What Is User Experience Strategy, Anyway? “Strategy” can be a difficult term to define. Many people have a different understanding of what strategy really is, and it can be difficult to articulate the output of a product’s strategy phase or for product development as a whole. While exact definitions are endlessly debatable, in this article I aim to distinguish between strategy and user experience (UX) strategy, the design of products and services with a focus on the end user. We haven’t seen much discussion of how important content is. Is it more important than timing? The Difference Between Strategy, Business Strategy, Product Strategy, and UX Strategy •Strategy as a whole is the articulation of where you are now, where you want to be, how you will get there, and how you will determine your success. •Business strategy is the identification of guiding principles for how a company will compete in its industry and where it should invest to achieve business objectives. •Product strategy addresses how to deliver on the business strategy in terms of how a product will be differentiated, positioned, and sold. •User experience strategy builds upon an organization’s business and product strategies through a shared vision for a product or service from the end user’s perspective. UX strategy can also extend beyond a single product to create a vision for what a customer’s interaction with your company will be like across multiple products and touch points over time. User Experience Strategy Components The following elements of a UX strategy are (preferably) informed through user research to identify user needs and goals and stakeholder involvement to identify business goals. They are best defined through close collaboration with a cross-disciplinary team and business representatives. Though a UX strategy can relate to a single product or to an experience across products, the components below will be described from the viewpoint of a single product. Simply replace the word “product” with “experience” or “service” to get across the same concept for more holistic strategies. Where are you now? •Current state definition: If the product already exists in some form, define the value you deliver to users today and what issues you know exist. •Competitive analysis: Identify what competitors are offering and any gaps in your offering. Find out what differentiates your product today. •Business & product objectives: Explore ways your product can realize what the business hopes to achieve. Identify how your product is going to fit in with other company offerings. Where do you want to be? •Core value definition: Define the purpose of the product you are building, and what user needs you will address. Figure out what will be necessary to bring unique value to the product. •Experience opportunities: Discover opportunities to enhance your product’s content, structure, interactivity, ease of use, design aesthetic, etc. •Experience principles: Establish the guiding principles that will serve as a benchmark for all product design decisions. Find adjectives to describe your future product. •Experience mapping: Describe what the phases of a user’s interaction with your product will look like. Be sure to include user expectations during each of those phases, the tasks they are trying to complete, and the channels with which they will interact. How will you get there? •Roadmap: Plan the development of your product so that you can progressively enhance the experience and maintain cohesion. Decide which elements of the experience will be addressed first. •User stories/requirements: Translate your plan into tangible product requirements. Define the capabilities that will support user tasks. How will you measure success? •Success metrics: Define what success looks like for your product. Identify the measurable targets you are aiming to achieve. •Measurement plan: Identify the quantitative and qualitative methods that will be used to validate your product’s success. User Experience Strategy Format Output variation It’s important to note that the output of a UX strategy can vary depending on what needs to be done before your team feels confident in the shared vision for your product. Not all of these activities must be done in order to create a solid strategy, though some work should always be done for each of the major components: where you are now, where you want to be in the future, how you will get there, and how you will measure success. Documentation To successfully communicate a UX strategy’s components, you’ll need to determine how it will be documented, visualized, and shared. Strategy doesn’t have to be articulated through a massive written document (with the exception, perhaps, of detailed requirements documentation). The most effective strategies are conveyed in easily consumable chunks: •Succinct written summaries of your findings •Sketches or storyboards illustrating how a user will interact with a product over time (these don’t need to be the same as detailed wireframes) •Diagrams or maps depicting the phases of a user’s experience with your product •A one-pager that the team can easily refer to in order to keep the end vision in sight Benefits of Creating a User Experience Strategy Without understanding where you are today and where you want to be in the future, it can be difficult to ensure that you are making something of value and that will achieve your business objectives. Creating a UX strategy helps to: •Get your entire team to buy into the experience you’re creating •Clarify abstract design thinking •Map design and development decisions back to the agreed-upon vision •Reduce time spent building components that don’t contribute to user or business value While defining a strategy up-front can be a strong influence to the rest of the product development process, your strategy should be flexible and adaptable as ideas and your approach evolve. Most important, strategy should be seen as a constant visible presence that feeds into all product design decisions, rather than a single step in the product development process.