UNITED WE LEAN

UX thinking is increasingly seen as the means for creating meaningful brand experiences in today’s always-on, real-time environment.


It’s shifted beyond the functional task of creating digital assets and products, to defining the way we do business, serve customers and add value in people’s everyday lives.

“UX’s importance seems to be slowly sinking into corporate culture the way ‘brand’ did a decade ago” Harvard Business Review

Basically because digital is just the way live our lives. As such, successful brands are looking to align UX thinking to business and communications strategy.

It’s marketing’s new best friend, and core to new product and service innovation.

THE RISE OF LEAN

The convergence of a number of trends may explain this new alliance.

The impact of UX in product development  is demonstrated by the hype surrounding lean-startup,  MVPs and rapid prototyping.

Lean meets marketing with the realisation that messaging+media campaigns are increasingly out of step with the always-on, connected  consumer. Brands need to find the means to engage people in their everyday lives, with meaningful experiences and personalised interaction driven through content. A need, in short, for always-on, real-time marketing.

“Given the prevailing always on culture, the notion that brands and businesses can rely simply on planning our their campaign schedule in advance is fundamentally flawed” Marketing week.

Both rely on continual iteration which fits pretty neatly with the idea of achieving business growth through ‘marginal gains’.

INNOVATION IMPERATIVE

This may seem at odds with a renewed call for brands to innovate more and bigger. But it’t not. Lean owes more than a nod to Clayton Christensen’s disruptive, and Von Hippel’s democratised innovation models. Sir James Dyson’s defines innovation as  Creativity + Iterative Development.

This highlights that business success requires an environment for both rapid innovation and continuous iteration simultaneously.

And that’s why UX is the skill set and approach increasingly seen as the bridge that unites planning, creative, content and tech to deliver always-on, real-time brand experiences.

 

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