Misinterpretations About UX Strategy

UX is now an umbrella term that encompasses a lot of disciplines, and UX strategy lies somewhere at the intersection of UX design and business strategy. But the lines don’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, they exist connected across many systems in an elaborate anatomical structure. This is why there are so many different interpretations and terminologies floating around for UX strategy.

I first came across the term “UX strategy” in 2008 in a book called Mental Models by Indi Young²
. At the time of its writing, Young was attempting to help UX design ascend to the next level. As such, she offered her readers a mini-manifesto, which you can see in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2. Sidebar from the book Mental Models © 2008 Rosenfeld Media, LLC

I really wanted to understand what UX strategy meant, but aside from the fact that the difference between “experience” strategy and “user experience” strategy just seems to be one word, the book didn’t delve any deeper into this abstract equation. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with big interactive agencies to startups to enterprises. I’ve seen and heard many theories and definitions of the term UX Strategy. Because they are so different and there are so many, they confuse clients, stakeholder, recruiters, HR departments, startup founders and most of all new designers. This is ultimately what happened in the early 2000s when there was so much debate about the differences between “user experience design” versus “interaction design.” But if anything, these multiple interpretations can be useful in providing a grounding point of contrast. So let’s get the big ones out of the way.

MISINTERPRETATION 1: UX STRATEGY IS ABOUT IDENTIFYING A “NORTH STAR”

Reality: The North Star is not the brightest star in the galaxy, but it has been used for navigation throughout history because of its “fixed” location in the sky³
. In the context of the digital age, a team identifies that fixed point as the goal of their game plan and then sets course for it. This traditional business strategy approach can work to galvanize a team in a large slow-moving enterprise. But what if your solution is an innovative digital product or service about to be launched in a fast-moving consumer marketplace full of uncertainties? This requires an agile process that is variable and iterative with continuous feedback loops along the way. You don’t want a North Star to guide your UX strategy; instead, you want a goal or point toward which to steer every time you pivot.

MISINTERPRETATION 2: UX STRATEGY IS A “STRATEGIC WAY” FOR UX TEAMS TO PERFORM UX DESIGN

Reality: I guess the opposite of this would be doing nonstrategic UX design? It seems like there is a tendency to label design decisions as “strategic” when most are about implementing strategy rather than setting it. When we are talking about how a team or an individual is tactically going to attempt, optimize or handle the way they tackle their UX design initiatives, we are talking about the augmentation of an organizational process. Moreover, if organizations truly need some kind of “playbook,” then maybe we should invent a new role for that called “UXOps” much like the trending DesignOps or DevOps roles springing up in enterprises. Because obviously, new technologies and companies are going to require that the UX design process is customizable and fluid to their needs.

UX design and UX strategy are two different things. When you are doing design, you are creating something. When you are doing strategy, you are coming up with a game plan before creating something. One way to explain it is to just substitute the word “product” for “user experience.” A product strategist thinks about all the possibilities for the product and defines it after researching the potential customers and existing competitors. She thinks about how much the product will cost to make and be priced to sell at and how it will be distributed to different customer segments. In contrast, a product designer actually fabricates the thing. They are two separate disciplines.

Too often, I have seen UX designers work on products without being informed of the overall business strategy. They are blind beyond what they’ve received in the business requirements document. This disconnect is why the Lean UX movement is so popular; it advocates that UX designers take on a bigger leadership role (“getting a seat at the strategy table”) by becoming the glue that holds cross-functional teams together.

MISINTERPRETATION 3: UX STRATEGY IS JUST PRODUCT STRATEGY

Reality: Misinterpretation 2 points out the similarities between a product strategist and UX strategist. However, that doesn’t mean that you can always substitute one for the other. UX strategy typically goes beyond just one digital product. It can span dozens of different digital products, services, and platforms; it interconnects all members of a digital interface family and more often with an offline customer experience (CX). Here are just a few examples to consider:

Apple

Mac and iMac computers, iPhone, Watch, CarPlay, the physical Apple Store, Genius Bar service, iTunes, iCloud, and so on

Google

Search, Gmail, Maps, Nest, Pixel, the Google cloud, and so on

Amazon

Store, Prime, AWS, Kindle, Alexa, Amazon Studios, Whole Foods, and so on

The UX strategy makes a case for all touch points and weaves them into a seamless ecosystem between buyer and seller through the UX design and CX. It accounts for the user’s entire journey down the funnel. (For more on this, see Chapter 9.)

MISINTERPRETATION 4: UX STRATEGY IS CLOSELY TIED TO BRAND STRATEGY

Reality: Brand strategy is how, what, where, when, and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering your brand messages through your distribution channels. Aspects of brand strategy can help define aspects of your product’s UX design and vice versa. But it’s easy to confuse these branding efforts and goals with a UX strategy. A poor UX can actually decrease the “brand value” of a product but not so much the other way around. Even the brandiest of brands can’t overcome the poor UX of a product.

In their book Lean Entrepreneur⁴
, Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits say, “Marketing can increase awareness for the product, but if the product sucks, that’s what the buzz will be.” Apply this thinking to Google. It has a fantastic brand. Now, think about products like Google Glass, Google+, and Google Now. These products were consistent with the Google brand strategy, but they failed to stand up to public scrutiny on their own. When these products debuted, they baffled users and failed to acquire them. Google Glass bombed particularly hard at the “Big Picture” because customers could not understand what problem it solved or why they needed it. Instead Google’s $1500 unwearable wearable device became the butt of late-night sketches and was even outright banned⁵
by some bars and restaurants from being worn.

