Where should UX report?
For those who know me professionally, they understand why this would be the topic of my first article on UX. Where in hell should UX report :-)?
UX is a buzzing word now and it has been so for the past 10 years. More and more companies are realizing it's importance. Even those who don't really understand its value, they just want it in their organization. They just want it now and at any cost.
This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone since the digital existence of any company is of increasing importance. Many consider competing at the level of experience as a major differentiator. This automatically reserves the UX leadership seats at the big boys table. Now, UX designers are spending more time in the political grounds in any organization than they do pushing pixels. Therefore, the question comes again. Where should this very important, very politicized entity report to?
To break it down, there are three options: IT department - Commercial/Marketing department - Separate entity reporting to CEO
Considering the first option, reporting to the IT department. Well, it makes a lot of sense that many would think that design would flourish in the IT department. Just imagine the collaboration that would happen between designers and developers. The time saved in communicating the designs. Everything would be very "convenient". Too convenient that the UX team could find difficulty in asking for the less "convenient" options. What about the "not technically feasible" options? who would support those. KPIs like customer satisfaction, delight, conversion rate, revenue, task success rate... all these do not belong in the IT domain but are very important goals to the UX. Looking at design the conventional way is what makes many still think that the only place UX belongs is the IT department.
Let us take the second option, reporting to the commercial/marketing department. Since "User Experience" is all about understanding the users and putting them first, then who understands the users more than the marketeers. Well, by experience, it's not that simple. Although it is true that there are a lot of benefits to collaborate with marketeers, there can be a lot of exploiting to the user and manipulation. Looking at big flashy numbers is what puts a big smile on their face at the end of the day. They may not care about keeping the users happy as much as keeping them coming. Well, some may argue that what is wrong with looking at revenue and numbers as the measure of success for UX. "We don't live in a perfect world where we create applications to benefit humanity do we?" I heard that exact line before. My answer was "No, we don't. But humanity will spit it back at your face if you don't". Bottom line, marketeers have markets to venture in to, competition to beat, campaigns to launch. Simply empathizing with the users and considering their needs does not surface anywhere in their priority list.
The third option, separating from both and reporting directly to the CEO. Wouldn't that be just perfect. A UX representative to side with the user needs. If the IT would communicate feasibility, Marketing would communicate viability then this third department would represent desirability. It goes down to answering the question: if we can do this feature and we could make money out of it will the users find it helpful and use it? I think if any organization can answer this question in an objective, non-bias way, this organization would top any competition in any field. But again, it's not that simple. Organizations still don't fully understand UX to make such a drastic decision of seperation.
After considering the three options many times and asking a lot of UX management about their experience, I came to this conclusion: IT DOESN'T MATTER.
There is no right answer, It totally depends on the culture of the organization. UX can be anywhere as long as it is supported and given its needs in terms of resources and budget. It is up to a strong UX leadership to make sure the the user needs comes first for the sake of sustaining their product adoption.