We hear a lot about UX strategy but what is it and how does it differ from business or product strategy? Do you need it, and how do you go about getting it? That’s a lot of questions to cover in twenty minutes, but Alison will make a start by calling on her experience of helping companies think more carefully (and strategically) about their customers. About Alison Alison has a career going back over 25 years and has established and run UX teams in both agencies and client-side organisations. She is currently Consultancy Director at experience design agency Bunnyfoot where, as well as supporting Bunnyfoot’s growth and evolution and delivering their UX strategy training course, she works with organisations such as EDF Energy and Sony Playstation to help them improve their performance by becoming more customer-centred in their approach.

1. Is UX Strategy
even a thing?

2. So, strategy…

3. And tactics…

4. Business tactics

5. Business tactics

6. A CEO may have a goal of making money for
the company’s shareholders. Her strategy
might be to deliver high quality consultancy
with a high profit margin, and one of her
tactics may be to drive down operating costs.
The ops director on the other hand will have
the CEO’s tactic as his goal with an
associated strategy.
Project
Department
Business
Corporate
Hierarchy of strategy

7. Definition: A UX strategy is a plan of actions designed to reach
an improved future state of the organization’s user experience
over an established period of time.
– NN Group
Now let’s add UX into the mix
UX Strategy
What good UX strategy actually entails
is researching and recognizing the
constraints and concerns from all sides
and painting a big red target on the
wall so that everyone involved can make
decisions that serve researched, vetted,
and defined objectives.
– Robert Hoekman Jr
[UX] Strategy is about uncovering the key
challenges in a situation and devising a
way of coordinating effort to overcome
them for a desired outcome.
– Jim Kalbach

8. UX strategy is “the intersection between user
experience design and business strategy”; it’s a
way to figure out if the experience offered by a
product or enterprise is helping achieve stated
business goals.
Introducing Jaime Levy

9. ● Consumer behaviour is changing quickly and is difficult to predict.
Why do we need a UX Strategy?
● To ensure that UX design and business strategy are aligned.
● There are more touchpoints and adoption is quicker, leading to unmet and
misunderstood requirements and expectations.
● To provide direction for all aspects of the design, resulting in less rework.

10. ● The key thing to remember is that to be successful,
UX strategy can’t exist in isolation.
● It needs to support and work alongside business
goals and strategy, whether that’s at product or
organisational level.
● It’s not a fight; they need to pull in the same direction
otherwise the product will fail.
Product Strategy & UX Strategy
How do they work together?

11. Product Strategy or UX Strategy
Product Strategy UX Strategy
Opportunity:
Focuses on business elements,
identifying gaps in the market
Understanding user needs
Anticipating changing behaviour
Creating an engaging and compelling experience
Customers:
Acquisition: how will we bring
customers to the product?
Retention and conversion: how will we keep
customers and encourage them to buy, return,
recommend?

12. Product Strategy or UX Strategy
Product Strategy UX Strategy
Revenue:
Lowering production costs
Calculating price point
Understanding user needs
Anticipating changing behaviour
Creating an engaging and compelling experience
Competitive
advantage:
Cost, availability, functionality
Experience, ease of use, design
How well it meets the needs of your customers
Does it meet the needs of new audiences?

13. How do you get one?
Drivers
Current state
Barriers
What is our business strategy
(and brand strategy)?
Where are we now?
How do we get
there?
Desired state
Plan
What are the barriers
to progress?
How will we know
we’re on track?
Where do we
want to be?

14. What is the business
(or product) strategy?
What’s your target market position?
What are your brand values?
Who are your target customers?
How should your customers feel about you?

15. You need to understand
where you are now
How well is your current experience working?
What are your customers’ goals, needs,
priorities?
What’s in your customers’ environment?
What is the current customer journey?

16. And where you
want to be
What is your vision for the desired customer
experience?
What will the future customer journey be?
What are your guiding experience principles?
How will you add value to your customers?

17. You need a plan
What are the gaps between the current and
desired customer experience?
How will you close those gaps?
How will you prioritise your ideas and ambitions?

18. You need resources to
put your plan into action
Do you need additional hardware or software?
Do you have enough people, and do they have
the right skills?

19. Identify and mitigate
constraints
What are the barriers to progress?
What (or who) might stop you reaching your goal?
How will you overcome the barriers that you’re
aware of?
How will you identify new and unknown hurdles?

20. Monitor progress
What are your plans for ensuring that the
experience continues to meet the needs of your
customers?
What are the key performance indicators and
targets for creating the future customer
experience?
What metrics will you use?

21. How do you get one?
Drivers
Current state
Barriers
What is our business strategy
(and brand strategy)?
Where are we now?
How do we get
there?
Desired state
Plan
What are the barriers
to progress?
How will we know
we’re on track?
Where do we
want to be?

22. So is UX strategy a thing?
Absolutely. But it needs to
work alongside product
or business strategy to be
effective.