Design for a new decade: The best stories about customer experience, strategy, and design from 2019
By Osmaan Akhtar, Jenny Framularo, Andrea Hack, Alex Van Atta, and Lara Wagner
A list of “the best of X” is always tricky business — inevitably you leave something critical out or focus too much on one area. But the editors and writers of Slalom Customer Insight are never one to shy away from a challenge, especially at the beginning of a new decade.
We gathered together some of our favorite (and, yes, maybe even the best) articles that we read last year in the space of customer experience, strategy, and design. We emphasized interdisciplinary articles — reflecting our team of strategists, designers, dashboard champions, marketers, and more. And we prioritized impactful stories whose insights would have continued relevance in the coming year and beyond.
Let’s dig into the best of 2019 to help you design for the decade to come.
Our favorite 2019 stories on customer strategy
“Focusing on Customer Experience Is No Longer Optional” by Chris Cancialosi on Forbes
“CX is a way of thinking. Seeking out, what is it that I do in my job that really makes a difference for colleagues / customers and then being fanatical about persistently and consistently improving on it and delivering it can benefit customers regardless of who they may be.” — David Hicks, CEO of TribeCX
The need for stellar customer experience is on the rise — key players that continue to do it really well (e.g., Amazon and Uber) steadily raise consumers’ expectations across the board. This article highlights what successful organizations do to remain at the top: put themselves in their customers’ shoes, understand their end-to-end journeys, and isolate moments that disproportionately shape the experience. —Nominated by Osmaan Akhtar
“Make the small steps count in your customer experience strategy” by Malek Tayara in Slalom Customer Insight
“Instead of spending six or more months laying out a strategy on how to become more customer-centric, tell employees that you want to become more customer-centric and let them start thinking through and executing on ideas.”
In this article, Tayara explores how companies can shift their thinking and culture to be more customer-centric. He takes a complex need and lays out tactical steps to get from point A to point B. With his game plan, companies can work to inspire their people to put the customer in the center of everything they do, and incorporate continuous evolution into the soul of their organization. — Nominated by Alex Van Atta
“The New Rules of Customer Engagement: Key Trends from Global Research” by Vala Ashfar on the Salesforce Blog
“Most companies must realize that they are no longer competing against the guy down the street that sells similar products… They’re competing with every other experience a customer has.”
Salesforce surveyed over 8,000 customers worldwide in order to analyze the current key customer engagement trends. It’s no surprise that they found that customers have increasingly high expectations regarding both the quality of engagement and the product or service.
This article takes you through the key trends and what companies can do to drive more effective customer engagement. Since overall customer experience is so important in winning customer love, companies must realize that every company is competing against each other, no matter what they sell, to provide the best customer service. — Nominated by Jenny Framularo
Our favorite 2019 stories on experience and design leadership
“Why Every Company Needs a Chief Experience Officer” by Denise Lee Yong in Harvard Business Review
With many organizations adding a Chief Experience Officer (CXO), this article describes the role as being “responsible for Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Experience (EX) who helps an organization develop and unleash the combined power of both disciplines… a true “experience officer” should head up both the CX and EX functions and be responsible for creating a mutually reinforcing link between the two.”
While CX may seem sexier to some, I’m personally energized when these two come together. One example shared is from Adobe where they implemented “listening stations where employees could go either online or physically in an Adobe office location to hear from customers directly and learn about their successes and challenges. Not only did this increase employee engagement by helping them understand Adobe customers better, but with that understanding, employees developed tools and solutions that better met customers’ needs, thus ultimately increasing customer engagement.” — Nominated by Andrea Hack
“The Right Way to Lead Design Thinking” by Christian Bason and Robert D. Austin in Harvard Business Review
There’s a lot of talk about design thinking these days. This article gets in the nitty gritty of what it means to lead these efforts and how to change your culture to support it. It can’t be something executives say “Yeah yeah, I support it” — and then look the other direction. You can’t want the outcomes of design thinking without putting in the work to support it.
What I appreciate about it most about this article is that it’s chock full of real. 👏 life. 👏 examples.👏 This isn’t an article filled with theory; the detailed examples cover:
- Where organizations were using design thinking
- How employees struggled with this new way of working
- Tactics leaders used to cultivate the new way of working and help overcome the challenges employees were having
This article is a behemoth. Don’t click the link until you’re really ready get into it — and get something out of it. Roll up your sleeves, get a highlighter, and take some notes. — Nominated by Andrea Hack
Our favorite 2019 stories on design and accessibility
“The New $41 Million Hunters Point Library Has One Major Flaw” by Elizabeth Kim on Gothamist
After 15 years of planning and construction and $41 million dollars spent, the Hunters Point Library in Long Island City opened — and critical reaction almost immediately focused on glaring oversights in its design. Key parts of the building are only accessible by stairs, making portions of the library inaccessible or extremely challenging for children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and even the librarians themselves (who use carts to re-shelve books).
How did the architects design such an elaborate and expensive building without, seemingly, consulting the needs of the people who put it into everyday use? While the building technically complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, critics and community members were shocked that the design seemingly did not account for common-sense mobility.
