Bridging strategy and design

CXCO was engaged to complete an audit of a strategically important customer experience project. Our client was not getting the outcome they expected, and were unsure of the root cause issues, and the best way to get their project back on track. 

Following our audit we provided key recommendations and worked collaboratively with our client to fill gaps. Our engagement involved an assessment of existing research and design work and definition of an approach to take the project from strategy to execution.

During the audit various problems presented themselves:

  • Experience concepts demonstrated little relationship to behavioural research and customer experience research findings.
  • Internal intellectual property generated over the course of the program risked being lost, through the sheer amount of it. An approach was needed to synthesise intellectual property and align business stakeholders together towards a unified vision of the end solution.

A key component of this, once the gaps had been filled, was to create a governance model to ensure the project (and projects like it) can be delivered successfully.

What were the key benefits?

  • Synthesis of 2 years worth of design and market research by various vendors.
  • The creation of a unified reference and design tool set that was easy to understand and action.
  • Engagement with business stakeholders to co-author the project vision and requirements, enabling alignment of delivery teams to the vision.
  • Governance model to guide the delivery teams during execution, and provide business sponsors with decision-making criteria linked back to the strategy.

What were the key results?

  • Co-creation of business objectives with stakeholders.
  • Synthesised design tool set including design principles, task model and personas.
  • Creation of a roadmap for previously disparate requirements.
  • Prioritised document catalogue to assist findability and knowledge transfer of past and related projects.
  • User needs based information architecture and responsive design interaction model.
  • Governance model to guide the delivery approach and sign-off.

What was the approach?

CXCO worked at the client site, in collaboration with client teams. An extensive audit of existing documentation extracted what was of value for the design team. Over forty-nine documents were synthesised into a task model of the customer experience which then became the basis of a user task based IA. Seventeen research and persona documents were synthesised into a single persona set and the experience design principles of two separate teams within the one organisation were merged into a single set eliminating duplication and helping to bridge silos.

Behavioural insight, customer problems and innovation opportunities were work-shopped with business stakeholders to create the product roadmap across customer-centred opportunity areas.