Human Experience (#HX) Measurement & Metrics for the #ExperienceCalculator & #JourneyScience

"The science of amazing is really the art of persistence & consistency." - me

The use of NPS has been proliferated by Bain (Fred Reichheld) since 2003. The idea was (still is) that asking One simple question might yield answers; answers how to improve the brand, how to increase loyalty, the list goes on.?

There’s been adaptations to NPS - most recently NPS 3.0. To practitioners, including the author, the major gap lies in execution and operationalisation.?

We know the ‘score’ is inherently, purportedly, ‘closer’ to the brand value - and a separate topic; brand equity.?

We need to get much closer to the balance sheet - to create tangible impact.?

Where marketing ‘failed’ - what Wannamaker said - we, the community of practitioners?must now?allow the domain of XM to fall into the same murky waters, or even a fad.?

After all, existentially, that’s why we even embark on customer-centricity!?

Being closer to the P&L impact, where rubber meets roads, entails detailed execution: insights into action. There’s a saying “water, water everywhere nor a drop a to drink”. Irony isn’t it - data has exponentially grown (Moore’s Law) over the years, but arguably, we are (at least feel) the most devoid of insights, ever. We should be acutely aware that insights, knowledge and wisdom are stacked in ascending order when it comes to?accruing ROX.?

The start is always (and most of us are stuck here) to convert insights into action.

Maybe a good way to demystify: the fusion of data spectrums to synthesise new insights.

This is getting a little too minute, too tactical; but a necessary detour to understand the progressive order how insights becomes knowledge and eventually wisdom (and the exponential increase in value unlocked of course). We just happen to measure the nascent ‘fusion’ process with rudimentary metrics and measures such as NPS, CES etc - eventually as posited earlier, we need to get ever closer to the balance sheet - to feel the pulse of the business’ as it were. What’s contrarian is that while we get closer to the books - we musn’t lose sight of Purpose and Why a good Human Experience is of increasing value (becoming scarcer over time). In fact, why it’s the underlying essence of humanity itself. I mean, what does it mean to be ‘Human’ say in the years to come. If machines are able to?solve everything we once did more efficiently without emotional baggage, what’s our ‘role’ then? Both Kaifu Lee and Yuval Noah Harrari infers there’s a place for the human species (there are stuff we will always do ‘better’) - but what’s real is that we are nowable to hack humans. It’s literal i.e. there are a few orgs in this planet that knows us better than we know ourselves! How they intend to fully use that?immense ‘power’ is going to shape the journey of humanity in the next century. The targeted ads, monetisation of data, those are all passe. Next up, we need to?(still) decide on things e.g.?AI ethics and regulatory frameworks?

Actually it’s all time and effort spent to create value - in the grand scheme of things.?

Everything that human-kind has done over a millenia; is actually to convert matter into energy - all our efforts hunting for sustenance,?toiling the lands, building societies, dabbling into the arts and renaissance of aesthetics, and eventually space exploration (we’ve been converting energy - ours and now machines, intelligence - and getting more and more efficient at it!).?

But let’s come back to Earth. It seems my thoughts wander aimlessly - more than a few have commented the same. I admit - these microblogs are literally my braindumps - eventually, hopefully to be stitched up into a nice narrative very soon :)?

Back to the fusion of data spectrums to unlock value - insights for starters.?

?Similarly, there’s insights aplenty - hard & soft. Big data, data science - with an XM flavour =? Journey Orchestration. We said earlier that JO = JD + JI i.e. Journey Orchestration = Journey Design + Journey Improvement.?

Let’s unpack some of these terms - I know I;ve a penchant for labelling things, giving them ‘placeholder’ names - my mind is like a scattered plot of ideas, concepts and how they begin to all come together.

Let’s try to frame what Journey Design is. It is? arguably most important during every Purpose refresh. Yes, it’s perfectly plausible to have adaptive Purpose statements every few years; but beyond a certain ‘threshold’

?we might as well redefine it - but more importantly, the exercise should be a highly (stressful) yet? collaborative one. I recall the tears and emotions in a closed door Boardroom with the 7 executives (C-suites), without which I personally feel we’ve not reforged Trust bonds (which is perhaps even more critical to the longevity of the org)? - crafting a Purpose statement is simple, getting everyone in on it, now that’s something else.?

