Posts Tagged UX
#CXDNow – Understanding and Engaging Your Market in Conversations that Matter
It is clear that we all need to better understand what our market is talking about and who are the people influencing our market so we can design better products and share our value with potential customers. But how do we figure out where to start? How do we sort through all of the noise to find the people and conversations that matter most to our organization? How do we optimize our engagement for maximum impact with limited resources?
In the first episode of 2016, Chris Heuer is joined by co-host Dave Gray of XPlane to talk with Marshall Kirkpatrick of Little Bird to dive into a conversation about the contextual segmentation and analysis of a company’s market to effectively engage in influencer marketing. In this conversation, we’ll look at graphs of Twitter friends around companies and markets, analyze their connections for opportunities, and talk about how you can combine data analysis at scale with authentic communication and creativity in your work.
We will also answer your questions! So join us on Blab this Friday January 29, 2016 at 10am PST for an in-depth conversations into the influencer’s role in customer experience design and how we can better engage them to improve the experiences we are providing and increase awareness of what you have to offer the market.
Guest: Marshall Kirkpatrick
Marshall Kirkpatrick is a co-founder of Little Bird, a social media marketing and research technology that does contextual segmentation analysis of target markets, online audiences, and company stakeholders, using social graph analysis. In this episode of CXDNow, Marshall talks with Chris Heuer and XPlane’s Dave Gray about how you can use knowledge about the different contextual segments relevant to a company to optimize your work, in marketing or design, for maximum relevance, efficiency, and impact.
Sponsored by XPLANE:
XPLANE is a strategic design consultancy focused on addressing complex challenges on the inside of organizations. We leverage visual thinking, people-centered design, and co-creation to design solutions that accelerate the way our clients envision, explain, and realize their goals.
About CXDNow:
CXDNow is back for season 2 of our series focused on understanding and successfully executing on customer experience design so that your organization may better serve, and ultimately win your market. In season 1, we focused on the fundamentals of CX Design through conversations with CX leaders such as Brian Solis, Risto Lahdesmaki and Tom Illmensee among others. As we move into 2016, we will be bringing you stories from more leaders around who will share their deep insights and practical advice in pursuit of advancing the field for the benefit of all.
Putting CX to Work. See the forest AND the trees with Dave Gray
In this extended episode of CXDNow, host Chris Heuer interviews Dave Gray, founder of world renowned visual communications firm XPlane and author of Gamestorming
During the conversation, we skim across the broad concepts and processes before diving quickly down into the detailed depths of putting CX to work. How do we approach Customer Experience Design? Sure, it’s about empathy as we continue to discuss, but what does being able to draw have to do with it? As Dave Gray says, “whatever strategy you think you should have, if you can’t draw it, you can’t do it”. It’s this approach, going beyond design to use design as a way of thinking that distinguishes the work of Dave Gray and his team at XPlane. In this 20+ minute episode, be prepared for a rapid fire dose of killer insights that will take your CX Design to the next level. From how to see, to how to think, to how to do – Dave walks us through the forest and shows us the trees.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
A Conversation with a Master, Dave Gray’s Origin Story
Posted by cheuer in Conversation, CXDNow, Insytes on November 7th, 2015
In this episode of CXDNow, host Chris Heuer interviews Dave Gray, founder of world renowned visual communications firm XPlane and author of Gamestorming
Over the course of 20 minutes we go back to the early 90’s to learn how Dave’s experience doing graphics to support stories in the newspaper became a business, became the signature style for Business 2.0 magazine and ultimately lead to a completely different way of making strategy real. In many ways, the very same evolution that lead to the rise of Customer Experience Design, with Dave at the proverbial ‘tip of the spear’. It’s a fascinating story, and one that is both inspirational and informative. Listen in and find out why XPlane is one of the most sought after firms in the world.
If you would like to be a part of the taping of the show live and join in our post interview conversation, you can join us next Wednesday November 11, 2015 at noon PST as we discuss the future of CX Design, what is needed and where we are headed with several leading practitioners.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
CX: Making the Business Case with Risto Lähdesmäki
The time for customer experience design is now! In this episode of our web series CXDNow, host Chris Heuer interviews Risto Lähdesmäki, CEO of Idean. Following up on our discussions with author Brian Solis, and IBM Journey Designer Product Manager Doug Foulds, and Tom Illmensee, Director of UX for Prezi we are now diving into making the business case, or rather selling CX to management, and clients.
In part 1 we talk about Risto Lähdesmäki’s journey from his roots as a designer through his first user research firm and how it evolved to become Idean, with offices now around the globe. His thinking and his agency has grown as the idea of UX and CX has evolved. He talks about how he has been fortunate to connect with so many clients who really ‘get it’, who innately understand the value of CX. He also shares some of the differences between Europe and the United States.
In part 2 we discuss some of the aspects of the value proposition, most especially the reduction of friction in the customer’s journey, and the competitive advantage of those who understand CX and embrace it and iterate on it. In this episode, hear why he believes that every dollar invested in UX/CX can return 10-100x and help them win back market share and earn the loyalty of their customers.
In part 3 we are joined by Rit Mishra, a Senior Design Director at Idean to work out loud by collaboratively discussing and working on the Empathy Map and Customer Journey for our new community movement, We Are the Solution. In this very informative segment, we layout a basic framework of how we look at the CX before, during and after, from both a backstage and front stage perspective. If you are trying to figure out how to start with CX, this is the segment you want to watch.
Finally in segment 4, we dive deeper into some Q&A, talk about the future and about other key pieces of advice for getting the most out of CX.
If you would like to be a part of the taping of the show live and join in our post interview conversation, you can join us next Wednesday November 4, 2015 at noon PST as we interview Dave Gray, author of GameStorming
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
Risto Lähdesmäki Interview Part 1 of 4 – How did you get into UX?
Risto Lähdesmäki Interview Part 2 of 4 – Making the Business Case
Tom Illmensee Interview Part 3 of 4 – Putting CX to Work, #WeAreTheSolution
Risto Lähdesmäki Q&A – Part 4 of 4
#CXDNow – The Challenges to Overcome with Tom Illmensee
The time for customer experience design is now! In this episode of our web series CXDNow, host Chris Heuer interviews Tom Illmensee, Director of UX for Prezi. Following up on our discussions with author Brian Solis, and IBM Journey Designer Product Manager Doug Foulds, now we are getting to the more practical matters of how to be successful with Customer Experience Design.
In part 1 we hear Tom Illmensee’s origin story of how he came to work in UX and CX. Through his story, he illustrates one of the most fundamental issues in a way that connects you deeply with the need for empathy, and what that really means. Going even more deeply, he explores how to handle uncertainty and thrive. It’s a great foundation on which we build upon in parts 1 and 2.
In part 2 we jump into the biggest challenge of all, how to work well in cross functional teams. Throughout this episode, we learn some of the great things that Prezi is doing to improve collaboration in order to deliver the greatest value for their customers. There is a lot of fantastic advice you can put into use right away, like restructuring from departments for design and user research into communities of practice. How to rework the space to increase high value interactions. How to deal with inter personal conflicts. Ultimately, his best advice? Watch part 2 to find out.
In part 3 we finally do the segment I have been really looking forward to, Working Out Loud. In this segment, we are joined by Angela Long to work together on an empathy map for Nicole, a key persona for the mission of We Are The Solution. Using this empathy map as a straw man, we discuss aspects of how to approach its development, how to improve upon it and how it can be used. When I ask him about how to decide if an insight like the person feels fearful belongs in either the section on what they feel or in the section on pain, Tom says, “if you are having a discussion about where something [about the persona] belongs on the map, then you are doing it right”. Learning by doing, or watching others do it, is by far one of the best ways to learn.
If you would like to be a part of the taping of the show live and join in our post interview conversation, you can join us next Wednesday October 21, 2015 at noon PST as we interview Risto Lähdesmäki, CEO & Co-Founder of Idean about how to make the business case for CX Design. If you are trying to sell your boss on investing in CX, this is the show you have been awaiting.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
Tom Illmensee Interview Part 1 of 4 – How did you get into UX?
Tom Illmensee Interview Part 2 of 4 – The Challenges to Overcome
Tom Illmensee Interview Part 3 of 4 – Working Out Loud, #WeAreTheSolution
#CXDNow – Making the Business Case with Risto Lähdesmäki from Idean
In working to advance the field of Customer Experience Design, we have talked with author Brian Solis, IBM Journey Designer Product Manager Doug Foulds, and Tom Illmensee, the Director of UX at Prezi. We’ve talked about what it is, why we need it, what challenges we face and even some practical aspects of how to really get started doing it. So now it is time to turn to that all important question of convincing leadership to invest. In our next live Blab on Wednesday October 21 at noon PST, we will be talking with Risto Lähdesmäki, CEO & Co-Founder of Idean about how to make the business case for CX Design.
Following the advice of Tom Illmensee from our last show, it’s always good to start with small things, to show some simple proof. But how do you really get an organization to realize the true value of CX Design? What is the business case to be made if your organization is run by managers who are more concerned with the bottom line then they are creating value for your customers? What are the best ways to overcome the atypical challenges of unfamiliarity, cost avoidance and the dreaded question of ROI?
If you are striving to make CX part of your career path or simply trying to figure out how to bring CX into your organization’s processes around customer engagement and marketing, you must join us to talk to Risto next Wednesday October 21, 2015 at noon PST. With 6 studios around the world and more then 150 professionals, Risto knows a thing or two about the value of UX and CX which will contribute to your future success.
Risto Lähdesmäki – Bio
CEO & Co-Founder, Idean
Risto is an entrepreneur-spirited-jack-of-all-trades-creative-director. With a special talent for identifying business opportunities for his clients and is somewhat water-resistant to the phrase: “this is not possible”. With over ten years background in User Interface and User Experience design, he has been involved in hundreds of design projects and is shaping the future of branding through UX. Risto has led Idean’s rapid rate of growth across the US. Risto is an entrepreneur and designer at heart and has worked with start-ups as well as big enterprises his entire professional career. Risto was recently named PwC’s Most Valuable Entrepreneur 2015 at the Nordic Business Forum.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
SPONSORED BY IBM JOURNEY DESIGNER
#CXDNow – The Need for Customer Experience Design and Journey Maps with Doug Foulds
The time for customer experience design is now! In this episode of our web series CXDNow, host Chris Heuer interviews Doug Foulds, product manager of IBM Journey Designer (and sponsor of this show). Following up on last week’s discussion with author Brian Solis about his new book, “X – The Experience When Business Meets Design“, we dive deeper into why this practice is sorely needed and discuss the specifics of the IBM Journey Designer product, as well as where it is headed in the future as it goes from design tool to functional dashboard.
In part 1 of the interview we review some of the key concepts and specifically dive into the need for better collaboration across channels and across different teams inside and outside of the company. The need is largely driven, it seems, by changing customer expectations, but also by the growing complexity of an omnichannel world. By visualizing all of the different touchpoints we can better coordinate our processes for engaging the customers and ensuring consistency, which is often lacking.
In part 2 of the interview Doug tells us about how the product works to enable marketing teams to collaborate in their planning and execution in real time using IBM Journey Designer to visualize the customer journey. He says that he and his team are seeking early customers to go on the journey with them as they expand the product functionality from beyond the design/layout capabilities it has now, to become a fully functioning dashboard. Starting with SilverPop and extending to the full IBM Marketing Cloud. Eventually, they will even integrate other 3rd party marketing cloud solutions.
In part 3 below, I get Doug’s advice on how to start the process of building a customer journey map, beginning with the empathy maps. We talk about the mindset needed to approach it properly as well as some specifics about the questions we should be answering when we step into the persona of our desired customer. In this case, we are using the real world example of trying to understand and engage Nicole, who may become a volunteer for We Are the Solution. A new community initiative to end activism by opposition and bring people together to form collaborative solutions.
