I'm eCommerce manager Customer Experience and Chair web governance in a large multinational carrier. Apologies for any typos - its early here and I'm just getting ready for work - but this is an interesting debate and one that I have been living and succeeding with for over 2 years in the current challenging, politically and non web savvy environment in which I work.
Before I arrived, web programs either did not deliver to time/budget; were put together by digital agencies with print backgrounds, or IT focussed infrastructure projects using waterfall methodologies ( IT centric) and had poor concept of user centered design concepts and principles, even though everyone agreed the user experience amongst the existing 60 odd web portals and applications was inconsistent and fragmented . Key to changing from the perspective of "look and feel" being optional tasks in an otherwise linear approach to development based around business program managers& BAs ( without ability to translate a vision) and tech/systems developers (without any vision of hat business wanted). This necessitated Governance establishing a common sense of standards that could be leveraged by the entire business. I chose W3C web best practice standards ( which as we know are user focussed) , and then built case around the benefits of establishing a user centered design group. This meant challenging the waterfall method & capital funding methods, but also introduced an open framework based on brand standards, styleguides, CMS, usabiity standards etc. I lined up customer experience research to prove customer pain points and integrated web cx programs to align to non web channel CX initiatives, with business case, measures of success, lead and lag indicators and cost benefits. I aligned the AGILE process to the business case to demonstrate the reduction in capital costs when a design is iterated, and introduced prototyping & collaboration tools & ways of working to replace lengthy business requirements documents that were difficult to understand or extract meaning. I conducted a lot of research and compared our program deliverables against web best practice and worst practice - a score sheet on what programs were doing right or wrong - and what the impacts of not addressing were. This has been a major journey for the business and while i do wear half a dozen knives in my back, the quality and usability of web projects has vastly improved and we are all excited and proud of the results. I am a designer/developer; this is my first love - but I am also a transformation executive - I see it as my role to lead the way in transforming practice. Many of the designers don't understand the value of stakeholder perception management - the subtleties and positioning, or how to translate an approach/design into solid business benefits. The key tool is to make design/usability recommendations to the businss for an impact assessment of each change. My fall back position is always: If this design flaw isn't resoled by the business, the cost is inbound support calls increasing costs by "x" , or churn % increases to "x", or $return v $acquisition cost reduces by "x". KPIs are a sure way to get the business attention. These thoughts all very quick, but glad to contribute... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46754 ________________________________________________________________ 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