Journey Design is best described as an aspirational future-state, an accretive ROX state, for all the journeys in an org. To design process entails innovating the HX (includes customers, employees, stakeholders and even the ecosystem) using design elements and founded upon first principles. Best example would be how Musk ‘reinvented’ the space rocket to be reusable, or how batteries were made better by Tesla. The underlying ingredients making up a battery is commonly known e.g. cobalt, nickel, aluminium, they’re all readily available and can be sourced from the open markets - yet? the ‘magic’ is in getting it produced at affordable prices with durability for high-performance use e.g. in EVs.? Tesla’s? B2B, B2B2C, B2C journeys were redesigned from the ground up - if that makes sense.

Something perhaps more ‘traditional’ would be the banking industry and it’s variant (or deviant - for some), cryptocurrency. The latter ‘disrupted’? bank and government monetary policies (citizen journeys) and gave us decentralised finance (DeFi) and DAOs which I’m an unabashed fan of. To me it’s the FutureFi, the future of finance. This book isn’t focused on macro economics, but suffice to say we have been ‘overfinancialised’ in the past few hundred years

Journey Improvement is the ‘tail’ of the Journey Orchestration construct. This part is the ‘grind’ we’ve all come to know; agile and devops - basically burning down user stories (which in turn solve for experience gaps found in journeys) iteratively, incrementally. It’s the epitome of an Infinite Game - what makes XM an Infinite Game. There’s technically no ‘end’ to all this - just as is the betterment of humanity, and how we perfect the HX.

We are what we eat and what we measure - the latter definitely dictates how we behave in organisational theory.?

In my humble opinion , we need metric(s) that are highly-customised to an org’s needs (Purpose) - we must be able to capture the nuances in XM practised by different orgs.?

Here’s a brief analogy:

• Statement 1: Purpose - something along the lines of nation building, say to give equal access to credit (replace with any commodity, service you see fit - e.g. telecommunications)
• Statement 2: Nested Purpose - to be able to perform the above statement with ‘unmatched’ and superior customer experience.?
• Statement N: Functional ethos (some 4-5 levels below statement 2)?- to take-out, remove experience gaps one at a time

We see the actual measurement and metrics actually starts hanging off statement N and beyond - the observant will also notice we sorely lack even rudimentary gauges/indicators for the primary, secondary or even tertiary statements (closest to Purpose manifesto).?

Do you see the dichotomy between what I call upstream vs upstream? Metrics and the measurement of, are inherently downstream, inherently operational in nature - meaning we attempt to yield highest efficiencies. There’s no coincidence - these sound very similar to the cogs and wheels of the Industrial Age.?

As Innosight in their book Dual Transformation argues - there’s Transformation A and B; the AND = a connector, a transient, conduit. It’s easy to forget that conduit!?

Some metrics that are more aligned to the upstream, e.g. Purpose ratio, Trust index, Degree of Agility, (EX) Happiness/Satisfaction - yes you’re thinking you’ve never even heard of these before. That’s exactly right! You've never heard of these because they need to be intricately designed and created, crafted for each org. There’s never one the same - it’s almost the secret sauce of metrics if you want to put it that way. This is really First Principles stuff. Adopting metrics wholesale is akin to copying what others have done - which is fine most of the time - but won’t get you far, any faster. Certainly not even as ‘fast’ as the org?we took it from.?

Instead, we need to go back to First Principles to cook ourselves something?(nutritious!) best suited for our own palate, best suited for our own DNA. Doesn’t mean all vitamins supplements and minerals are good for everyone - yes they generally are good, but to get from good to great - to become artisanal - like an architect, designer, masterchef etc -?we need to make each and every ingredient sing and pop.?

Let’s use Purpose ratio as an example - i won’t go into the exact maths and construction of the metric - but suffice to say we attempt to measure +/- x degrees from True North. We always say the North Star at 0 degrees points towards Why we are doing What we do. When we measure variances to the left/right of the North - we get to a rudimentary Purpose (alignment) ratio. Yes, it’s a composite ratio, meaning it’s made up of a ‘basket’ of other underlying metric - but it’s well worthwhile to get a few pulses in, albeit not as often as your downstream (metrics) portfolio - which can go up to near or even ‘real-time’?

