5 reasons design thinking facilitation can amplify the success of your internal team
One of the great superpowers of design thinking is that it’s a methodology that anybody, or any organization, can learn and deploy, quickly and efficiently. As proof, one only needs to look at the growing numbers of organizations and enterprises building internal design thinking capabilities and teams. We have worked with some great internal teams who are embracing the methodology and positively transforming their products, services, processes and cultures.
5 ways to maximize the value of your UX research
Qualitative user research, in the form of interviews and observations, is an incredibly important aspect of UX design and experience design. It’s in users’ stories where you find true points of differentiation and previously unknown opportunity. Here are five considerations you should keep in mind to help ensure you’re getting the most from your UX research investment.
What is business design thinking (and why should you care)?
To those new to the concept, the term design thinking may seem like something that only designers could, or should, do. But nothing could be further from the truth. Business design thinking is the utilization of the traditional design-thinking methodology to conduct a more human-centered examination of a product, service or experience, to define what aspects of those things might be improved, to imagine and prototype solutions for addressing those improvable aspects, and to test and refine your solutions.
Who should own the digital customer experience? Marketing or I.T.?
In a perfect world, every department within every company, and all of the incentive packages of everyone working in every department making up those companies would be aligned around delivering a seamless, amazing digital customer experience. But in our professional experience, there are frequent debates (some of them quite fierce) about what department or group “owns” it. That debate arises from a number of factors. The most common, as you may have guessed from reading the opening line of this post, is misalignment between budget authority, project accountability, and controls.
Three smart reasons why you should be customer journey mapping
In any of its existing forms—and there are many—customer journey mapping is simply the act ofdescribing what occurs at every stage of interaction between a customer and your business. That could cover everything from how they find the business (online or physically), whathappens during any visit or transaction, how they experience customer service or even howthey talk about your business” on social media before, during and after the transaction.
How to start prototyping (and why you should).
If we’ve learned anything from watching the progress of evolution in the natural world, it’s that everything, no matter how established, is a prototype for a more highly adapted successor. That isn’t meant to be a life-or-death warning of doom; it’s meant to say that prototyping is part of the natural order of exploring, evaluating and optimizing ideas.
What’s the difference between digital transition and digital transformation?
Often swapped out for one another, digital transition and digital transformation actually differ greatly in focus and, usually, in scope. Digital transition focuses on the basic (though still potentially massive) shift from analog, or physical, information to that which is stored, recalled or manipulated, using a digital platform. Digital transformation involves a change in how the enterprise or institution structures relationships or conducts transactions enabled by technology. Let’s take a look at a few examples of related transitions and transformations to get a better feel for the nuance.
Service design vs. experience design: How are they different and why does it matter?
Service design and experience design are often two sides of the same coin. Both are a means to make an engagement or transaction more customer-centric and satisfying. However, there is a distinction that is important for you to know.
How to Produce SEO Content
If you are sitting at your laptop and wondering what you’ll write about for your next thought-leadership article, blank page staring you in the face, just take a few minutes and use these tools to let your customers tell you what they want to read. It will help you ensure how you’re saying what you’re saying aligns perfectly with how your customers are phrasing what they’re asking for.
How Does Your Brand Impact Your Customers’ Experience?
Take a moment to think about every interaction a customer has with your brand. Consumers no longer think of your logo as your brand. Your brand is the sum of every experience with customers—the entire customer journey from awareness to loyalty. How do you create brand positioning for the experience economy?
Keeping the Human in Human-Centered Design
Recently, at Experience Design Week in Denver, we led a round table discussion with a group of experience design professionals who worked for a range of companies; some as large as Amazon and Google, some as small as a recently-pivoted tech startup. No matter the size of the enterprise, we heard the same issues discussed as challenges from nearly every participant. Read on.
The Death of Jibo: Why Experiences Should Return to the Edge.
As consumers buying cloud-dependent products, we’ve definitely entered, “fool me twice” territory. If you haven’t already heard, Jibo, the first social robot for the home who looks, listens and learns, is saying its final goodbye. Read our latest blog on why experiences should return to the edge.
You Want an Experience, Not a Concept
As a partner who understands the sense of urgency around needed UX concepts, it’s important to define the strategy and the user needs to create an experience that resonates. Read on to get started on your experience.
Three AI Fueled Startups You Should Create Right Now
We help companies translate what they know about trends and emerging technologies into potential business ideas. Here are three interesting technologies and three accompanying products we expect someone to create, so why not you?
How to Get People Talking About Your Brand
Pixels, code and IT infrastructure will always be there, but it's the way you make people feel that transforms an ordinary transaction into a story-worthy note in their day. Read on for three tips to get people talking.