User Experience is not the Silver Bullet

Are you approaching business transformation? Then probably the first thing that came to mind was technology, not people. Was your motivation to lower operational costs? Then again, probably the first thing you though of was technology in disregard of service personalisation. Are you ignoring the multitude of users, customers and clients that your product or service interacts with? These are common approaches we have seen companies undertake. If your approach toward business and digital transformation is primarily technological and focused on IT modernisation, you could be dismissing the added value you deliver to your Clients, and if your business depends on them, you will fail at some point.

Before explaining why, in our opinion, you are putting your business at risk we need to clear some misconceptions about User Experience (UX). When talking about User Experience two words become strongly associated to this very vague buzzword: design and engineering. It's undeniable that design and engineering are strongly tied to the concept of UX, but it is much more than just that. User Experience is about solving problems taking into account complex interconnected factors, such as human-behaviour, technology and business goals. Striving for great User Experience requires specialists that follow not only concrete, well established design methodologies/procedures, but also people capable of systematically and pragmatically understanding and mapping any problem space and guiding himself and especially others, such as business and development teams to the most adequate solution space?i.e., all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.

Regardless of small or large companies, access to cutting edge technology is evermore ubiquitous. We have reached a point where company size does not dictate it's technological prowess. Focusing on technology as a business driver is no longer the competitive edge or differentiator it once was. So what is the key differentiator now? You may ask. Well, nowadays what distinguishes your company, product or service from other competitors is the perception of value and uniqueness. Now, and for the foreseeable future, focusing on the added value you deliver to your users, customers and/or employees are the most relevant key differentiator. Just think about how companies and service providers have become part of (and impact) so much of our daily lives. We are dependant on products, applications and services, and most of them are free to use! They have been constantly changing their value proposition based on what they have learned about us, the users and clients. When was the last time you heard about technological changes by Google? Is that what you really need as a user or customer? Probably not. However, have you noticed on the amount of services they have launched in the last 5 years? And why? Because they identified user and customer needs and they were able to approach them before their competitors.

Why do some startups create such rapid loyal customer base? Well, they have learned how to take advantage of the vast user data available to build their value proposition and ultimately their business model. Building a value proposition and a loyal customer base requires a huge effort in user research and investment in customer (or even employee) empathy. This takes time. That's why we often discuss with our clients how technology is cheap compared to the priceless value of thinking. Thinking is fed by structured data coming from users, business, stakeholders, colleagues—people. User Experience experts cannot do everything by themselves but are key in the defining strategy, conducting design/implementation processes and more importantly extracting the most from everyone involved in a structured fashion.

What approach do we suggest for business transformation? Building on our experience you should enforce the best User Experience practices to achieve IT modernisation. User Experience translates all your business experience, company values and everything you know about your users and competitors into services/products that people want to use because there is match between their interests, desires, needs and your value proposition. Although technology cannot be the sole driver for transformation it has to be considered in IT modernisation as one of the mediums to deliver parts of the experience.

Let's get designing!

by Clinton Jorge and Nuno Laginha