Finally, we wrap up with an open Blab conversation where we are joined by Marc Meyer, Digital Strategist at Accenture Digital where we discuss the long road ahead and the potential value of journey maps for smaller clients.
If you would like to be a part of the taping of the show and join in our post interview conversation, you can join us on Wednesday October 14, 2015 at noon PST on Blab as we interview Tom Illmensee, Director of User Experience and Design at Prezi, as we more deeply discuss The Challenges to Overcome.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
Doug Foulds Interview Part 1 of 4 – The Need for
Customer Experience Design and Journey Maps
Doug Foulds Interview Part 2 of 4 – IBM Journey Designer
Doug Foulds Interview Part 3 of 4 – Getting Started with Empathy Maps
Doug Foulds Interview Part 4 of 4 – The Blab
#CXDNow s1e2 – The Challenges to Overcome with Tom Illmensee from Prezi
Now that we have established the basics of Customer Experience Design, having talked with author Brian Solis, and IBM Journey Designer Product Manager Doug Foulds, we are going to start getting to more practical matters. In our next live Blab on Wednesday October 14 at noon PST, we will be talking with Tom Illmensee, the Director of User Experience and Design at Prezi. If you care about design, and great presentations, you know of Prezi, the dynamic visual storytelling tool that has transcended the typical boring slide show. So, it goes without saying that Tom is truly one of the masters in designing great experiences.
While we will certainly be tapping into his expertise to get some practical insights and advice, our focus for the next show in the series is going to focus on the challenges customer experience designers face. From selling the process to management, to coordinating teams, to making difficult decisions with little to no data and in particular in regards to the constant process of refinement that we must embrace to correct our mistaken assumptions. If you are striving to make CX part of your career path or simply trying to figure out how to bring CX into your organization’s processes around customer engagement and marketing, you must join us next Wednesday October 14, 2015 at noon PST.
Tom Illmensee – Bio
Tom Illmensee is the Director of User Experience and Design at Prezi, where he coaches user experience teams and fuels product innovation through design research. His 15-year journey in UX has covered wide territory: from a startup focused on philanthropy, to a software company helping people find service jobs, to an e-commerce giant and technology consulting. He’s even been a professional musician, preschool teacher, library clerk and cook. Along the way he has discovered new ways of collaborating and surprising paths to empathy. Tom has a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. He recently moved from Richmond, Virginia to Budapest, where he plays guitar entirely too loud, runs every day and refuses to shave.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
SPONSORED BY IBM JOURNEY DESIGNER
Get Ready for Customer Experience Design Now! #CXDNow
Posted by cheuer in CXDNow, Social Business on September 30th, 2015
[Update – watch the Brian Solis interview from October 3, 2015 now]
I’d like to invite you to join me on a journey to explore the state of Customer Experience Design in a new series I am producing and hosting, #CXDNow. Sponsored in part by IBM’s new Journey Designer product, together we will endeavor to “advance the field” through conversations with subject matter experts and leading practitioners. Further, as a community of practitioners, we will collaboratively work on developing a journey map for my new community project, We Are The Solution, putting the principles into practice in real time, together.
The series kicks off this Friday October 2, 2015 at 4pm PDT with a live Blab interview featuring Brian Solis, whose upcoming book “X – The Experience When Business Meets Design” dives very deeply into this subject. Together we will set the stage for the following six episodes to explore what CXD is, why we need it and how it is done. Then next Wednesday October 7, 2015 at noon PDT, we will discuss “The Need for Customer Experience Design and Journey Maps”. During that show, I will be interviewing Doug Folds, the product manager for IBM’s new Journey Designer product and one of the sponsors of the show to discuss his plans for bringing the practice of Customer Experience Design into the mainstream as a #NewWayToEngage.
