Integrating UX into Large Enterprise Organizations

For our final post in our Enterprise UX Design series we wanted to tackle the biggest challenge: organizational change. Given the potentially limitless size and scope, we’re going to insist on being realistic as you imagine how this would apply to your situation, and also focus on how to integrate these user experience design practices and methodologies into your enterprise organization.

To start, you must ensure that your analysis, planning, execution, and socialization of UX practices is targeted at multiple groups within your organization including: executives, technology, product, sales, marketing, and business. Without the participation, input, and validation of key stakeholders from those groups, you are bound to fail. We also advise that you structure your plan so you can build on early, small wins and implement change organically over a long period of time.

The goal of user experience design is to improve the relationship between you and your customers, as well as to improve their experiences with your offerings.

Customer Relationship Improvement

User experience design is a method of applying user-centered design methodologies to solve product, service, and application problems.

The goal of user experience design for enterprise software is to improve the relationship between you and your customers, as well as to improve their experiences with your offerings. Pulling your customers closer to you provides them with a voice and brings you closer to them to that you can truly understand their usage context. This will establish a better, tighter feedback loop where your customers are not just providing problems (“bugs”) or wish lists, but instead equipping you with information to meet their needs (past, current, and future).

Focusing on Customer Experience (not just UX and UI)

User experience design isn’t just moving pixels; it’s much bigger than solely the user interface (UI). So think broadly here. You should start considering the entire customer service experience: the full
 life-cycle of your customer’s experience across every channel, digital and non-digital. Evaluate every touchpoint, and redesign each one as necessary to meet your customer’s needs.

 

Utilize Enterprise UX Research

Here at Fuzzy Math, we understand that enterprise UX research is more than a single “phase” of a project. Design research should be a continuous activity on the part of your organization. If that idea resonates with you, step back and think about how true that statement is for your current company. There is most likely a long road ahead of you, but the benefits will be impactful.

If you accomplish one item during your integration it should be to infuse your organization with design research, and provide a basis for UX organization design. The design research process involves conducting primary research to empathize with users, applying frameworks to uncover deep customer insights, and translating those insights to effective, efficient, and enjoyable interactive experiences. Affirming the importance of enterprise UX research as a continuous process and then utilizing those results to strategically contribute to your organization will improve the relationship between you and your customers and ensure your product is the market leader.

Design research is more than a single “phase” of a project. Design research should be a continuous activity on the part of your organization

Manage Expectations & Openly Discuss Integration Impacts

As designers, we have three major roles in design strategy. First, we must listen to organizational needs and the needs of our customers; second we should provide a means of ongoing dialogue between these two groups; and third, we need to instill a process that facilitates improvements to our customers’ product experience.

To start, you should perform an assessment of the current state of the following processes and activities: product management, requirements gathering, prioritization exercises, user experience toolsets, customer research, and data and analytics collection.

Your plan for UX integration must include as much responsiveness and empathy towards others within your organization as possible.

For each core component you introduce, you need to prepare an introduction, set stakeholder expectations, and then host a workshop on the potential impacts. Ask all stakeholders to discuss the potential impact of changes to roles and people, existing processes, and tools and data. This will form the foundation of your plan for UX integration and it must include as much responsiveness and empathy towards others within your organization as possible.

Finally, take the potential impacts and present a comparison of the current to the short, near, and long term. This document will be a common lens, generated by your evaluation and stakeholder workshops, to frame the changes.

Ready to integrate user experience design practices into your own enterprise organization? Get in touch to learn how Fuzzy Math’s UX Organization Design services can help launch your team forward and amplify your future impact.

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