This story is a perfect example of how truly great design must begin with the end-users in mind. Start with Kim’s excellent article to get a sense of the challenges and initial response. Then see how the conversation (and the library’s design itself) has continued to evolve in more recent articles in Curbed New York and BookRiot. — Nominated by Lara Wagner
“What does mobile-first design mean for digital designers?” by Tony Ho Tran on Inside Design by InVision
This article stresses the ongoing need and push for mobile-first, highlighting three tips: adhere to a content-first visual hierarchy, employ solid navigation options, limit real estate to what’s relevant.
One key takeaway is that by observing mobile-first, you’re inherently enabling a more accessible design. — Nominated by Osmaan Akhtar
Our favorite 2019 stories on innovations in the industry
“How Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty delivered ‘Beauty for All’ — and a wake-up call to the industry” by Sandy Supato on Think with Google
“The best way to break through with inclusive marketing is to share authentic stories that are rooted in culture and are emotionally meaningful to the consumers you serve.”
Fenty Beauty is one of the hottest emerging brands of the past couple years. The launch of Fenty Beauty highlighted the importance of inclusive marketing, which jolted the industry and shifted the beauty landscape.
Supato, the Chief Marketing Officer at Kendo Brands (which includes Fenty Beauty), shares how inclusivity and integrity in marketing leads to success. Their team took a new brand live in 17 countries on the same day with an omnichannel marketing strategy, and were able to execute on Rihanna’s vision of a beauty brand that serves women of all cultures. — Nominated by Alex Van Atta
“The shopper of the future: Preparing for and profiting from change” by Robert Uhland and Marian Cook on Slalom Customer Insight
“The world is moving faster, and every retailer needs to experiment with emerging technologies and business models. To capture the hearts, minds, and dollars of shoppers of the future, retailers and brands need to be fluent in understanding how the landscape, consumer expectations, and consumption patterns are changing.”
As we approach a new decade, the roaring 2020s, it’s fascinating to both look back on how much has changed in the previous decade and look forward to how much could change in this next decade. Technology is constantly advancing and will continuously shift our overall customer experiences.
Consider the retail experience, for instance. In this article, Slalom experts Robert Uhland and Marian Cook take us through a vivid story describing what shopping on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue may be like in the future. They discuss the changing trends within retailers and what retailers can focus on in order to keep up with our always-evolving world. — Nominated by Jenny Framularo
“Chipotle Mexican Grill Introduces Drive-Thru ‘Chipotlanes’” by Teresa Finney on Forbes
Chipotle recently rolled out (in the center of the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago, no less!) a new way of delivering meals to customers that love a no-frills process for getting their food. Consumers have long been able to order their favorite Chipotle items via the restaurant’s app, and now they can enjoy a window-to-window pick-up experience via Chipotlanes.
With online ordering all the rage (particularly with Millennials), I like that this article cautions about some of the downsides that come with too much reliance on tech, which is particularly felt in coffee shops and restaurants like Starbucks and McDonald’s where employees describe the order intake process as ‘chaos.’ Time will tell how well Chipotle’s new food delivery method will evolve to meet customer demands. — Nominated by Osmaan Akhtar
Our favorite 2019 articles on the ways we work
“Those she/her/hers at the end of email messages are more than a passing trend” by Lila MacLellan on Quartz at Work
“Stating and understanding others’ proper pronouns is not a trend, but here to stay. … And as with other social issues, like women’s reproductive rights, progressive companies are setting the tone even in places where they are at odds with the prevailing politics.”
This article traces the rapid (though overdue) rise of confirming pronouns in the workplace, including its adoption by influential leaders like MasterCard, Lyft, Workday, and IBM. As improved gender literacy moves into the mainstream, expect to see pronouns noted in both your internal and customer-facing communications.
MacLellan cites clinical psychologists and gender identity rights experts on why pronoun literacy matters — as well as the importance of making it one of many sustained activities and habits by which your organization creates an inclusive environment for all gender identities.
So if your workplace is hustling to add “she/her/hers” to every signature but is falling short on the more complex work of building an inclusive workplace, this is a great article to drop in HR’s inbox. — Nominated by Lara Wagner
“Are you the bright spot in someone’s day? Am I?” by Andrea Hack on LinkedIn Pulse
It’s no surprise that customer expectations are extremely high these days. But it’s hard to remember that so much of the customer experience is dependent on personal interactions with others throughout our day-to-day activities, not necessarily corporate company policies or technologies.
This article is a good reminder that the personal interactions matter. Hack takes us through some small moments of her day-to-day life that brightened her experience. They were not earthshattering; they were small acts of genuine kindness that broke the norm, but they made the difference in her day. Reading through her experience, it got me thinking on two goals for the new year:
- Recognize the little things and practice gratitude. It’ll likely brighten your overall mood and make it easier to pass it forward.
- Accept the challenge to continuously strive to better someone else’s day. You’ll brighten their experience, and you could even motivate that person to pay it forward.
Will you join me in this New Year’s Resolution? — Nominated by Jenny Framularo
Slalom Customer Insight is created by industry leaders and practitioners from Slalom, a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation.
