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Greg Dudey, Vice President, Visual Displays User Experience Lab at Samsung Electronics on User Experience.
Having worked at a wide variety of companies ranging from software technology startups, to huge companies like Apple, Dell, and Samsung, I have learned that it takes way more than a group of great user experience professionals to make products that have great user experiences. I would say that the three most important pieces to creating great products are all influenced at the company level. These three pieces are organizational structure, ability to leverage ideas from everyone in the company, and a culture of questioning.
The most important factor in creating great products is a culture of questioning, and it is probably the most subtle. Two aspects are involved in great experiences; working out all the fine details and being creative about how to make the best tradeoffs for customers. By creating a company culture that expects everyone in the organization to question what they are doing, and makes it OK for anyone to ask “why” when something doesn’t seem right, each decision will be checked and re-checked to make sure it is the best possible approach to solve a customer issue. This will ensure that all details have been completely thought through and all the solutions have been evaluated before going to market. This aspect is very subtle because it actually goes against fast execution. Typically, companies with a culture of just doing what they are told are great at fast execution, but not so great at user experience. The trick is obviously balancing the amount of questioning to fit the type of business you are in. Once there is an established culture of questioning, then the next piece becomes really important.
The second most important piece is organizational structure. If you want to build products that customers love, you must create an organizational structure that fits with what the customer cares about. Too many technology companies are organized by the types of technologies they are working on, which leads to groups in the organization building the best technology, not the best customer experience. The major driver for organizational structure needs to be empowerment and accountability for customer delight. Each group that exists in the company needs to have a clear understanding of who their customer is, and what value they are bringing to that customer. It is only in this type of environment that everyone in the company can be empowered to improve the customer experience. The secondary organizational principle is that each group must have the resources and complete responsibility to create that experience. This will allow for each group to be held accountable and remove finger pointing, which keeps hard customer issues from ever being solved.
Finally, in order to innovate and deliver products that customers really want, it is important to develop a process that makes it easy for anyone in the company to get their ideas about a product to the appropriate decision makers of that product. By first creating a culture of questioning, you will have every employee in the mindset of improvement. It is a common fallacy that one person can be “the innovator”. Great ideas are really a numbers game, and the more people you have thinking about a problem, the more likely you are to find an amazing solution. However, without a process for all those ideas to get to the right people, you won’t be evaluating the best solutions and people will eventually just stop thinking about the things they know they can’t actually influence. Typically, the problem for companies is not that they can’t figure out how to capture all the ideas, but getting these ideas to the right people. This is usually due to the fact that it is hard to map ideas that come from a customer viewpoint to the organization. However, if you have already solved the second key of organizational structure, then this problem becomes a lot easier to resolve.
In summary, if you are an executive that is looking to make changes in their company to improve the user experience of their products, don’t make the common mistake of trying to create one user experience group and think that will solve the problem. First, focus on the high-level cultural and organizational issues, and then hire great user experience professionals into all levels of the organization to make sure each group has the resources required to create great experiences. Over time these user experience professionals will help everyone in the company become a user experience professional in their own way.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mohandas Gandhi
It seemed inconceivable. How could Disney, a large company steeped in established traditions and successful business models, move nimbly to innovate in a marketplace that was being redefined by disruptive technologies and entrepreneurship? Yet, it could. It did happen with the television division. Over the last five years, we decisively shaped the media industry through a series of deals and products we brought to consumers. We consistently delivered on industry firsts which set the standard for what consumers should expect from content companies as well as the industry template for business terms that positioned us for future growth.
The decision to stream culture-defining ad-supported broadcast tv programs on the Internet was swift and the implementation of that product vision even faster. Who would have thought that a small internal team at an entertainment company would take only 60 days to build and launch a consumer Internet business on ABC.com? And within five weeks launch the ABC Player for iPad app, that was both a creative and technological achievement?
When I led the newly formed digital media team five years ago, I wanted them to walk and talk like a startup. I wanted us to be united by a clear vision and fueled by the team’s passion. We had to break some china, but also be respectful of the history and lessons of our business. We had to become the startups we saw come out of Silicon Valley that aimed to topple our industry, but armed with the experience and insight of being insiders in the entertainment community. We could adapt and change, but on our terms. We needed to be the change we wanted to see. I had to create a culture within the new group – one that could support the actions that needed to be taken but one that could also live harmoniously within the larger corporate culture.
This required us to be entrepreneurial and never take our position for granted. We looked at resources sparingly, focused on immediate returns and scalability in everything we did. We never took our eye off the big picture and always pushed for implementation approaches that allowed for flexibility in tactical changes. Communication was continuous, clarity required, and decisions needed to be quick. I also learned to my team’s credit that they all had a spirit of entrepreneurship within themselves and relished the opportunity. Those who didn’t were not able to keep up and ultimately didn’t stick around for the ride.
