a strategy without a clear sense of defined success is, well, a bad > strategy (it's this approach that got us into our quagmire with Iraq.) > > Steve's original definition overestimate the role of activities. I actually > think specifying activities is less important than identifying: > - a philosophy that undergirds your behavior > - a vision for what to achieve > - an understanding of what success means > > If you focus too much on that collection of activities, you potentially > miss out on the need to change course in order to achieve your ultimate > goal. > > --peter > > > > On Jun 7, 2009, at 6:51 AM, Jared Spool wrote: > > >> On Jun 6, 2009, at 6:57 AM, Steve Baty - UX Events wrote: >> >> Is it clear? Would you add to it? Qualify it? >>> "An experience strategy is that collection of activities >>> that an organization chooses to undertake to deliver a series of >>> (positive, >>> exceptional) interactions which, when taken together, constitute an >>> (product >>> or service) offering that is superior in some meaningful, >>> hard-to-replicate >>> way; that is unique, distinct & distinguishable from that available from >>> a >>> competitor." >>> >> >> In addition to the length, it's occurred to me that there's something else >> that is troubling me about this otherwise excellent definition. It really >> only works in a commercial setting. >> >> How would the folks at Cancer.gov, the US National Cancer Institute (part >> of the National Institutes of Health), apply this? >> >> They don't really need something "that is superior in some meaningful, >> hard-to-replicate way; that is unique, distinct & distinguishable from that >> available from a competitor." >> >> But they do need a definition that lets them define a minimal quality. >> >> There are lots of folks trying to put together a successful experience >> strategy that aren't in the commercial sector where differentiation from >> competitors is the ideal objective. >> >> Jared >> ________________________________________________________________ >> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >> To post to this list ....... 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