Design thinking helps connect technologists directly with the customer experience

There’s a lot of buzz about using technology tools and skills to enhance the customer experience — providing friendly, real-time responses to questions and orders, and perhaps giving customers direct input on the design of products and the services they receive. Marketers, salespeople and company leaders make promises, promises, promises — then it all falls into the hands of the technologists. The question is, is the technology community ready to deliver? Industry leaders have mixed opinions about the state of readiness.

“Technologists are now responsible for bringing personalization and automation to their organizations’ customer experience solutions,” said Venu Goti, senior vice president of digital strategy and transformation at Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS).

However, corporate energy stands in the way. “It’s not that developers, research and development or IT managers are uninterested and out of tune with the customer experience,” says Jonathan Moran, head of martech solutions marketing at SAS Institute. But “they are often not given access or natural openings to actively create influence.” It is often said that the responsibility for customer experience “lies with the individuals who deal with the customer”.

Organizational silos prevent this, Moran continues. “So how often does a sales person get the chance to talk to a developer? If there aren’t opportunities or incentives to communicate and collaborate on the customer experience, it won’t happen.” [them to] Bridge the gap. It’s an unfortunate side effect of how most organizations are formed in the first place.

Silos between business teams and technology teams — “different geographies, different departments, or different reporting structures” — “are still barriers to good customer experiences,” agrees Gooty.

“Success requires redesigned team structures; this requires technologists, business owners, experience designers, testers, and project managers to work closely together. Having shared ownership and agile development models for rapid response significantly reduces barriers.”

Enter the “design thinking” movement that emerged a decade ago and can now finally be used as a force to increase the involvement of technology proponents in the customer experience. With design thinking, the customer experience is considered first and foremost before things are built.

The design thinking movement has its roots in the technology sector, creating technology-based products and services that are customer-friendly that disruptors like Uber and Amazon bring to market. “Startups and software companies are some of the first to adopt design thinking as a whole company,” consulting firm EY observed in a 2017 report (PDF).

These tech-savvy startups have learned the power of design thinking that puts tech savvy in front of the customer — and now established and mainstream companies are motivated to do the same. Rob Krugman, chief digital officer at Broadridge, said: “Some organizations don’t make the appropriate investments in design or front-end development resources. Krugman urges them to adopt more “agile practices that focus on small steps proven through testing and iteration.”

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However, “it is now recognized that a design thinking approach to product development improves the likelihood of success and is more efficient than traditional models,” says Krugman. In companies that adopt design thinking, there is strong coordination between technical and non-technical team members.

“Product development is often led by a three-person team: a product manager with overall responsibility for the product, a technical lead who manages architecture and development efforts, and a design lead who leads the experience,” he explains. “These three work together to make the development work outside of the design effort.”

Add CX/UX designers to the mix, “which generally creates more learning,” says Gooty. “Using low-code, no-code tools, prototyping and wireframe tools enables business analysts and business owners to demand better customer experiences from technology teams, which in turn helps technology teams better appreciate and understand the need for improved CX.”

Even in organizations that lag behind technology-enabled design thinking, technology pros can be proactive in improving CX. “Raise your hand,” urges Moran. “If you see a customer experience gap in your organization, volunteer to support the effort to improve or resolve it. Someone stepping into the breach can break that inertia.”

He also recommends “learn the software, systems and processes your organization uses to deliver customer experience.” “They’ll be ready to solve problems as they arise. For example, for a retailer with brick-and-mortar stores and a website, the user experience is part of a larger customer experience. But for a fully digital bank, the user experience and the customer experience are one and the same.”

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Ask lots of questions too. “Simply ask business users: ‘What is the purpose of this feature, what benefit does it provide, and how?’ [do we] Did you measure? says Krugman.

Additionally, “exposing technology teams to customer conversations can help break down barriers — being in these conversations with key customers can help bring in different perspectives that tech teams may lack,” Gotti says. “Planning workshops with business owners and technologists interacting with customers can help reduce resistance.”

Design-focused thinking workshops “can help technologists deliver those superior customer experiences,” Gotham suggests. “These workshops create activity-based sessions that allow teams to plan and design user-centered designs. Instead of showing a simple how-to approach, technologists can work together to reach the end-user. Centered solution.”