Conference round up: UX Strat Europe 2017

Earlier this month I attended the UX STRAT Europe 2017 conference in the heart of Amsterdam along with Bunnyfoot’s CEO Jon Dodd.

The two-day conference (sponsored by Bunnyfoot) covered a range of topics related to UX Strategy and included talks from ‘in house’ UX professionals as well as external consultants. More specifically:

the first day focused on how UX Strategy can be applied to create individual products/services which simultaneously deliver great experiences and solve business problems
the second day talks addressed how a UX-led culture can be established within an organisation and the benefits this brings.

Dr Jon Dodd, CEO of Bunnyfoot speaking at UX STRAT 2017

Although the concept of UX Strategy is not a new one, it is becomingly increasingly important as companies seek to deliver great customer experiences and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Consequently, the conference was an excellent opportunity to hear from other UX experts working at the coal face of developing and advocating the use of UX Strategy.

So, what’s hot in the world of UX Strategy right now?

Design the right experience

Citing the rapid pace of technology development and adoption, a number of presenters talked about the need to design the ‘right experience’. This means several things:

Design an experience that people actually need, i.e. help them achieve their goal(s)
Consider the ethics of design choices – do products/services make people’s lives better or just seek to make money?
Don’t think that technology is always the answer – consider all the ways in which great experiences can be delivered

It’s important to remember that, for a UX Strategy to work, business, as well as customer, needs have to be met. This was highlighted by several presenters who discussed:

The need for UX teams to engage with senior stakeholders to properly understand how to develop the business case for any future design activities and, therefore, having a better chance of selling the idea of UX Strategy
The correct use of metrics to understand the progress/success of experience design from a business and customer perspective
The need to align a company’s brand identity with the experiences it designs so that customers get the right impression of the organisation

Create a ux-led culture

Getting organisations to focus on delivering the right experiences works best when they have embraced a UX-led culture and think of experience design at a strategic level. A number of the conference talks suggested ways in which this culture could be formed, for example:

It is essential that a customer-focused approach is embraced at every level of a company – resistance/apathy at any given level of an organisation can be enough to kill cultural change
Having champions at every level of an organisation is a key factor in successfully embedding a UX-led culture – it is essential to have someone senior enough in the company to drive the change forward
Empowering everyone in a company to think about how they can improve the experience that their organisation provides for its customers and employees

How can you create effective UX strategies for your products and services?

If you want to know more about creating and implementing a UX Strategy, Bunnyfoot run a training course specifically aimed at doing this. The one-day course covers a wide range of topics related to UX Strategy and by the end of it you will be able to: