Why experiences?
At a basic human level, experiences are the currency by which people form opinions, relate to each other, and make sense of their world. Moreover, as services/products are increasingly homogenized, people are seeking out those companies that offer compelling experiences. For companies, each and every interaction with a person is a chance to create a unique experience, and the chance to create value.
Design:
Design translates an understanding of human experiences into ideas, insights, innovations-things of value to the business. We use design to create things-from new product or service ideas to new processes-and communicate them in a way that impacts all levels of your organization.
Strategy:
Well designed experiences must also be strategic for the business as well as the customer. For the business, all design experiences must speak to the business value they create. For customers, these Design Experiences must be strategically aligned across channels to reinforce and compliment each other, creating a comprehensive (and pleasing!) customer experience scenario.
"Kind of like…"
In terms of impact to your organization, experience design strategy is comparable to business strategy. In fact, experience design Strategists and biz strategists use a similar toolset. But where business strategy focuses on competitive forces, experience design strategy focuses on the customer experience.
In practice, experience design strategy is more closely aligned to a brand or marketing strategy, but with some important differences:
How does experience design strategy differ from a traditional brand or marketing strategy?
| Experience Design Strategy |
Traditional Brand or Marketing Strategy |
| Values personal insights and ideas gained from qualitative customer data |
Values quantitative analysis and statistical findings |
| Creates a dialogue with your customers |
Creates one-way communications |
| Creates better experiences |
Creates the promise of an experience |
| Works across departments and disciplines to align capabilities around desired customer experience |
Works within the capabilities of one department |
| Creates narrative experiences across multiple media |
'blasts' of the same message across multiple media |
| Focuses on reinforcing a central brand idea through compelling individual experiences |
Concerned with owning a 'word' in the customer's mind |
| Process is participatory - everyone is encouraged to get involved |
Process is exclusive to selected participants; excludes many interested stakeholders |
| Concerned with creating memorable, compelling interactions |
Concerned with creating creative ads and messaging |
| Seeks to improve any and all places where customers interact with designed materials |
Seeks to improve all marketing communications materials |
- How long does it last?
- We offer the greatest value to your organization
when we have time to gain a deep understanding of your customers, and the design
space in which experiences take place. Sufficient time allows us to move past a
superficial understanding of what people are doing, and make our own outside observations.
Timewise, we've worked on small projects that lasted six weeks, though projects
with longer timeframes will typically yield better results.
- What will I get?
- Deliverables vary according your situation. In the past
we've created everything from written briefs to complete 'immersion spaces'-rooms
you can take people to, where we've facilitated the exchange of ideas. Though we
always create something to refer to, the best situation is one in which deliverables
are unnecessary, where everyone has aligned around a central idea or vision needed
to move ahead.
- Is this just customer research?
- While we do look to users
for research, the nature of our interactions is very different. For example, customer
research tends to be centered more around inquiries into what people have to say,
with little or no emphasis on observing actual behaviors. Also, when reviewing information
the team has gathered, we prefer to include a variety of backgrounds, experiences,
and personalities in the review process-which reveals patterns and insights that
might otherwise be overlooked. More importantly, we create. We use the information
we gather to create actionable business plans, concepts and prototypes, recommendations
for business improvements, and more-depending on your unique situation.
- Do we depend on customers for original ideas?
- While the customer can be
a valuable source of ideas, more often the interactions between our team and people
(both internal and external to your organization) produce the best ideas. We see
the customer as a critical source of inspiration for innovations, but we also value
the contributions that talented individuals can produce when given the right information.
