A guide to Business-driven UX
Connecting business strategy with user needs
Business goals have generally been implemented in the design process. However, are they properly identified? Are goals enough to get a clear understanding of the business strategy? And more importantly, how the strategy will impact the design process?
Successful companies are already business-driven
In today’s marketplace, designing a digital interface is ultimately user-centric. UX methods are primarily focused on understanding the users: personas, user interviews, user surveys, user testing, statistical analysis, etc. Based on Nielsen Norman Group, the “first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother”.
Although that statement is true, many decisions aren’t made to serve users. The advertising is intrusive for the majority of users (Google Ads, YouTube Ads, etc.), many limitations go against user needs (Twitter character limit, TikTok video length limit, etc.), or restrictions are applied to increase the conversion rate (no back button on e-commerce checkout forms, mandatory e-mail address to download a free report, etc.).
A successful user experience is not about meeting the exact needs of the users, the end goal is always business outcomes. No matter how satisfied the users are with a redesign, if it hasn’t been aligned with the business strategy, there is a great likelihood it will be considered a failure. Combining user needs and business strategy is the key.
Business and UX departments: a love-hate relationship
On one hand, business decisions can be frustrating for designers since they can be intrusive for the users. On the other hand, the business department must be aware that following UX best practices will be highly profitable for the company. If both teams ignore the purposes of the other, friction happens. Unfortunately, it remains a common situation in 2022. UX designers still must sell the value of UX to stakeholders.
Combining a user-centric design and a business-driven approach is complex but worthwhile. Most often both departments will defend their positions. For example, from a business point of view, advertising is profitable, while from a user point of view, it’s invasive.
The foundation of efficient and balanced collaboration on any UX project begins with defining the roles of the involved departments.
- The Business department defines the business strategy (i.e.: business goals, mission statement, target market, etc.). It can suggest features based on personal opinions, but at any point, it should not impose features or any decision that will impact the UX.
- The UX department designs a user experience based on the user needs that will reach the goals as defined by the business department.
The 5 stages of the Business-driven UX Process
The key to success is helping both departments focus in the same direction by following a process combining both user needs and business strategy. The Business-Driven UX Process provides clear indications on how to drive the user experience based on the business strategy, and how the goals will influence each design stage. It’s inspired by the User-Centered Design methodology.
Stage 1: Business strategy
Although the role of the UX department isn’t defining the business strategy, its responsibility is gathering the required business information that will influence the design phase.
Examples of incomplete statements of business goals could be: “Increase the conversion rate” or “Improve the user experience.” These are not valid business goals because they lack a good deal of information.
A properly defined business strategy is straightforward and concise where only the relevant information is collected, here are examples:
- Business goals: specific, measurable, difficult (promoting higher performance), and time-based.
- Mission statement: short, catchy, and action-based that declares the purpose of the company.
- Target market: customer segmentation sorted by order of importance/profitability.
- Forecasting: short, medium, and long-term projections.
Additional information can also be useful and depends on the project: SWOT Analysis, Value Proposition, Competitive Matrix, Business Model Canvas, etc.
Note: the business goals should include a definition of the indicators used to measure progress toward the goals and the responsible department in charge of results monitoring. Indicators can sometimes be subjective when no concrete data can be measured, for example, “Increase the wow-factor of the dashboard for investors“ could be perfectly valid in certain situations.
Documenting every stage of the UX process is crucial to achieving a fact-based design, ensuring efficient collaboration across every team member, and getting buy-in from the business department by demonstrating a solid process. Atlassian Confluence is a great solution if you don’t have any collaboration tool yet.
Stage 2: Research
The selection of the UX research methods is based on both business strategy and user needs. Along with the “Evaluate” stage, these are the only two stages of the design process where the business is equally important as the users.
Start by selecting business-driven methods. For instance, the methods will be very different for an e-commerce website looking to increase sales for existing customers, increase upselling for all customers, reduce call center demand, reduce product returns, etc. Examples: Competitive Analysis, Call Center Report (i.e.: most asked questions, etc.), Product Returns Report, Checkout Conversion Rate Report, High-Profit Margin Products Report, etc.
Continue your research by selecting user-centric methods. Examples: Personas, User Interview, Task Analysis, Focus Group, Card Sorting, Journey Mapping, Service Blueprint, etc.
