Strategy for UX. But where’s the UX vision?

“When you take your place at the strategy table as a UX leader, lean in and ground yourself in your deep understanding of customer behavior. Make it central to how you express your product strategy. This customer-focused approach will allow you to provide unique value to the master plan when you practice and evolve the three conventional business skills that I shared from my journey.”

(Sara Ortloff Khoury ~ User Experience Magazine)

From business, through digital to C/UX strategy. The plan to achieve the vision.

“The statement that they agreed to participate is significant. Some of the people I asked to participate in this interview said their companies wouldn’t allow it. A couple of the UX Strategists who did participate said that they would have to send their responses all the way up the command chain for editing and approval. Why the secrecy? Why can’t UX Strategists share their craft openly like other UX professionals do when they discuss things like Photoshop filters or research methods or JavaScript tips? It’s because a UX strategy is a valuable asset that companies want to protect: a battle plan for success in the digital realm.”

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters)

Whatever strategy your business has, it must be a digital strategy.

“This column focuses on three key aspects of aligning User Experience with a company’s business functions and, thereby, breaking out of the mold of user interface design: understand the company, the competition and the customer.”

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters)

Without a strategy, the HOW gets lost and the WHY remains static in the UX vision.

“Today, organizations interact with their customers through multiple digital channels such as call centers, mobile devices, applications, and Web sites. It is not enough to create a strategy for these channels from business, technology, and marketing perspectives. Rather, it is essential that an organization’s UX strategy be at the core of user-centered design. A UX strategy establishes goals for a cohesive user experience across all channels and touchpoints.”

(April McGee ~ UXmatters)

The brain and strategy, an ideal combination.

“Finally, the corporate world is catching up with UX fanatics. Companies are hiring UX designers and UX strategists like crazy. As these UX professionals complete projects, many organizations are happy with the new software they’ve created, but they haven’t necessarily learned why and how they can continue to implement better user experiences in the future.”

(Lori Kirkland ~ UXmatters)

Now UX Strategy is the subject for this DTDT format.

“In the minds of many UX professionals – at the levels of both members of UX teams and UX executives – there is no such thing as UX strategy. But based on the scenarios that I’ve described in this column – all of which I’ve taken from real-life situations – the felt absence of UX strategy indicates that it urgently needs to become a reality.”

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters)

“Many design teams launch into development without a shared vision of the user experience. Without this shared vision, the team lacks direction, challenge and focus. This article describes how to use the ‘Design the Box’ activity to develop a user experience vision, and then describes three ways of publicising the vision: telling a short story; drawing a cartoon showing the experience; and creating a video to illustrate the future.” (David Travis ~ UserFocus)