Rationalizing the Tension Between User Experience and Technology (part 3 of 3)
A Unified Approach To User Experience and Technical Architecture
The ever-changing technology landscape requires your teams to move faster than before. Simultaneously, customers are demanding new user experiences on a broadening range of platforms and devices. Keeping up with both in isolation is no longer a viable strategy.
You cannot prioritize the development of user experiences at the expense of application technical architecture. In order to satisfy the needs of evolving user experiences, you need to better architect applications anticipating the need for change, solving business problems where they make sense, and designing front ends to cater exclusively to delivering the best user experience possible.
Today more than ever, customers are demanding their needs are met in the context they choose - at the right time, in the right channel on the right device. The proliferation of front end experiences, be it desktop, mobile, OTT, car, home or otherwise is ever expanding, and there is no end in sight.
Enabling the customer experience while balancing the constraints of time, resources (technology/personnel) and money is the collaborative responsibility of the CMO and the CIO.
Recommendations
Foster open and transparent communication between the CMO and CIO to understand the tradeoffs between pace, user experience, and technical architecture adherence and integrity.
Enable the needed collaboration between the CMO and CIO to future proof your organization against disruption, costly technical debt, and unhappy customers.
Design should be holistic to your projects rather than a discrete phase. Anticipate change, reduce iteration friction, solicit continuous customer feedback and embrace design thinking to establish a culture of innovation.
Develop a technology “blue print” informed by your business strategy and the input of the CMO and CIO that will guide the organization and become a foundational document of architecture, patterns and development processes.
Closing Thoughts
Digital disruption requires a disciplined approach to achieve results.
Digital transformation may be thought as the third stage of embracing digital technologies: digital competence → digital literacy→ digital transformation.
The pace of innovation and competition will lead to more personalized interactions.