Much too often, “traditional” and digital businesses were characterized as having competing agendas. For us, this was not an option. And within a large, matrixed company such as ours, my job was the steer the team to work effectively by giving them quick decisions, yet always having an understanding of the broader business strategy. The end result was the ability to move with speed from a product delivery standpoint, to be relevant to our consumers, and to align these initiatives against the television division’s overall business objectives.
Getting to this point required visualizing the change, the dynamic we wanted to see. We all needed to have this goal in our heads – it would affect the way we communicated, collaborated and managed. It has to come from each individual’s inner drive to take those steps and the job of a leader to set the example, to coach and encourage.
Albert Cheng
Executive Vice-President, Digital Media
Disney ABC Television Group
For anyone taking on a new role, the first hundred days are seen as a rite of passage. In terms of how the organisation perceives you, this period is also a significant milestone.
For the senior manager or executive concerned it is a time for making careful assessments about the task ahead, and winning the trust and confidence of those around them before implementing any changes.
Chris Seabourne, Partner at CTPartners shares insight with HR Review here: http://www.hrreview.co.uk/analysis/analysis-hr-strategy-practice/how-to-successfully-make-it-through-the-first-100-days-in-a-new-role/28556
Recently CTPartners released the latest report in the Firm’s Trend Talk series: Digital Media. Following is an excerpt.
The power of technological advancement to transform an industry or a business function has long been recognized. But rarely has new technology had the kind of impact upon the business models of so many industries and corporate functions as has the advent of digital media. In some cases, such as publishing and print media, digital media has upended a company’s core business model. In other cases, digital tools simply offer new and improved capability for internal communication and organizational efficiencies.
And for many companies, the opportunities for commerce and external communication offered by digital media are now remaking business tactics and strategies connected to sales, marketing, pricing, branding, customer service, crisis management, and more. That’s true for industries ranging from financial services to retailing, and for companies making consumer products ranging from shampoo to sports cars, and just about everything in between. As goes almost without saying, digital companies themselves are continuously revisiting their business models, considering new offerings to feed the seemingly insatiable consumer appetite for digital products and services. Read more at http://www.ctnet.com/CTNet/TheFirm/TrendTalks.htm.
“Strengthening the Board Connection: The Second Annual Board of Directors Human Capital Institute” was convened on April 5, 2011, by CTPartners in New York City. The daylong event, which focused on a series of timely and essential issues facing the global business community, brought together a distinguished group of panelists and attendees from leading corporations, financial institutions, academia, and nonprofit organizations from around the world.
Brian Sullivan, CEO of CTPartners, the global executive search firm, welcomed all participants, while providing thanks to a blue-chip group of sponsors that included Booz & Co., Steven Hall & Partners, the NACD, and TIAA-CREF, which hosted the impressive gathering in its headquarters. “I am confident that today’s discussions and panelists will give us all some fresh, new, insightful perspectives on global boards, human capital, and the role that the Chief Human Resources Officer can play in supporting and enhancing corporate performance,” Mr. Sullivan emphasized.
Read the highlights at www.ctnet.com .
CTPartners reported today five major forces impacting corporate Boards. Senior executives from American Express, Bank of America, E*Trade Financial, Freddie Mac, Gilt Groupe, Google, Hilton Worldwide, TIAA-CREF, Tyco and XL Group among other companies and academic leaders, identified these trends at CTPartners’ Second Annual Board of Directors Human Capital Institute. The event, co-sponsored with Booz & Company, was recently held at TIAA-CREF’s New York offices.
The five game changers for Boards that emerged during discussions at the event include:
1. The power shift from the Board to the shareholder
Increased regulations are making directors more accountable to shareholders and diminishing the power of CEOs and directors to control the Board agenda. And not enough of today’s Boards can keep up with the pace of market change. If Boards don’t take the lead on big issues like CEO compensation, Board structure, director competence and succession planning, shareholders will.
2. Social media activism
Twitter and Facebook are fueling the shareholder activist, forcing a new era of transparency and helping activists to tweet and chat their way to forced changes in corporate policy and management. Boards, typically not known as early tech adopters, need to engage with new technologies or become their victims.
3. The 40-something board
The average age of directors, 62 years, will shift downward because Boards need fresh ideas and faster-paced, tech-savvy directors to energize the boardroom. The good news is that 40-something talent is available and getting into position for Board runs.
4. The impact of culture – Corporate and Board
Boards that do not pay attention to the culture of their companies – and the Board itself – are missing key levers for moving ideas and change through an organization. Boards have to identify cultural barriers – entrenched behavioral patterns and deeply-held beliefs that are bogging companies down and inhibiting change – because corporate culture can sink or save a company.