Additional evaluation methods from the Evaluate step can be added if they haven’t been implemented yet. Examples: Analytics Review, User Testing, UX Survey, Search-log Analysis, etc.
The order of the methods depends on the strength of research evidence. For example, if the Call Center Report is expected to provide fact-based information, it will be done at first. While if personas won’t be backed by statistics, they will be done last.
Note: each part of the research may be influenced by the business strategy. The personas can also be inspired by the target market. The metrics analysis can also be based on the business goals, and so on. There is no rule here — it’s case-dependent.
Stage 3: Define
The first and only mandatary method of the “Define” stage is UX Strategy. It’s a plan that identifies challenges (business goals, user pain points, etc.) and their solutions. For example, “Reduce support ticket volume by 20% this year” could be a challenge identified in the plan and their solutions could be: add a “Was this helpful? Yes / No” survey at the end of the knowledge base articles, remove the contact link in the top navigation, show the related FAQs before displaying the contact form. Every business goal must be translated into UX solutions as stated by Jared M. Spool.
Except for the UX Strategy method, the purpose of the “Define” stage is documenting all the specifications of the user experience required for the development phase and strictly for that purpose. For example, the Personas is a research methodology that won’t be used for development purposes while a customer segmentation will be part of the “Define” stage since it is needed for UX personalization.
For the first round, the specifications are solely based on the observations gathered from the Research stage to define a starting point: UX Roadmap, User Stories, User Flows, Information Architecture, Taxonomy, Design Specifications, etc. During the “Design” stage, you come back to update the initial specifications and define additional ones.
In this stage, you also specify the required web accessibility standard (i.e.: WCAG) and the level of conformance (A, AA, and AAA). It’s usually based on the requirements identified previously.
Stage 4: Design
The “Design” stage includes all the methods dedicated to designing the user experience: Wireframes, Wireflows, UX Prototype, Editorial Style Guide, Mood Board, Design System, Visual Design, Content Writing, Iconography, and so on.
As soon as you define new specifications, move back to the “Define” stage to update the UX documentation, switching from “Define” to “Design” is the natural flow. This stage will be considered complete once the Define stage is fully documented. Note: you don’t have to wait for the full completion of this stage before conducting evaluation methods — usually, the earlier, the better.
Make sure your visual design is aligned with the required accessibility guidelines, there are many tools available to check colors, contrasts, font sizes, etc.
Stage 5: Evaluate
The “Evaluate” stage goes beyond performing methods, it’s about defining a plan to evaluate the outcomes on both user needs and business strategy:
- Identifying the key objectives
- Selecting methods
- Selecting and configuring tools
- Establishing planning and performing the methods
- Documenting process, findings, and recommendations
Qualitative UX evaluation methods involve a small number of users. They are conducted either during the design process or on the live website: User Testing (in-person or remotely), Session Recording, Eye-Tracking, etc. A static design image can also be evaluated to get feedback on specific scenarios: 5 Second Test, First Click Test, Blur Test, etc. If the budget doesn’t allow recruiting external users, soliciting colleagues is the low-cost alternative, although it’s not a recommendation. However, it’s still more valuable than no evaluation.
Quantitative UX evaluation methods involve large numbers of users. They are only conducted on the live website due to the higher sample size requirement: Analytics Review, A/B Testing, Search-log Analysis, UX Survey, FAQ Review, Heatmap Review, Guerrilla Testing, etc.
Additionally, Website Page Speed must be evaluated during the development phase and then periodically monitored, since it’s a part of a successful user experience.
Web Accessibility can be tested with online tools. Depending on the defined standard, you can find a Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List on the WAI website. Regional disability organizations can also be contacted to get them involved in the evaluation stage.
Once the data has been collected and the reports have been produced, including findings and recommendations, the iterative process will move back to the Research, Define, or Design stage.
The key takeaways
- Define the roles and present the Business-driven UX Process to the stakeholders to maximize buy-in.
- Gather the information for the business strategy, especially the goals, the mission, the target market, and the forecasting.
- Select the business-driven research methods, then the user-centric methods.
- Design your user experience and document it in the “Define” stage to promote collaboration and decrease delay during the development phase.
- Create a structured evaluation plan to reach user needs and business outcomes.
