Mobile browsing of digital content is now exceeding desktop consumption. Google is penalising websites that don’t have a mobile versions of their site. Some companies have responded by taking a 'Mobile First' approach in their digital strategy.
Often 'Mobile First' is shorthand for designing layouts for a smaller screen, but that is just a part of the story, after all we are designing services for people not layouts for devices.
The proliferation of devices and capabilities of mobile devices provides a range of exciting opportunities, your site visitors now have a personal device that incorporates GPS, push notifications and a camera in their pocket, this extends the capability of web experiences.
In this webinar Neil Shewan explores current trends in experience strategy, tactics and design and helps put them into context to provide you with a simple, and proven approach to deliver better experiences for your audiences.
2. We are Reading Room.
An international digital
consultancy helping our
clients, big and small, ride
the wave of digital change
and be the best they can be.
Architects of digital change 2
Hello
January 2015
3. We are curious, driven,
straight talking, agile
and creative.
Architects of digital change 3
Hello
January 2015
5. About me
• Writer, blogger, strategist,
run the Melbourne office
• Past experience client side
and consultancy side - in
B2B and B2C marketing, 10
years consultancy-side
• Wide range of sector
experience advising small
and large organisations
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 5
32. 3. The world of experiences
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 32
Exceptional
experiences
33. The experience
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 33
“A brand [customer] experience
is a living entity – and it is
enriched or undermined
cumulatively over time, the
product of a thousand small
gestures”
Michael Eisner, Past CEO Disney
49. Four worlds collide
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 49
A utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/ yoo-toh-pee-ə) is a
community or society possessing highly
desirable or near perfect qualities. The
word was coined by Sir Thomas More in
Greek for his 1516 book Utopia (in Latin),
describing a fictional island society in the
Atlantic Ocean.
50. What does “digital experience” utopia look like
1. We have happy customers when they do things that align with our
organisational objectives.
2. We focus on the things that will make our customers most happy
first, and remove their pain-points.
3. We can respond quickly to opportunities and threats that technology
provides
4. We can pivot our strategy when things don’t work out – or we learn
something new
5. De-risk the impact of change
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 50
52. Four concepts
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 52
3.
Adaptability
4.
Then, build
the platform,
channels,
devices
1.
Clear business
objectives
2.
Design for
People not
devices
53. Concept 1
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 53
3.
Adaptability
4.
Then, build
the platform,
channels,
devices
1.
Clear business
objectives
2.
Design for
People not
devices
54. Focus on the intersection of clients needs and
corporate objectives
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 54
CORE
FOCUS
COMPANY
OBJECTIVES
CUSTOMER
NEEDS
55. Measure, track, improve
Base KPIs on organisational objectives and choose metrics to fit
Define conversions, track across all channels
Close the feedback loop, base decisions on metrics
Objectives
56. Leadership
Customer experience must be championed from the top
Consider a Head of Customer Experience role
Give that person wide-ranging authority to make changes
• to products
• to services
• to channel partnerships
• to owned, earned and paid media
• to internal processes and roles
Objectives
57. Concept 2
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 57
3.
Adaptability
4.
Then, build
the platform,
channels,
devices
1.
Clear business
objectives
2.
Design for
People not
devices
63. Map our user stories to give us a backlog of
experiences to create
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 63
64. Concept 3
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 64
3.
Adaptability
4.
Then, build
the platform,
channels,
devices
1.
Clear business
objectives
2.
Design for
People not
devices
67. Concept 4
18/5/2015 Architects of digital change 67
3.
Adaptability
4.
Then, build
the platform,
channels,
devices
1.
Clear business
objectives
2.
Design for
People not
devices
Hello everyone – welcome the third webinar in the Mastering digital change series.
My name is Neil, I will be your presenter today.
We will be starting in about 1 minute.
While we wait, I’ll cover off some house keeping – and tell you a little about Reading Room and my background.
First some housekeeping
We will be recording the event today – and will send around a link to the powerpoint deck – and a Youtube video of the audio and visuals so you can share it with others.
This is the third webinars in our series. The first two covered Digital Psychology and getting your organisation digital ready. There are parts of the presentation today that relate to these to the first two webinars so we will send you links to these presentations as well in case you need a refresher.
For those that don’t know Reading Room – we are an international digital agency with offices throughout Australia, Asia and the UK.
At the core of what we do for many of our clients is helping deliver their digital experience – this includes strategy, design, build and support of customer and internal facing digital experience platforms.
If you have not worked with us before – you will find us down to earth, and passionate about creating digital experiences for and with our clients.
Our clients are broad and varied – from commercial to government – from start-up to market leader. Each client has different needs, markets and aspirations – and we are there to partner with them as their digital consultancy.
A quick bit of background on me.
For over 10 years I have been providing strategy to clients, as well as writing and presenting on digital and offline experiences.
I’ve worked client side for over 10 years in the Financial and Engineering Professional Services space – and consulting side for 10 years on a broad range of B2B and B2C clients.
If you want to read more of my thoughts on all things digital and experence – visit the RR blog or to dig back in my archives visit my blog at neilshewan.com
OK – let’s jump into the presentation today.
