Adaptive Path Blog

Everybody seems to be clamoring for a seat at the strategy table. It came up at the IxDA-SF talk on the Worth of Design, it’s covered in an engaging post by Josh Porter of Bokardo, and the world according to Google says that 143,000 folks are talking about it.

Um, why is everyone talking so much about The Table?

I think it’s because designers want to be involved in setting the strategic agenda and to be recognized for delivering work that is a key to making the business successful. And I believe that there’s a perception that being involved in big decisions that impact the business is critical to delivering well-designed things.

I hear folks say that design thinking is different from other kind of thinking, and that by infusing design thinking into the strategy of an organization, the business will be more innovative. The perception here is that designers are the hero best suited to use design thinking to pull the innovation sword from the strategy stone. In fact, the more I read about it, the more there is to read about it. Conversation in the blogdom is aswirl with the trifecta of seat at the table + design thinking + innovation.

Hmmm.

I’d rather play out of bounds. Instead of talking about design-with-a-capital-D, sitting at the table of power or innovation as the end-all-be-all, let’s talk about people who make things. I think designers are at their best when they make things…the other topics are important if they improve the making process…otherwise, it’s just talk.

I’ve seen designers make great impacts and thrive best when they chuck out the old and make up new rules. And I believe that people and teams who reframe the rules, change the game and make great ideas into great products get included in important conversations. Strategic conversations. You know, the ones where people decide what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

So, in the spirit of DIY, here is your very own seat at the strategy table. All you need to do is build it yourself, using the design tools of Cut + Fold + Stick:

1. Cut through the noise and identify a clear customer need or desire that you can address with your design.
2. Fold business metrics and goals into your design objectives and process.
3. Stick to your guns. Prioritize and focus rigorously to move the design forward and get it built and out the door.

Get started today…build your own seat at the table!

In 2003, Adaptive Path conducted research and wrote a report on how considering ROI can positively change user experience work. One of my most satisfying project experiences involved working with a client, and using the approaches we identified in that report, and help them tie design work to actual financial outcomes. We found out later that the business cases we built around the design work helped our client team get another $20 million in funding for their project, because it became clear that design was not a cost, but an investment.

My colleague on that project was Brandon Schauer. He has been able to take the ideas from that initial report, and, through project work with a range of clients, develop tools for communicating business value. This is the subject of his upcoming virtual seminar, “Showing the Value of UX,” taking place August 6 at 10:00am Pacific Time (1:00pm Eastern, 1700 GMT). This course is a must for those who’ve recognized the strategic importance of their work, but have had trouble articulating it to their colleagues.

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My latest essay, Mobile Carriers, Will You Be Our Heroes? was inspired by a conversation with one of my favorite thought leaders, Bruce Sterling, who will be speaking at this year’s UX Week in San Francisco. I asked Bruce his thoughts on the future of mobile carriers and his response was surprising. He expressed empathy for them. He cited their brutal history as the cause of their brutish reputation. After digging up some research on the history of telephony here in the U.S., I realized how very right Bruce was. Few realize that US mobile phone carriers were forged in a crucible of business brutality, and their gruff, brutish behavior towards customers is an artifact of that historic legacy. But why should they change? I have some ideas…

Read more: Mobile Carriers, Will You Be Our Heroes?

This Wednesday night I’ll be joining a great IxDA-SF panel at Adobe Systems to try to get to the bottom of it. While we probably won’t come up with an exact dollar figure (so sorry!), I expect we’ll get into the benefits of being able to connect design to business value and some of the skills and approaches for making it happen.

I’ll be joined on the panel by Nathan Shedroff, chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at the California College of the Arts; Rajan Dev, president of Hot Studio; and our special guest moderator Jess McMullin of nForm and the bplusd.org blog.

Find out more about the event on upcoming, and I look forward to seeing you there!

A couple evenings ago, Adaptive Path hosted a pair of presentations on content and copy. The first speaker, Kristina Halvorson, hails from Minneapolis firm Brain Traffic. Her talk was great, (and you can see it on Slideshare) but I found it bugged me a little bit. In it, she talked about the role of content strategy, and how it is often overlooked in the development of websites. I wouldn’t disagree, but I found the tone of the discussion reminscent of discussions about information architecture in 1998… We poor unloved souls who are brought into the process too late and aren’t given the credibility we deserve. Why won’t anyone pay attention to us?

I didn’t have time to ask the question, but I think content strategists have placed themselves in this situation, because they have not drawn a connection between their work and real business value. During the first web bust, information architects and interaction designers did a lot to demonstrate how their work lead to behavior changes that had significant impacts on the metrics that companies care about (I’m not talking just about ROI, but simply tying one’s work to a business’ larger goals).

I haven’t seen the content strategy community do the same. How will businesses benefit from content strategy? By making that case, content strategists will not be the poor shmoes asked to replace “lorem ipsum” on wireframes, and will instead be involved in the planning and strategy discussions.