The Evolving Role of UX strategy as a business growth tool

User Experience (UX) has transitioned from being regarded as a purely design-focused discipline to a crucial element in business strategy. 

Undeniably integral to business success but still only recognised by the few, UX and related disciplines such as user research, service design, and interaction design are, more often than not, the differentiators between businesses ‘that do’ and businesses ‘that do not’. There are two key issues: Firstly, UX is difficult to define and secondly, unless benchmarked, the impact of UX is difficult to demonstrate.

The Importance of UX Strategy: Why It Matters Across Industries

UX is not sector-specific (I’ve worked in manufacturing, education, design, and the public sector, to name but a few!) and contributes to organisational growth and success across private industry and the public sector. Its principles are adaptable, flexible, and universal enough to make a noticeable difference to operations and experiences, from healthcare and fintech to government and technology.

Still, the fight to get UX to the top table in any industry is real, and for UX practitioners, a daily struggle for recognition, time, and resource alongside the more traditional departments such as sales and marketing or HR, for example. As a mentor for UX teams and managers, this is THE most commonly discussed challenge faced.

In my experience, there’s no one better to lead a UX project than a team of experienced UX practitioners, but implementation and leadership should stem from across departments, increasing buy-in, longevity, and understanding of the role of UX in organisational change, whatever that may look like for you. You may be surprised to hear that more often than not, the website, for example, isn’t actually the problem (well it is, but not the main one) but rather, culture and operating structure.

How to make UX matter

For the most part, leaders and managers don’t get UX. This isn’t their fault and I’m certainly not passing the buck here, but it’s true! 

Being so new to the party (unlike marketing, sales and HR, for example) we have to fight our corner and make UX matter, indispensable and integral to decision-making.

So, how do we go about this when many of our colleagues think all we do is draw wireframes and pretty buttons? We have to sell it to them in a language they understand. 

Always speak to colleagues about UX in a language they understand. Particularly those you need onboard!

Think about it. How many of your colleagues, at any level of seniority, would understand, let alone get excited about the merits of heuristic evaluation, Gestalt principles or Fitt’s Law and how you could start using these to ‘help the business’? There are two problems here. Firstly what an earth does that mean and secondly, help the business? Help them do what exactly?

However, if we approach each of these in the context of strategic business goals and objectives, then we may see ears pricking up. 

Let’s take heuristic evaluation. Imagine the conversation…

UX Person: Sir, we should definitely explore heuristic analysis for our website.

CEO: Heuristic what-now?

UX Person: It's like a Sherlock Holmes for our website, uncovering mysteries to make it more user-friendly and increase the number of visitors to our website paying for products and increasing profitability.

CEO: Ah, I like mysteries! Let's do it, Watson!

And let’s try it with Gestalt principles…

UX Person: Boss, let's integrate some Gestalt principles into our design approach.

CEO: Gestalt? Is that a new fitness trend?

UX Person: Not quite! It's like the magic trick of arranging elements to make our website feel cohesive and user-friendly so we might increase our customer retention rate which is cheaper than onboarding new ones. 

CEO: Ah, I'm all for magic! Let's make our website disappear... in a good way!

See what I mean? (You can thank ChatGPT for helping me out with those conversations!)

Talk their language. Ensure they understand the outcomes and benefits of UX approach and that without these business outcomes may not be what they expect or want them to be. It’s only then that the penny will begin to drop and UX will be considered as a business function not to be messed with.

A well-planned and executed UX strategy really does bring the results

As mentioned previously, the more you can directly relate UX strategy to tangible business benefits, the better. Depending on your organisation, those benefits or outcomes will be quite different. From increasing profitability or account openings to form submission to customer satisfaction or increased NPS, success looks different everywhere.

Two well-known companies who have taken a strategic decision to include UX strategy to great success are AirBnB and IBM.

Airbnb's UX Redesign for Global Expansion 

Airbnb's 2022 redesign focused on simplifying and personalising the user experience, implementing a UX strategy to accommodate different cultures and languages, and significantly enhancing global user engagement. This approach led to increased bookings and a broader user base across various countries, illustrating the power of UX in driving international growth and user satisfaction.

IBM's Shift to a User-Centric Approach

IBM transformed its business model by integrating UX at the core of its product development. They established a company-wide UX culture, prioritising user needs and feedback in their software and services. This user-centric shift resulted in improved customer satisfaction, increased efficiency in product development, and a stronger market position. IBM's success story highlights the strategic value of UX in revitalising established technology companies. Both these case studies refer to the business outcomes enjoyed and what can be achieved with organic, ground-up, cross-departmental approach to user-first growth. 

The Future of UX Strategy 

Education as to the merits of a user-first strategy and the undisputable relationship between business growth, product success and customer satisfaction is central to the success of a long term UX strategy. Leaders want to see tangible results - fast. 

Start with the low-hanging fruit; what can we as a team achieve quickly to demonstrate the impact of our work? Even a simple A/B test to demonstrate that the colour of a ‘Shop Now’ button leads to a 23% increase in conversion rates. Start small and don’t try to UX everything at once - it will fail.

However, with the emergence of AI and the slow but increasing significance of UX in decision-making processes at the executive level, the future of UX strategy as a mechanism to enable sustained, inclusive, user-centred growth is looking rosy.