UX is dead, long live the Product Journey
Why such a harsh statement? Product development has gone a long way, from an abstract and philosophical approach represented by architecture in the antique to modern digital product organizations. One of the key aspects in the last 40 years that changed product development was the rise of User Experience (UX). While the relevance of UX did us all a great favor, it also lead to an imbalance and a somewhat questionable self-perception of UX. The major issue with the latest development being the obsession with users only, rather than having a cross-functional and holistic approach towards products and services in general — the Product Journey. But first things first:
Vitruv stated in 32–33 BC, that architecture should cater to three aspects equally: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas. These can be translated accordingly to: stability/strength, utility or usefulness, and last but not least, beauty. He probably would be pleased with how people are trying to incorporate beautiful design in almost every possible product out there. While the modern equivalent for the combination of quality, usefulness and good design is what we call a good User Experience or UX nowadays. Since then, the relevance of aesthetics within common goods and later on technical products only increased. With the release of the Macintosh in 1984 the three aforementioned principles had conquered the digital world and never disappeared. As aesthetics came with a high price tag, all technical, rather relied on durability and usefulness.
This changed only slightly — until the release of the iPhone in 2007. Nevertheless in 2010 when I started my Degree in Human Computer Systems, companies were still focussing on Usability, firmitas and utilitias, rather than the overall User Experience. However the iPhone and its state of the Art User Experience, showcasing an unmatched Usability, already started to take the world by storm. Good UX as a Product Company’s principle was finally about to take off and change how (digital) products were developed radically. Shifting from a pragmatic frontend that represented all features in one way or another towards a meaningful and seamless experience - like to the iPhone.
More companies had to completely readjust, not only their products design, but the whole product development, based on the new raised expectations. This started with casual consumer oriented products and even forced highly domain-specific software to become more user friendly, heralding the end of the era of paid extensive trainings. This first created a demand for external UX experts and ended up in almost every company that can afford it hiring their own UX specialists.
Fast forward to the year 2022. There are more UX titles out there than companies exist. From UX Designer, over UX Researcher, to UX Engineer and UX Writer — and these are just some of the roles excluding Visual Design aka UI Design. While this is a natural occurrence in every emerging field that becomes more mature over time, it has also lead to lots of confusion about the role of UX and it significance for organizations. Especially leading to an influx of only minimally skilled and self-proclaimed UX folks, that don’t understand the mechanics behind good User Experience anymore, but rather copy “best practices”.
Over the course of the last years almost a tyranny of UX has been established in many organizatons, leading to a perceived importance of UX that doesn’t come true to reality. While having the user in mind is crucial to good products, the success of a product is not only determined by the perceived user experience, but rather by the all experiences that a person can encounter when being confronted with a certain service or product. This concept even goes beyond Customer Experience as it relates to various contexts and various roles — the Product Journey.
The main reason behind me emphasizing the importance of the Product Journey is, that it brings together not only all aspects and roles that come up in the context of a Product, but it also brings the whole Organization to the table. This is important because like in general, every product is a team effort, with each member having a certain role. This also negates that any role is more relevant than the other in the grand scheme of things. A catastrophic product can’t be marketed by even the best sales team, while a great product won’t generate any revenue without an appropriate sales structure or relevant target group — and a great product without a good business model is doomed anyway. Last but not least: try building anything without having engineering skills or good engineers (software & hardware).
In the end, this means that UX professionals shouldn’t be the sole User/Customer advocates, but that everyone involved in a product- or service-driven organization should act as one, thus keep the Product Solar System moving. UX and CX Professionals should do exactly what their titles say: have a professional approach towards User/Customer Experience, while standing their ground where needed and listening to other peoples opinions when appropriate. This also applies to every other role within an organization: collaborate towards a better Product Journey, rather than pushing individual agendas.
A great example of an overall superior product journey versus seemingly superior products can be found in my other article.