If you are a customer experience designer, a journey mapper, an omni-channel marketer, a startup founder, a product manager or just someone who is interested in understanding this important topic further, #CXDNow is where you will expand your knowledge and hone your skills. Over the course of the series we will develop a body of work for the community that examines the business case, the core concepts and the specific practices that will enable you to design great experiences that enable your customers to find success on their journey.
While CXD has been around for quite some time now (often referred to as simply #CX, a cousin to #UX), it is just now finally coming into it’s own, hence the name of the show, #CXDNow. The Intention is to not only address the current state of the field but also to impress upon the business community the urgency for adopting these practices NOW. Given the soon to be released book, “X – The Experience of Business Meets Design” from my friend and colleague Brian Solis, and the other increase in interest and focus on this subject from organizations like IBM and others, the time to better understand this subject is definitely upon us.
I first began exploring the idea of journey mapping while working as the Chief of eBusiness at the United States Mint back in 1999, where I was charged with digital marketing responsibilities for the numismatist community (aka coin collectors). It was there that I developed what I called the “Customer Experience Lifecycle” (below), which later lead to my development of the Engagement Matrix while working with Palm and ultimately the Engagement Wheel while working with the American Heart Association while serving as a Social Business leader at Deloitte Digital.
What I came to realize was that organizations needed to go beyond customer-centricity, especially given how much lip service had been paid to that idea over the years without practical change in attitude or action. Now as a result of our increasingly transparent, connected market, it’s time for radical action, it’s time to embrace greater empathy, not only for customers, but also for employees, contractors and partners. In fact, as I think of #CXDNow, I believe there are three primary pillars that need to be explored:
- The business value of customer empathy
- Design thinking applied to the overall customer experience
- How we work together to create greater success
While each show in the series and posts to this blog will address its own set of issues, I am, as is often the case, looking at this opportunity more holistically. At the end of the series, it is my hope that we will have produced a unique collection of insights and resources that can be utilized to bring Customer Experience Design to more organizations and more opportunities to customer experience designers as a result.
The show will take the form of a weekly conversation with leading experts on Blab.IM. If you are a customer experience designer interested in being a guest on the show, or someone working to advance the field, please complete this simple form so we may consider you as a future guest.
Through the use of the hashtag #CXDNow, we will curate a set of resources for practitioners and collectively discuss a key question each week. The media produced will be gathered into multiple blog posts for posterity and further conversation right here on ChrisHeuer.com. Templates (aka Canvases) will be produced and shared that embody the best advice from practitioners.
While I am not anticipating building another Social Media Club for CXD, the possibilities of what we can do together as a community are endless. That said, I am seeking your support and input to solve a massively important social problem through our work on the journey maps we are developing for We Are the Solution. Together, we will explore how can we build a movement of activism focused on cooperation in the development of reasonable solutions, instead of activism through opposition.
I am grateful to my friends at IBM, PureMatter and from across the Social Media Club community for the opportunity to bring together many of my diverse talents and interest in this series, and look forward to expanding awareness of the importance of Customer Experience Design as well as the skills of its diverse practitioners. So join me this Friday afternoon at 4pm PDT as I interview Brian Solis and again next Wednesday October 7, 2015 at noon PDT as we launch our journey towards #CXDNow.
To get started, the question of the week for you to consider, “Why do we need Customer Experience Design now more than ever?” Tweet your responses back to me using the hashtag #CXDNow and we will discuss them on the show.
Need help creating design moving customer experiences? IBM Journey Designer enables you and your team to collaboratively visualize journeys, set shared marketing goals, and create and refine tailored experiences for dozens of priority segments. Learn more on this blog post or try it at no cost at ibm.com/journey-designer.
SPONSORED BY IBM JOURNEY DESIGNER
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Chris Heuer is the founder of Mentor Bureau, a global collaborative of Startup Mentors focused on #SmoothScaling over #Hypergrowth. He has invested his life in working to create a better society through personal and community efforts that brings people together such as Rysing Tyde and Social Media Club. To learn more about Chris, visit his profile on LinkedIn.