Dear Santa, it’s time your workshop hired a UX team.
I don’t want to put a damper on your holiday spirit here but I’ve gotta say, I’ve been burned a few times from Santa.
I’ve had him leave lumps of coal in my stocking. I’ve had presents addressed as “To Julie” (really Santa? I thought you checked that list twice). And for the past 13 years, he just hasn’t come at all. Didn’t even text to say why.
Who knows how they run things up in the North Pole (not very well, it seems) but down here, we expect a great customer experience, whether we’re shopping in a store, using a physical or digital product, or having something delivered to our house.
Obviously Santa and his team haven’t gotten the memo. His black and white approach to gift giving that divides the naughty from the nice, the gifts from the lumps of coal, shows he really hasn’t done much user research and I question if he actually reads those letters kids send to the “North Pole.”
So Santa, if you’re reading… our team of Product and UX professionals here at Domain have rounded up our best advice for delivering a great user experience this Christmas. Take notes — we expect to make your nice list this year.
#1. HIRE the right people. First of all, get yourself some great UX writers and designers who can teach you how to get to know your customers, and how to empathize with them. I mean, you’re still leaving people lumps of coal. That’s the opposite of empathy. Our Product Director has some tips for you on how to scour the globe for the right hires.
#2. Be nice yourself. It’s unfair to taunt us all year round with promises of leaving gifts if we’re nice, when you yourself have been known to be not-so-nice. Rarely do you let people know why you missed their house. You had my 5 year old cousin in tears last year, wondering if you were dead or not. Luckily, I write error messages for a living and was able to kindly run her through a few possible scenarios:
(404) Santa’s lost somewhere, check again next year.
(400) Ouch, bad request. We can’t locate Santa on Google Maps. Try again in about an hour.
(500) Hmmm an internal error… this one’s on you. Be nicer next year.
Bottom line is, we like you a lot Santa, but we also love Amazon, and at least they let us know when (and why) they can’t make it to our front door. So take it from me, if you don’t want to be replaced by technology, you better read up on how to stay in our nice books.
#3. Forget about your big red suit, it’s doing you a disservice. Did you know there are hundreds of guys down here making a living off impersonating you? We know there’s so much more to Santa than meets the eye, but who are you, really? Jon wrote a controversial blog earlier this year (that may have landed him on your naughty list) touching on the dangers of letting your logo define your brand, and I think you could learn a thing or two from it.
#4. Tell your elves to stop being so boring. They’ve got a bad rep for dishing out highly technical troubleshooting advice to children who can barely read and write, let alone understand the PhD level toy manuals they send out. Here, have them read this blog on how to write better help copy. Guarantee it will cut down calls to your workshop support centre.
#5. Have an offsite. I suspect your team would benefit a lot from seeing your “naughty” and “nice” culprits in their natural habitat. It’s one thing to observe people remotely, but quite another to see them in the flesh. Speaking of people on your nice list, Joseph has some tips for you on how to plan that team excursion.
#6. Get Mrs. Clause on board. Rumour has it she controls the finances up there and her purse-strings are pretty tight. We know all about the trials of getting your stakeholders on board, in fact, Kaya dedicated this whole post to it (a box of chocolates also helps).
#7. Get that drone idea out the door. You can’t tell me that by 2018, you haven’t thought of a more efficient way to deliver presents around the world than Rudolph and his frenemies (hint: get your elves on drone duty). I know you’ve got a big idea under that red hat, you just need some guidance bringing it into the world. Take a page out of our books and read Mary’s case-study on how we go about bringing an idea, to an MVP, to a fully fledged product.
#8. Stop talking, start doing. We’ve all seen how big your workshop is (even if Hollywood has exaggerated it slightly) and yet the volume and consistency of product you and your elves push out the door suggests you’re not really living up to your values. Don’t feel bad about this one, it’s a problem every team faces now and again. We spend too much time idolising and talking about how we want to work, instead of actioning those ideas. It’s pretty easy to turn this one around, here’s a guide to get you started.
#9. Seriously get to know the people on your list. You talk a big game about knowing us well (even when we’re sleeping, which is a bit creepy BTW) but the presents you leave under the tree tell a different story. Who’s designing these things, anyway? You left a muscle rub cream in my stocking one year that looked just like toothpaste and my mouth is still numb. Your elves would do well to learn more about the people they’re building toys for, before wasting their time building stuff that doesn’t actually address our needs. Let Josh show you how it’s done.
#10. Familiarise yourself with the product world. It’s a big jump going from designing toys all willy nilly to taking a user-first approach that’s grounded in research. But don’t worry. When you and your workshop are ready to take the leap, Amy’s got you covered with these top things you should know about moving into Product.
We certainly hope you take our advice to heart because there’s a whole lot of people counting on you this Christmas.
