An Experience Strategy distinguishes and enhances your Customer/User touch-points. A winning strategy fits both your customers’ needs and your business objectives: making it easy and pleasurable to access your products / services and achieve their desired outcomes. The right Experience Strategy makes doing business with your exceptional in meaningful ways, distinct from what’s available from a competitor.

My work includes:

WebEx Online Experience Design Team
Finalist in the 2015 UX Magazine Design for Experience Awards

UXMatters February 2016
Five Best Practices for Becoming a Data-Driven Design Organization, Part 1
Five Best Practices for Becoming a Data-Driven Design Organization, Part 2
Five Best Practices for Becoming a Data-Driven Design Organization, Part 3

Executive Summary

Five Best Practices to Create a High Performing In-House Experience Design Team

Summary of article and key points:

When I assumed management responsibility for the WebEx User Experience team, I implemented best practices that helped transform the existing Creative Services group into a Customer Experience Design (CXD) team. An integral part of this effort was getting product managers (and management in general) to incorporate customer-centric thinking into web site design and e-commerce flows. In turn, these changes created the foundation for a remarkably successful web re-launch project of tremendous scope and an absurdly tight deadline.

The five best practices I cover in the article are:

• Customer journey research and mapping
• Design and testing based on the customer journey map (moderated testing)
• Competitive benchmarking of current and trending best practices
• Online non-moderated research
• The use of Creative Briefs keep CXD and product marketing aligned

The article illuminates how customer-centric best practices collectively served to:

• Increase the organization’s customer centric focus, customer centric language, and customer research driven decisions. Influence delivery performance and professional growth in the customer experience design team members.
• Leverages data from customer research which leads the business to identify and prioritize specific areas of improvement in the customer experience

Each of the research methodologies and subsequent design outcomes has value individually. But the collection of activities, the gestalt, has had the greatest impact holistically. We’ve enabled design driven collaboration based on customer research and the findings.

Interest to the UX community:

Most companies cannot afford a dedicated in-house design team of CXD professionals. Instead, they outsource web design to agencies, even if they have capable in-house designers. This solution is expensive long-term, especially for ongoing changes (which are necessary to keep current with customer expectations). In addition, outsourcing doesn’t guarantee alignment of product marketing and the web team on customer experience. By following these best practices, any organization can train in-house design teams on how to develop data-driven design practices, use benchmarking, and achieve more successful collaboration with business owners.

A successful UX professional combines business acumen, UX strategy, and a product management perspective. This intersection transforms businesses into high-functioning, customer-focused organizations, building a springboard for the cross-org/cross-functional systems that drive precise delivery of services and products.

Evolution: From MarCom to UX by Documenting the Customer Journey

Strategy
In the absence of a UX strategy, I championed a Customer Journey Project. Two vendors were identified – one for internal stakeholder interviews and the second for external, end-user reviews. The project effectively ‘busted silos’ not only across WebEx but across its parent organization, Cisco. Members of multiple organizations were pulled in, from product management, program management, customer service, technical support, and the development organization.

Results
Transformation of the internal team, as well as presented across the organization, and provided a UX strategic framework paradigm across the On-Line organization. It changed the way we looked at and prioritized projects against business objectives and priorities. Creation of Customer Journey for both online (low touch) and Enterprise (high touch) customers and personas.

Methodology
The collaborative workshops allowed synthesis of collected data and leveraged insights from a cross-functional group. The result was a roadmap spanning customer touch-points (middle swim lane), and back-end processes and technology. By identifying pain points and moments of delight across all channels, we created a road-map of UX and product improvements: a 3-year vision.

Evolution: The Ecommerce Experience

Strategy
The shift to a multiple services offering including buy online (BOL) and freemium tiers necessitated an e-Commerce redesign. Our team took the opportunity to mature and optimize the online purchase experience. The resulting site needed to address marketing and customer acquisition across segments in a seamless way, from small-to-medium-sized businesses, to mid-market, to enterprise.

Results
The redesign increased successful completion of online purchases, enabled optimization processes for testing, and funneled more ‘low-touch’ customers through the web site and ‘high touch’ customers to sales channels.

Methodology
We investigated current trends in interaction design, leveraged the deep knowledge of program managers, incorporate usability results and created an optimization road map. I directed the visual design and a complete content rewrite for clarity and consistency. An upgrade to the information structure reduced the burden of multiple decision points, adopting the SaaS content model. We created a clear, direct-response path for signing up for services.

Evolution: From a Cisco Satellite to Brand and Style Integration

Strategy
The site redesign had to leverage the brand equity of Cisco — reliability and security — as well as that of WebEx — innovation and collaboration. We also had to clearly communicate that WebEx is part of Cisco.

Results
The resulting site elevated WebEx in the marketplace with a fresh and current look, and an identity that is both all its own and still Cisco. The refreshed architecture also enabled the design team to respond quickly going forward to conversion efforts identified by business priorities.

Methodology
Our team created a distinct style and voice, while still capitalizing on the Cisco brand. The extensive redesign of both look-feel and architecture brought our e-Commerce in line with current standards, customer expectations, and the market.

Cisco: Senior Experience Design Manager and Strategist
Collaboration Software Group
4/2011 – Present

Direct experience design best practices for visual, interaction, and content design, usability research, information architecture, and multimedia. Support business efforts for conversion, customer retention, eCommerce and optimization programs to attract, engage, service, and retain customers across global web sites. Manage internal team and vendors.
New Webex.com launched August 24th,  2015
Key wins:

• Fresh/modern design
• New messaging emphasizing brand and market leadership
• Elevates mobile and video
• Homepage personalization
• Responsive design
• Site search and improved navigation
• Improved product discovery through
• Improved information architecture
• New design for global roll out

Marketo: Interaction Design Lead
Oct, 2009 – Aug, 2010

Marketo is a highly successful SaaS marketing automation application. Primary customers are marketers and web designers who are responsible for creating and managing marketing campaigns. Customers also include executives who responsible for showing effectiveness and ROI for marketing dollars spent.

As the only user experience professional of a small start up I was responsible for all aspects of design. These include; creating and presenting early visual concepts, generating and presenting wire frames and workflow’s, and facilitating customer research both early in the design cycle and early implementation walk throughs.

Intuit : Senior User Experience Designer
Apr, 2005 – Aug, 2009

Intuit’s applications target small and mid-size businesses. The focus primarily is on managing business finances. There were also other applications and projects which helped manage running a business such as managing B to C and B to B communications.

As the lead designer on for several projects I created sketches, wire frames, and quick prototypes for research as well as final specifications. I worked collaboratively with development teams to brainstorm, ideate, and iterate on designs. I managed all design aspects of the projects I worked on.

Oracle : Senior / Principal Interaction Designer
Sep, 1997 – Jan, 2005

As a designer at Oracle, I worked on large scale enterprise applications with development teams. Projects included applications which manage infrastructure (databases) and end user applications managing all aspects of enterprise companies (project & product management, etc.)

I generated wire frames, object models, flow diagrams, and screens. I worked with development teams to help identify and articulate project definition.