What is a UX Strategist?

I've only been seeing this title since around 2010, although I am sure it has been around much longer. I also know it is something that varies from place to place on what they actually do, but since I've been seeing this a lot lately, I'm going to try my hand at what it means to me, and then all of you, can weigh in.

First, I think all true UX'ers are strategists to a degree. Meaning, we all have to sell UX to the stakeholders and the C crowd. Part of a Strategists job is to be able to communicate the how to the business. Define the UX vision, if you will. A lot of time spent in Keynote or Powerpoint. Be able to bridge across business, finance, marketing, IT and such to get everyone on board. Lots of presenting skills needed. That's the easy part.

Define the roadmap. Look across the 3-5 year and more roadmap and define the how, when what and who across the products lifecycle. My old boss Jason Whitney has a patent on a customer lifecycle map. It's quite fascinating to see a map that includes the pain points, along with money. It is like a journey map that includes the good and bad points to the product and tell them why and where they are losing money. Maybe I can get him to write a post about it. Anyway, this part has zero to do with what the product looks like. It is taking the data and figuring out how to keep the user engaged for the long haul. (yes, talking simply here)

There is a lot of data involved with this title. It is being able to take data across many sources to identify areas of opportunity and recommend direction of the product. For me, this is what separates things. Yes, a researcher does this also. What might be different is how each looks at the data. Where are we now? How are we going to get where we want? What does that plan look like, and is it being communicated to everyone who needs to understand? It isn't just synthesizing the data, but also communicating it to business and elsewhere. A Strategist isn't necessarily a Psychologist PhD. I've worked with a Stewie big brain, and I am not that person, but I can do strategy.

This person is also the driving force behind UX. Iterating, defining, understands the competitive and comparative customer needs. Generating ideas based on the data, but also analyzing the performance data and setting up testing. This person may, or may not actually wireframe or prototype anything. I think it depends on the team size.

I worked with a team member to figure out how best to utilize documents for a particular product. We did a TON of research. We worked with the insights group to understand the segments and areas of opportunity, since they had done some testing as well. We did a lot of story boarding, and then we did several journey maps and some more storyboards to hone in on what scenarios we would follow. Once we came up with a likely scenario based on more research and some phone calls with experts in those fields, we started the actual strategy portion. We made some super high level designs based on the data and all the while presenting to the product owners, C level folks, IT and other interested parties. Once a strategy had been defined, it was up to the powers that had us do the work to decide what to do with it. Whether it became an actual product at that point wasn't up to us. 

The Strategist could also be strongly associated with the CX team, or also have CX as part of what they do. I think it is safe to say, planning, communication across teams, execution guidance, road mapping and of course, the qualitative and quantitive research are all aspects of this type of position. Just as not everyone can do true research and testing well, not everyone is good at communicating UX across teams and presenting.

So, I've shared some of my ideas of what makes a UX strategist, now lets hear from you.