Create urgency - UX & change management (2/10)

This is the second article in a series on UX design and change management.

One effective way to establish a sense of urgency is by creating dramatic presentations. These are depictions of real problems, narrated from the perspective of a person experiencing the problem. It’s even better when the customer himself narrates the problem story. Emotion and visualization are key, so people can see things and change their feelings and behaviour as a result (Kotter).

Designers are capable of creating these dramatic presentations. Designers are visualizers and are good in framing problems visually. They can design from the perspective of the customer, tell the customer story, or have the customer tell the story himself. Similarly to TV producers, designers can use a videocamera to achieve maximal experience and impact. In fact, I think they should use video even more than they currently do.

Designers are solution-focused and run the danger of proposing a solution too fast. Very often, they analyze the problem, do some user research and translate the results into personas and user needs, in order to move on to designing solutions. But have they made the problem visible enough in a way that triggers emotions? And have they made the problem visible for the client only, or also for their colleagues and co-workers? If designers pay more attention to making the problem visible, they will get more (positive) feedback for their ideas.

The story of the gloves

In his book, Kotter provides a great example of someone wanting to show his company payed too much for gloves, from various manufacturers and for varying prices. So he collected a pair of each type of gloves, adding the price tag to it as well. He then put all of them on the meeting table of the boardroom in one big heap. The board entered the room and wondered “What’s all this about? Do we really buy all these different types of gloves?”

The inappropriate surgery

During one of our projects for service design, we focused on employment specialists within a large governmental organization. The goal of our project was to improve the labor conditions of these specialists. During one of our site visits, one of our designers shot a video with her iPhone of a meeting room, which appeared to be too small for the jobseeker and his assistant. One side of the room had an entrance for the staff member, on the other an entrance for the jobseeker. In between there was a large desk with barriers above and below. As a result, it’s only possible for the work specialist and jobseeker to see each other sitting but not standing. A short video clip of this situation could have had an immediate impact, because it showed the problem instantly.

Diaries as probes

In the same project, we used various kinds of probes. Diaries in which participants could document their experiences and enrich them with pictures. This probe turned out to be a perfect “emotion-carrier”. The booklet was personal, and allowed people to write anything they wanted. They gave a good insight in the real problems of the organization. Afterwards, the results from all these booklets were translated into lists of rational issues, which unfortunately meant that they lost their impact.

Usability test with video recording

A simple test of a corporate site with a simple task for the participant (like “Place your order”) can have an enormous impact. In one of our projects, we showed our client such a user video, in which the user did not have a clue where to place an order. The client immediately ordered a complete overhaul of the development process, including much more attention paid to the user experience.

Another way to establish a sense of urgency is to implement “measurement” structurally, e.g. measuring the way people experience the site. In that way, a regular flow of (critical) customer feedback provides momentum for improvement.

A specific challenge is the deployment of management reporting: The translation of user feedback into a grading system and then into a key performance indicator in a management dashboard.

“(…) an IT company was alarmed to discover that although it thought its websites were adequate, they weren’t meeting customers’ needs: Before (the initiative), the state of the websites was abysmal. We got an external benchmark score of zero and our customers said we had the worst site."

Similarly, a European financial services firm used website evaluations to make a case for reform.

“What helped us to get momentum was usability research. In our case, it showed the organization that we weren’t doing very well and we needed to do better.”

(Source: “Digital Customer Experience Improvement Requires A Systematic Approach”, Forrester Research 2012)

At a recent change management training, I spoke to somebody from a leasing firm. Her mission is to improve the eco-friendliness of her company. Recently, her company received an award for being the “greenest leasing company of the Netherlands”. So, what’s the problem? Things are going swell. We’re the best in the industry.

What might work is to provide examples from other industries. Examples which do not compete directly, but of which the performance is a lot better in the topic you want to change. You can set your ambitions and objectives so high, only through change they become achievable.

De Caluwé and Vermaak taught me to look for the so-called “sting” of the problem. It’s the problem behind the problem. And often, the germ of the solution can be found in the same place where the possible change can start.

“The sting refers to where the problems come from and what maintains them. (…) The germ is the possible anchor of change.” Source: Leon de Caluwé and Hans Vermaak – Learning to Change: A guide for organization change agents

Organizations hire designers to improve their site or products. The underlying problem is often that the company has no clear idea who their site visitors or customers are. The problem underlying this one might be that the organization is too self-involved and thinks and acts inside-out.

Designers provide patches: they design a pretty website (patch 1). And through the construction of user personas, the organization gets a first preview of their customers (patch 2). But it would be much better when staff gets in structural contact with customers, getting to know them and their problems, through which a sense of urgency can be established.