Below are my notes from Luke’s pre-conference workshop at the IA Summit, as collected from my tweetstream from that morning.
RT @lukewdesign: For those interested in what Influencing Strategy by Design is all about: http://bit.ly/danYPN
Step 1 to Influencing Strategy by Design: Don’t get suckered into playing their game (by calculating ROI, getting an MBA, etc.) #ias10 11:44 AM Apr 8th via web
Trying to “educate” the business on the value of UX will likely fall on deaf ears or be seen as whining about lack of influence #ias10 11:47 AM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign is play-acting an inarticulate UX designer lamely explaining why they designed a game console the way they did 11:55 AM Apr 8th via web
Point: UX designers too often provide lame, subjective and unsubstantiated explanations for their design choices. This undercuts us #ias10 11:57 AM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: What limits your strategic influence within your organization? Answers: dif. languages, locations, lack of vision & resources 12:01 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: 2 common executive syndromes that hamper good design: “scoop & poop” and “sniff & piss” #ias10 12:03 PM Apr 8th via web
UX challenges broadly categorized: organizational imbalance, market situation, lack of shared understanding & resources #ias10 12:08 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: What would you like to see happen as a result of greater strategic influence? 12:11 PM Apr 8th via web
Common desired outcomes: better collaboration, product success, company success, personal pride, satisfaction, job enjoyment. #ias10 12:12 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: To influence strategy, stop playing the role of the “victim” and take full responsibility for all design outcomes #ias10 12:15 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Make yourself response-able for design issues. “Make the problem YOUR problem” 12:16 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: To stop being the design victim, stop complaining about lack of influence and trying to “sell” UX 12:28 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Try to avoid the “camaraderie of victimhood” – emphasize what you can do to improve the situation #ias10 12:30 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Response-ability & ownership feels very dif from victimhood – more empowering but also a bit scary #ias10 12:42 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: The point is: don’t just sit there & lament your lack of influence, DO something about it #ias10 12:43 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Go and create value; people will see that & start coming to you #ias10 12:44 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: No one cares about your process – explaining it is not going to influence anyone’s behavior #ias10 12:46 PM Apr 8th via web
“Leadership is action, not position.” — Donald H. McGannon #ias10 12:47 PM Apr 8th via web
“Hierarchical command/control is becoming less relevant. This century is about distributed leadership maximizing creativity… #ias10 12:51 PM Apr 8th via web
… and collaboration with a global sensibility and focus on sustainability.” @lukewdesign #ias10 12:52 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Don’t try to mimic business talk or processes; instead, leverage the unique principles, skills & perspective of design #ias10 1:00 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: A design approach can complement the business approach, as long empathize with the business’ view #ias10
Key differentiator: where the business tries to measure outcomes, designers are more interested in actual customer activities #ias10 1:05 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Most people are visual learners, but only 10% (including designers) are visual communicators #ias10 1:06 PM Apr 8th via web
Business is profit-driven, whereas IAs are solution-driven. These complement each other. @lukewdesign #ias10 1:07 PM Apr 8th via web
Design’s core competencies: Insights, synthesis, means & meaning. – Chris Conley, IIT #ias10 1:13 PM Apr 8th via web
Alternative to IQ as measure of intelligence: general intelligence, based on visual pattern recognition. Designers excel at this #ias10 1:17 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: eBay designers showed the value of what they do by doing it – i.e. using design skills to tell a story about the data #ias10 1:26 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Creating compelling visual diagrams to explain complex issues can provide huge business value to decision makers #ias10 1:34 PM Apr 8th via web
Summary: Trying to learn business speak = huge uphill battle that puts designers at a disadvantage. Better to leverage design skills #ias10 1:37 PM Apr 8th via web
Simple visualizations of the context for the design work can lead to important strategic discussions @lukewdesign #ias10 2:11 PM Apr 8th via web
Interesting detail: @lukewdesign studied graphic design as an undergrad, working with a woman who studied with Tufte 2:13 PM Apr 8th via web
Business basics: Different market states (emergent, growth, mature, declining) require dif responses @lukewdesign #ias10 2:16 PM Apr 8th via web
The metric NetFlix cares about the most? Length of time subscribed. #ias10 2:26 PM Apr 8th via web
What is THE metric that matters most to your business? It’s not always easy to prioritize it. #ias10 2:30 PM Apr 8th via web
Designers: use the qualitative data you have to get to the crux of what matters – i.e., use Occam’s Razor. @lukewdesign #ias10 2:33 PM Apr 8th via web
Good metrics help you 1) understand the current system state, 2) measure performance toward a goal & 3) assess the viability of alternatives 2:35 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Push back on designs with lots of “Learn more” and “Read more” links – Amen to that! #ias10 2:39 PM Apr 8th via web
The people who do good design have 3 things: feedback, vision and (supportive) culture – @lukewdesign summary of Jared Spool article #ias10 2:47 PM Apr 8th via web
Recap: Treat strategic influence as a design problem, use your existing design skills & take control of the metrics @lukewdesign #ias10 2:50 PM Apr 8th via web
[Post-break public speaking exercise]
@lukewdesign demonstrating “slide madness”: creating a narrative to go along with a random selection of slides. Funny schtick #ias10 2:56 PM Apr 8th via web
@kevinmhoffman ‘s turn to improvise a narrative for random slides – brave man #ias10 2:58 PM Apr 8th via web
“Expert dessert monitors” use “the best of Buddhist values” to “bring Buddhism into the social media metaphor” – good stuff! #ias10 3:01 PM Apr 8th via web
@kevinmhoffman: “We’re kind of like a Twinkie moving down the road of the food industry” – live standup comedy at #ias10 3:03 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: 3 points of slide madness: enthusiasm matters, the story “between the slides” is crucial, & be ready 2 think on yr feet #ias10 3:11 PM Apr 8th via web
Pecha Kucha: business meeting meets poetry slam – http://bit.ly/cA8qeH #ias10 3:18 PM Apr 8th via web
@lukewdesign: Keep asking “What are our goals?” until the conversation hits paydirt #ias10 3:21 PM Apr 8th via web
Executives are completely removed from customers; UX designers are not. Use that to our advantage. #ias10 3:23 PM Apr 8th via web