“Creating exceptional experiences in a multi-device world”
We did things a little differently for this webinar – and asked attendees what challenges were facing in this space.
Well – the answers to the questions were fantastic and varied – and they have played a large part in formulating the content for the presentation.
In preparing for today – I laid all the challenges out on the table and found they mainly fell into four themes.
So – on the menu for today – I will talk through these challenges.
I’ll then explore what utopia could look like in addressing these challenges.
Then – talk through a few concepts that may help you navigate your way to delivering exceptional experiences for your customers.
I mentioned there are four themes in the challenges people face. And yes – the Reading Room marketing team have taken some liberties with with image – but there is an very obvious collision that is happening within organisations that is making the strategy and delivery of truly great experiences an increasing challenge.
These four themes – or worlds for a bit of drama –are pushing against once another – and require some new thinking for how to get on top of them.
Top left we have the multi-device world we now live in. As one of my client summed up a few days ago – I didn’t realise how easy it was to just have to worry about my website in the early 2000’s – now I have have desktops, chromebooks with tiny screens, tablets, mobile phones, the internet of things and now watches!
Bottom right we have the push by organisations – and the pull from customers and our staff for creating experiences that are relevant, timely and useful.
Then we have what I have called “change” – this is the unrelenting pacing of change we are facing around technology, user expectations and new business models. As one attendee put it – “Technology is moving faster than we can implement.”
Finally, in many cases we have organisational, procurement and project management processes that are holding us back.
These four colliding themes make for very interesting times.
So let’s unpack these themes a little.
Firstly – the multi-device world
You just have to take public transport to see how people publically use their devices. Look down a train carriage and almost everyone is on a device, using it for anything from booking their dinner that night, to watching a you-tube video on how to renovate their bedroom, to sharing news on facebook, and working on a spreadsheet for their next meeting.
The device we use is driven by content – based on where we are - our state of mind – what we want to accomplish and how much time we have.
The way we digest information changes – from a quick glance at our smart watch for a notification – to a one minute search for directions on a mobile – to reading a long form article on a tablet – and doing some detailed research on a laptop.
Research from Google tells us – we use multiple devices to accomplish as task. In fact 90% of people move from device to device.
And people use different devices to start different types tasks. For example - Google found 65% of searches are started on a smartphone, then continued on another device. You may hear about a new restaurant when you are with friends and do a quick search on your smartphone – then email the link to yourself. When you are home you many then jump on your laptop to book the restaurant.
The second theme is around change – and how as organisations, marketers and IT teams we are responsive and innovative in the face of the opportunities and the threats on the horizon.
These changes include the what your competitors are doing in the face of that change. They may be changing their business model – or new nimble players may start competiting with you – using a technological solution to an old challenge.
Consumers expectations are also rapidly changing.
Dr Kano Noriaki laid the foundation for modeling customer satisfaction and expectations in the early 1980’s - which still pays out today.
He looked at an organisations investment in customer satisfaction – against the satisfaction experienced by customers – and placed it on a simple graph.
He found that an innovation that starts by delivering exteme delight, will move to being a basic expectation over time.
Free WiFi in your hotel, started as an excitement generator.
..and over the last few years has moved to being a basic expectation.
An when it is not available becomes a significant detractor.
A quick look at our expectations of what we expect from a mobile phone since 1982 shows us how much innovation is required to keep up and hopefully ahead of rapid change.
Look no further than changes in technology.
From increase in the use of content driven marketing – from whitepapers, to infographics, blogs and status updates…
To the way we package up information – where many social networks now read in pre-formatted information from your website to make your content more sharable using interactive cards. Facebook, google, twitter and instragram are now accepting shared links from your website in this way – and many websites are not set up to benefit from this change.
There is change a Google - There were recent changes last month in the way Google ranks your website based on whether it is mobile friendly. So, if your website does not comply as “mobile-friendly” then you will be more difficult to find online. Also – given the high amount of mobile browsing on websites, if they find you and your site is not mobile responsive it is highly likely people will go searching for more mobile optimised experiences from competitors. If you are unsure how your site stacks up I strongly suggest you use Google’s mobile friendly test tool.
Then there is change in the way we use mobile apps. If your customer experience would benefit users seeing content based on where they are – tapping into the use of iBeacons and other microlocation technology can ensure content is timely and more relevant.
And there is a new screen begging for our attention – this new approval is ready for us to look for new ways to use such an intimate device.
And finally, if that is not enough - The internet of things is on the rise – with more people have lights, therostats, speakers and devices without screens.
Our third theme is around experiences – and the desire of organisations to craft an experience in the digital and physical world that takes all these devices, technology, content – and makes it truly valuable.
There are a lot of textbook definitions of customer experience – but this is my favorite.
They can be about great design
About Humour
And about being Quirkly – being well – human.
At Reading Room we find it really important – not to get pulled into the way we deliver the experience too early.
It is easy to get talking about devices – screen sizes – content and channels – before standing back and realising we are designing experiences for people. The best experiences have been designed in this way.