Quick note to say that it’s all very possible these days with the XM?platforms available at our disposal today: much like the CRM systems of the past, us practitioners (architects, scientuists, designers, developers etc) get full access to the ever increasing spectrums of data and we get to write/develop adaptive business logic (implemented as processes) to synthesize ever more/increasing spreads of economic value - in our case ROX.?

Which brings me to my point that we need more composite/hybrid scores as metrics.?

It’s never enough (today especially) to go with just the foundational measures - regardless upstream or downstream. When I work with clients, I also the opposite end: over complication, over saturation of metrics - some so convoluted, contradictory and honestly self deprecating over the years (just like program code, the first few developers have all but forgotten the implied logic). These?vampire metrics I call them drain the workforce’s productivity (cherry picking, running around in circles tabulating numbers etc) and is highly corrosive on EX.?

The downstream metrics we are quite familiar with, surely. How we measure NPS (now at v 3.0 apparently as proposed by Bain), CES and CSAT etc. By all means take these as the building blocks for your own set of (downstream) operational metrics - but don’t go overboard. There’s part art and science to this. In fact, some clients have recited that an investment in time to ‘spring clean’, retrofit or even just to tailor fit a set of metrics,?has been one of their best investments, ever.?

It’s easy to understand why- it’s like refreshing your wardrobe for starters. It’s like putting a spring into your (org) step, and allowing more ‘oxygen’ into the lungs - everything an athlete needs to compete and win!

A deep dive into untangling metrics is still Transitory though, in my opinion - much like going to a chiropractor. Pine puts it nicely in his Experience Economy book - the first adjustment opens up the client for countless/more ensuing sessions. What we need is a transformative, transformational experience that’s sustainable - that is, the client or aspirant is permanently transformed/evolved and has achieved their aspiration/Purpose. They’ve progressed into making their end-state = steady-state if that makes any sense.?

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What we envision is a layering of metrics- start with the ‘standard’ ones like NPS and CES - and you’ve still got sub-layers e.g. Episodic NPS and the NPS variants. Even for CES there’s need to inject dipsticks after the right interactions. That’s a science in itself - and I’m sure there’s plenty already written or pushed/sold by the survey platform/tech vendors.?

But realistically, you composite scores work best; these measure the fluidity of insights being converted into actions, and the efficacy of these action(s). That’s the layer 2 on top of the base/foundation earlier. As a general rule of thumb, these layer 2 metrics are usually pegged and tagged to a series of transactions, interactions, and are quite operational in nature - but starting to infused with financial lens.?

Take for example the Cost:Expense ratios spanning over channels. Then you’ve the Cost to Serve, Cost to Sell, CPQ, CPI etc - the list goes on.?

We gradually work up the layers (e.g. a Layer 3 - but I don’t recommend another 4 before getting to the Purpose, nested Purpose). Also, it’s quite important that?the recipe for these composite score(s) at the ‘higher layers’ be an optimised % of?Empathy x Trust x Economics/ Value.?

I've put together a simple comparison - why we need (more) hybrid scores vs base layer metrics:

Metrics is part art & science - but in summary a few observations:?

• Start at the top/upstream most definitely with Purpose - and work downwards to the middle.?
• Start from bottom-up; it’s quite important to ‘link’ and attach operational metrics with more strategic objectives upfront e.g. measuring base layer NPS, CES these won’t get you far?
• Apply increasing payloads and flavours of Empathy/Trust and Economic Value as you work up the layers e.g. in the top layers it’s almost 100% economics
• Mix and match - but don’t straddle yourself with too many metrics for track and trace - it’s just daunting, a non-starter?
• It’s perfectly fine to jettison ‘older’ metrics and measures if you’ve ‘forgotten’ why they exist - but keep the number/total small, I’d suggest <5 tops.?
• Do scenario modelling and testing with your basket of metrics; the available of XM tooling and platforms really makes this easier over time - in effect ‘try out’ a bunch of your own cooking/metrics and see how ‘aligned’ they are to your growth objectives - don’t forget the EX component and what your workforce thinks!