5. The power of talent and the rise of the CHRO on Boards
Human Resources is beginning to break the old perception of its role as administrative rather than strategic. Boards are recognizing the value of HR’s cross-organization perspective in critical areas like succession planning and talent development. HR execs are upping their game, with many companies hiring Chief Human Resources Officers with high-profile business experience and skills. One executive noted that “HR has arrived when you can overhear a conversation between a CEO, CFO and HR executive, and not be able to tell who’s who.”
Read more at www.ctnet.com.
As global attention turns to the political unrest in some parts of the Middle East, it is important to note that other nations in the region remain fertile ground for stable, profitable, and fast-growing business communities. As a result, although this region has long relied heavily upon expatriate talent, a significant trend is underway toward the localization of senior business talent employed by companies, ranging from multinationals to local firms, operating in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations.
These Gulf States, by and large, have offered international corporations reasonable stability as they expand business offerings in the region, and the importance of these nations in that role will undoubtedly grow in the future. Current leadership development initiatives clearly represent the evolving mindset of businesses operating in the region as they pursue a sustainable talent management strategy that will contribute to long-term business growth and prosperity. The policy also responds to the aspiration for greater economic opportunity evident in varying degrees among well-educated local populations across the Middle East.
Read more at www.ctnet.com.
Reposted from Real Productivity.com. Original post March 27, 2009, by Alex Lange.
Start-ups are an unforgiving mistress. She will always have her hand on your back… and be pushing. She will force you to change your focus constantly. Glory is her “carrot”… time is her “stick.” Start-ups require agility and nimbleness to succeed. Rapid changes in focus are inevitable, but they do take a toll on effectiveness.
Now, I’m a bit of a productivity / effectiveness junky. I’ve read countless books, tested so many philosophies that it was counter-productive and tried every gadget possible. As I’ve become older, wiser (hopefully) and more effective, I’ve found that simple, slow and focused is better. I’m back to paper and pencil and take more notes now than I ever did in school. Although I consider myself a GTD black belt, I ultimately focus on the three things must I accomplish today. Nothing however, has improved my effectiveness and arguably been more life changing than adopting a “mind like water.”
In “Getting Things Done,” David Allen says that in karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. Now imagine a boulder. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriate to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or under react. It certainly doesn’t proactively worry or have an opinion about the oncoming rock.
Achieving a mind like water requires discipline. To begin, you must stop thinking about ten things at once while typing on your Blackberry while in a meeting. Just be in the meeting. If there is something more important that you should be doing, don’t go to the meeting. It is a complete fallacy that multi-tasking equates to effectiveness. Train yourself to be “in the present” and focused on the process… not the result. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t be results orientated. You should have big, hairy, audacious goals. Plan your objectives in painstaking detail. Organization should be your middle name. However, all of this is a precursor to being effective. Focusing on the process means you are aware of the mechanics of what you are doing. If you are simply walking… notice your stride, posture, etc. and not about what you have to do when you get to your destination. If you planned effectively, you already know. Planning “on the fly” never results in the best answer…
Now that you’re in the present, you must eliminate judgment and doubt as new input and requests arrive. Let’s face it, your opinion only matters to one person. Let it influence (not direct) your planning, analysis and problem solving but never input collection. The sheer tonnage you don’t hear as your inner voice is forming an opinion could stop a herd of buffalo in their tracks. Remember… be in the present. Focus on the process of hearing what the person is trying to convey.
Have a practicing mindset. Take action toward your objectives as if you are practicing to do it better the next time, observe the results and correct. Everyone has a different view of an ideal outcome. Even your own view will change as you approach your objective. Perfection is a moving target so stop worrying about how you “stack up.” Everything is possible… if you believe differently, don’t work for a start-up. This focus on practicing quiets the internal dialog of our mind of judgment and anxiety. It’s that judgment and anxiety that holds you back from the solution.
Having a “mind like water” leads to equanimity. Equanimity is the key to effectiveness ensuring you can handle any change a start-up throws at you.
Reposted from Objectivian.com. Original post December 1, 2010, by Michael Bordash.
Managing developers can be both very challenging and very rewarding. Not everyone is up to the challenge, nor will they ever be without understanding the mindset of a developer. The intent of this post is not to detail the nuances of such a mind, but to put forth some reasonable guidance if you ever find yourself being in command of a development team.
Having been a developer and a manager of developers for most of my adult life, I have observed that developers respect technical experience and knowledge when aligning themselves with a manager. However, if given an interesting puzzle to solve, developers will work for most anybody as long as the manager bestows the latitude necessary to execute on a design and is able to make a reasonable decision given the available parameters.
The challenge in this case is two fold: one, you must be able to make a technical decision that has impact to the business; and two, you must be able to extract the sometimes intricate details behind “developer statements”.