When creating a digital experience – it is important to be mindful that it is just part of the overall experience a person will have with your company, your product or your brand.
The forth and last theme – is around organisations. I’ve called it “Organisational anchors”.
Organisational anchors can restrict our ability to respond to change – our ability to create experiences that sit in Kano Noriaki’s extreme delight quadrant – and thereby create competitive advantage.
The first anchor is around organisation that are highly segmented internally. In many cases they may be selling to people who could benefit from many services or product that the company sells – however it is just too hard to navigate. There is no shared taxonomy in the organidsation to allow someone to search and surface the content or products that are most relevant to them. Breaking down some of these organisational barriers can greatly assist in making the organisation more customer focused.
The second anchor holding organisations back can senior management buy-in to focus on the customer experience – and working collaboratively to cut through organisations constrains that may impact the experience.
The third anchor can be the way you procure and work on projects. When you are in an environment of rapid change, your systems need to allow you to rapidly get new products, services and content to market.
This diagram shows the traditional waterfall approach to procurement and project management – where we start with a big chunk of research , then create a wheel borough full of documentation – resulting in a final product/service or piece of content.
The adaptive or agile approach is to doing quicker rounds of research, design and building – then launch, test and refine over time. This approach allows you to pivot strategy when change occurs, to take on board change as it happens, and to re-prioritise at each iteration.
The last anchor can be how ready your organisation is for embracing and executing improvements in customer experience.
This diagram from Sitecore shows the steps from attracting customers, to converting them, and keeping them.
Often major improvements to customer experience cannot happen quickly – and it is critical to have a roadmap for how to get there. In some cases this roadmap can be six months, in others two years.
So – we have looked at the challenges in creating exceptional digital experiences – now lets remove some of the anchors – and look at what utopia may look like.
In 1516 this is what utopia looked like – not a smartphone in sight. Also seamed to involve dancing around a tree without any clothes on.
Today – utopia looks a little different.
There are 5 things that we have found many of our clients are searching for.
Now going to at four concepts to take you to that path to utopia.
Having clear objectives for the business it is critical – and is used to shape the sections of the customer experience where we will focus most time. We don’t need to satisfy every customer need – just the ones that support the company objectives.
It is so easy to skip this key concept – or pay it lip service – however it is the most important stage.
I touched on concept 2 earlier – but when designing your customer experience we need to design for people – not devices, not channels, products.
This comes from human design thinking. Looking at the experience someone has with your organisation – from start to end.
Thinking about…
It starts with identifying your primary and secondary audiences – and creating a persona for each audience based on what drives each audience – what are their painpoints, what are their hurdles and triggers. In our Digital Psychology Dr Debbie Ho provides some great insights into how to create a psychographic persona – and how to use it.
For each persona we can identify the emotional journey of your experience. Where they feel happy, where their painpoints are. This example is of booking a room at a hotel – and the experience at the hotel.
This is where we pull out the post it notes and start mapping out the experience each persona has with your organisation.
Resulting in a detailed map of each stage, what devices and channels people interact with and the experience we want them to have. It is only at this stage that we start looking at devices, content, products, services and channels.
Each experience map can then be broken down into user stories. Each story is a single interaction for a specific persona.
We can then prioritise the this list of user stories (or product backlog) based on the value to the user and the organisation – and other dependancies such as the current digital platform.
This provides you with detailed list of deliverables for each sprint of work your team and digital partners are focused on.
Concept 3 – is focused on adaptability. Using a methodology internally to allow the business to work in sprints we discussed in the past concept
It is about working in short sprints of 15 to 90. Each sprint has clear deliverables to launch at the end of the sprint. A sprint may for example focus on an instragram campaign – where by there is a sprint of work in the web, social and content teams to have in place all the user stories required to take a campaign to market. During the web sprint, the team may work on a module for pulling in images shared by users – while at the same time working on refinements to the e-commerce experience that have been prioritised in the product backlog.
Before the next sprint, the list of back-logged user stories are reviewed and re-prioritised. Working in this way re-risks the delivery of the customer experience – and ensures high priority user stories are put at the top of the list.
To fourth and final concept is only select channels, devices content once you have a clear idea of the experience map.
The experience map will guide the how the experience will be delivered - and create a set of requirements for the platform on which it will be delivered.
With so many elements to manage within the customer experience it becomes important to look for a way of integrating all the parts.
Over the last five years we have seen the rise of marketing automation systems to guide users through the experience – and provide a platform for organisations to manage and report onthe experience.
These platforms allow you to track customers through the journey from awareness – to becoming Advocates. Vendors including Sitecore, Adobe and Kentico, provide experience management platforms that incorporate many of the marketing automation functions into an integrated platform.
That brings us to the end of the presentation. Thank you all for your time today. I hope you have found it useful sharing in some of the challenges of creating exceptional experiences in a multi-device world. And that some of the concepts discussions can help your firm reach experience utopia.
Any questions – or thoughts – drop me a line or call any of the Reading Room team in an office near you.
Just a reminder the presentation has been recorded and we will send you a copy over the coming week.