A Tale of Two UX Teams
When it comes to creating great experiences, company culture is key
In the sprawling suburbs of Chicago, there existed two organizations devoted to making life better for humankind. Each one developed products and provided services intended to improve the health of its customers. But their products were not always widely adopted, their services were seldom used, and they often fell short of their missions.
Those who donned business suits and bore lofty titles spent many hours contemplating this dilemma in meetings. They spoke of new features and marketing campaigns, and tossed around words like “innovative” and “seamless” while stewing in their quandary. They renamed their meetings “workshops” to induce creative brainstorming. This, they thought, would enable them to address their dilemmas.
After many workshops (which were just really long meetings) and much discussion, they concluded that they should employ a team of professionals devoted to the user experience of their products. And thus, in each organization, a user experience (UX) team was born.
The teams were very different. Both started small. They were scrappy and nimble, with only a few able bodies to handle an immense amount of work. But one team grew while the other remained small. The team that grew—Team L—employed all…