In my corporate experience, I’ve noted that superiors generally put in charge those who are capable of making development decisions or are able to overcome the above scenario. In the case that a developer wishes to make the leap from active development to a manager of developers, this post may help frame what you need to do in order to be successful in this new role. Developers that like to build to a spec might find management difficult as people are largely unpredictable and don’t manage their own lives to a spec. If this is your case, take this post as a sort of a protocol to follow and to fall back on should you find yourself in one of these undocumented situations.
Finally, please remember that at most companies there is a support structure above and around you that consist of your department head, line manager and of course HR. Use your colleagues to help navigate any uncharted waters and never be afraid to ask questions. With people, you mostly get one shot to get it right.
Introduction
The capacity and quality of any development organization depends on proper structure and leadership. Development managers and executives will continually assess the following three key areas in order to create a sustainable development organization that can quickly adapt to changes to technology, the market and customer demands. In summary,
- People
- Process
- Technology
A guiding principle for all of your actions: We are all solutions architects. Given a problem, we are determined through quantitative and qualitative analysis to arrive at the best solution. Develop, acquire or partner.
The Basics: People
Development managers commit to the following:
- Construct and maintain an organizational chart and ensure it is communicated appropriately and understood by direct reports
- Create performance goals for each direct report based on historical activity and review succession plans
Manage quality of direct report output - Identify personnel gaps in the organizational structure and, if able, fill them quickly
- Identify gaps in skill-sets and assess training options or re-assignment
- Assess and continuously improve training procedures and documentation for thorough assimilation of new hires
- Learn how to leverage external consultants and fixed-cost module development firms to assist core R&D activities
- Develop contingency plans to cover SPOFs, time-off, LOE assessments, etc.
- Understand business goals and relay decisions effectively to your team
- Engage in weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports
- Create value in each touch-point, prepare an agenda
The Basics: Process
Development managers will commit to the following:
- Comprehend all development processes and procedures required to be followed and executed by your direct reports
- Become a model for adherence and follow these same procedures. “Do as I say and as I do.”
- Identify SPOFs in procedures and build contingency plans for each scenario
- Work with, not against, Project Managers to identify how best to align resource to tasks
- Build and maintain support escalation procedures for your Operations counterparts and ensure each direct report understands it
- Adhere to the currently adopted SDLC, yet,
- Identify ways to improve on it internally
- Research the industry and analyze the case for change
- Ensure direct reports do not make decisions in a box
- Any decision that may have impact on the business must be escalated to the line manager
- Identify and respond to any blocking objects that impede Developer productivity and/or output quality
The Basics: Technology
Development managers will commit to the following:
- Ensure direct reports build or integrate the best software solution to solve a given problem with considerations for cost, performance and supportability
- Strive to develop technology that is bug-free, well-performing and supportable by Operations
- Commit to support any software we develop, or integrate, for Operations escalation (“We won’t leave Ops hanging”)
- Escalation and support procedures will be well-defined for each solution provided by Development
SMEs will train Operations on how to deploy and manage each solution provided by Development
Direct Report: One-on-Ones
Topics that should be covered within your one-on-one sessions with direct reports
- Commit to meet with your direct reports one-on-one each week, if possible and if it does not impede with critical initiatives
- Discuss and identify blockers regarding productivity and performance
- Discuss interactions with team members, project managers and extra-department characters
- Promote conflict resolution by the individual, otherwise broker a “truce” between parties should it impede on productivity
- Relay important initiatives and communications from senior executives
- Ask questions!
- Understand the motivation behind the individual’s career & personal aspirations where appropriate
- Gauge their commitment to the mission
- Understand how they’d like to extend their career
- Foster an environment that welcomes suggestions for improvement department-wide
- If you are a manager of managers, ensure they extend these items to their direct reports
Management Behaviors
The following points discuss various scenarios and guidelines for management actions:
- If posed a question that you are unsure how to answer, don’t make it up. Resolve to further research and provide a day and time to revisit with the individual or group
- Developer time is valuable and context switching is costly. Keep notice on how individuals from other departments affect your direct reports’ time and intercede where appropriate
- Don’t let friendly discussion get out of hand. Developers shouldn’t feel they have to listen to headphones to escape the cacophony of the floor. Pull the discussion aside and find a conference room, go to the hallway or an office (VP’s included)
- Be decisive. Developer input can make decision-making difficult if left to open discourse. If you know the right way to proceed, make the command decision and explain why you are going this route. While consensus is theoretically a good practice, it impedes upon progress.
- Direct reports are assigned to help enable your vision, it is your obligation to assess whether you have the right team to accomplish this.
I hope this post was helpful. I’ve been developing my style over time and extend, correct and remove items from time to time. If you have any questions, comments or conjectures about my principles, I’d love to hear them as I would like to continue to expand my own abilities.
