Welcome to our interview series on Experience Design Strategy.
In this series Tim Loo, Executive Director of Strategy at Foolproof, will be talking to global leaders and experts on the thinking and doing of experience design strategy.
Tim’s first interviewee is Paul Bryan, a Consultant Strategist and organiser of UX Strat Conferences and Masterclasses, which are held around the world.
If you’d prefer to listen on the move you can also listen to the interview as a Podcast on iTunes. Alternatively, download the interview as a PDF to read later.
Interview notes
- How Paul got into experience design [1:13]
- Definition of UX strategy [3:48]
- Renaming UX Strat conference as XD Strat [5:41]
- How agile and lean are a step back for user experience design [7:17]
- The core elements of the UX Strategy and Planning process [8:59]
- How to build influence in legacy companies [11:18]
- UX Strategy — the maturity curve [13:06]
- UX strategy and organisational barriers [14:33]
- The role of an experience design strategist [24:04]
- Advice for pursuing a career in experience design strategy [27:37]
- Why building relationships is essential for successful strategy [30:22]
- Why a data focused approach is important for strategy [32:52]
- The future of experience design Strategy [34:45]
Transcript excerpt:
Q. How do you define user experience design strategy?
A. Well, actually, I use your definition Tim in my materials so I’m just going to read that off of the workbook: How does Tim Loo define UX Strategy?
“A long-term vision, roadmap and key performance indicators to align every customer touchpoint with your brand position and business strategy.”
I guess I get asked that a lot because of people saying “there’s no such thing as UX strategy” — due to an article a long time ago called ‘There’s no such thing as UX Strategy’, but there should be and I said that at the time back in 2012. I think it’s more around not necessarily UX strategy and what is that, but what is the thing and then the strategy that goes with it.
Q. One thing you mentioned is about a shift from user experience to experience design, and you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that. How has your thinking evolved over time?
A. When user experience came out, the idea that you centred your efforts on what the people using the technology were thinking, feeling, needing, rather than on a list of product features, was a revolution. I think the idea of user experience often brings to mind screens, whether that’s a phone screen or computer screen. UX seems tied to screens so in that sense I don’t think it’s a forward-looking term. At that point it was very useful, but now not so much.
Q. Is there any specific advice you would give to someone who wants to pursue a career in experience design strategy?
A. Yes, first of all I’d say are you sure? Because some people like to design things and like to sit down with Photoshop and Illustrator and make things and I think that’s awesome. I’m not that gifted in that area, but I am very familiar with information design and information architecture processes and things like that, but I’m not a designer per say. So, if you really love design, it’s not to say you can’t be a strategist, but if you are you may be focused on other kinds of things — more metrics, numbers, KPIs — your day won’t necessarily be crafting a cool interaction that has nice movement, nice narrative etc. So, I’d ask first of all: are you sure? Is that really what you’d like to see your career do?
Useful links
- Connect with Paul on Twitter
- Contact with Tim on Twitter
- UX Strat Conference
- Strategy and Planning Group on LinkedIn
- More useful articles for Developing a UX Strategy
- Find out about our Strategy & Planning practice