Another important thing to remember is that a solid UX design no longer differentiates brands. For companies such as Google, users assume the UX will be good. Google doesn’t have to announce it anymore, and when it’s bad, it’s all the more jarring. That’s why a UX strategy becomes even more potent. As the company grows and expands its digital properties, you need to constantly pivot and shift your game plan, baking your strategy into all online and offline services effectively, reliably and without friction. A digital product/service/platform needs a good UX no matter what.

So What the Hell Is UX Strategy?

UX strategy is the process that should be started first before the design or development of a digital product begins. It’s the vision of a solution that needs to be validated with real potential customers to prove that it’s desired in the marketplace. Although UX design encompasses numerous details such as design patterns, user flows, microcopy, and (ultimately) how easy it is for a user to accomplish a task, UX strategy is the “Big Picture.” It is the high-level plan to achieve one or more business goals under conditions of uncertainty.

The purpose of any strategy is to create a game plan that looks at your current position and then helps you get to where you actually want to be. Your strategy should play to your strengths and be mindful of your weaknesses. It should rely on empirical, lightweight tactics that quickly move you and your team—because let’s face it, you’re probably not doing this alone—toward your desired destination. A solid strategy is the difference between success and failure. In the digital product world, chaos—time delays, increased costs, and bad user experiences—get exacerbated when there is no shared product vision among team members.

And you will discover as you read through the chapters, that the founders and early hires of Metromile were constantly strategic from day one to de-risk their value proposition long before launch. And they continue to strive for innovative advances today through experimentation and collaboration.

Why a UX Strategy Is Crucial

A mental model is the conceptual model in a person’s mind about how a thing works. For instance, when I was 10 years old, I believed the way my mom got cash was by going to a bank, signing a slip of paper, and then receiving the funds from the teller. When I was 20, I believed I needed to take a bank card and key code to access an ATM to get cash. But if you were to ask my 15-year-old son how to get cash, he would tell you to go to the supermarket and ask the cashier to give you some back when you pay for your groceries. The 2020 mental model for getting cash is very different from the 1976 mental model. That’s because new technologies and new business processes come together to offer a more efficient way for people to accomplish tasks. Stale mental models are overturned. Life is disrupted for the better!

This is why I choose only to work with open-minded clients whether they be startup founders or enterprise stakeholders. Open-mindedness means that they are receptive to challenge, experiment, and possibly accept failure of their initial ideas. If I see that a potential client is fixated on an idea and not open to the possibility of deviation, then they don’t need my help. They should go ahead and implement their vision, and as Eric Ries warns, “Launch it and SEE what happens.” My favorite clients are the ones who truly want to change a mental model and are open to experimenting their way to a successful outcome.

Even though envisioning innovative products is fun, it’s hard to get people to change their behavior. Customers have to see the value in the new way before they’ll consider abandoning the old. Devising new products to solve serious dilemmas is not for the faint of heart. You must be passionate and at least a little crazy to run headlong into all the obstacles that inevitably will get in the way.

Yet it’s the passion to solve a problem, change the world, and make it an easier place to live in that makes for game-changing products. And this passion is not limited to the stakeholders. It also emboldens people who have titles like product manager, UX designer, or developer. These are people who are also passionate about using technology to devise products that customers want. When you bring these types of people together, you have the necessary means to potentially make magic happen and destroy outdated mental models. Because our time on earth is finite, so why else would you want to build anything else?

My goal in this book is to demystify the practice of UX strategy so that you can do just that. You’ll be able to immediately apply UX strategy techniques to your projects in a variety of work settings to keep you and your team from getting overwhelmed no matter what limitations you face.

I’ll show you how it can happen through a variety of case studies.I’ll even reach back into my family ancestry because I know I was incentivized to be entrepreneurial from watching and learning from my parents. You’ll see how the journey is the reward no matter if you’re a teacher, student, or maker. You’ll also see that no matter the project or the circumstances, devising products is like being on a rollercoaster, and the only way to keep the product on the rails is to use empirical, cost-efficient strategy techniques.

As a UX strategist, I am paid to help my clients face dilemmas and chase dreams. This is why solid problem-solving skills are absolutely critical to mastering UX strategy. Strategy goes beyond the abstract nature of design and into the land of critical thinking. Critical thinking is disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence⁶
. Product stakeholders and entrepreneurs use critical thinking in a UX strategy to help them connect the dots among all the points—the customers, their needs, and the solution they all want to solve using technology.

It is in this way that UX strategists need to be equally passionate about technology because the Internet continues to offer consumers an endless supply of digital options. Every click, swipe, and hover is a decision that users are able to make. They have choices—a gazillion of them—to buy or not buy, like or deride, share or forget, complete or cancel. You need to know what features to offer and how people actually use them. You need to understand all of the latest and upcoming devices, platforms, and apps so that you can consider their application for your solutions. You and your team need to do everything you can to ensure that Alice will fall down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

Are you ready to jump?