[IxDA Discuss] Value of utesting a client driven marketing site.

[Adrian Chong]

Mark,

I think you hit it spot on. "You do not have to be granted power. And
being granted authority will not make you capable of change." To be
honest I don't think I'm the right person to lead the change although
I know the change is necessary. It's definitely a cultural issue and
there isn't buy in at the most important levels of the organization.
Because nobody has concretely laid out the value of UCD to the
company, in turn the company cannot communicate UCD's value to our
clients.

-- 
Adrian Chong
www.adrianchong.com/blog


On 9/18/06, Mark Schraad <mschraad at mac.com> wrote:
> The two things, to which you elude, are most devastating to a
> company... ...arrogance and complacency. These will most often lead
> to not only unrest amongst customer base, but amongst employees. That
> is not to say that all companies need be "cutting edge" or "breaking
> new ground". If that is what you are after as an employee, and the
> current customer base is not - you have a problem. Do you have the
> ability to be a change agent. Power and authority are two totally
> different things. You do not have to be granted power. And being
> granted authority will not make you capable of change. These are
> cultural issues and of critical importance. Culture beats strategy 9
> times out of 10. Risk and change are a lot to ask of most people. But
> a lot of it depends upon how you ask.
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Sep 18, 2006, at 6:17 PM, Adrian Chong wrote:
>
> > [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted
> > material.]
> >
> > Not to worry. It's my personal hate on for specific type of
> > marketer/marketing which I should have clarified. I am aware of the 5
> > points you listed but I think internally it's more of the "if it ain't
> > broke don't fix it" mentality. Why should they take on more risk by
> > adopting and integrating new tools into their process if they are
> > making money with their previous process? There is the potential for
> > more but why risk it... that's what i feel i'm up against. It kind of
> > leaves few options out there.
> >
> > On 9/18/06, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
> >> At 12:11 PM 9/18/2006, Adrian Chong wrote:
> >>> Thanks for the response. That's probably the more accurate issue,
> >>> there is no measure of sucess for the site. If the stakeholders
> >>> thinks
> >>> it's "cool" then it's a success for a while until they realize they
> >>> spent 500k on something that just looks neat but serves an ambiguous
> >>> purpose. Isn't that the nature of marketing though? Unfortunately, I
> >>> don't think I can really change a culture as one man :/
> >>
> >> <Flame>
> >> I have yet to meet a designer who doesn't get inflamed when a non-
> >> designer
> >> suggests that solving some complex problem is "just a simple
> >> matter of design."
> >>
> >> I think it's an unfair statement, even if made in jest, to suggest
> >> the
> >> "nature of marketing" entails spending money without caring of
> >> justification. I can assure you that marketers (a generic term, no
> >> less
> >> non-descript than "designer") who do their job well are keenly
> >> aware of the
> >> the results they are trying to attain. (And before you make some
> >> crass
> >> remark about how "those are rare", I'm sure there are many who
> >> would argue
> >> that smart, talented designers are equally as "rare.")
> >>
> >> Not to pick on Adrian, I don't think it benefits us, as
> >> practitioners in a
> >> burgeoning discipline to be so quick to dismiss the talents of other
> >> disciplines, especially those that have been around a lot longer
> >> than ours has.
> >> </Flame>
> >>
> >> In terms of change, I don't know enough about your situation to know
> >> whether you can affect change or not. However, I can tell you that
> >> many
> >> before you have, in situations that sound much more "dire" than
> >> what you
> >> might be facing.
> >>
> >> As I've said before on this list, senior executives care about 5
> >> things.
> >> Translate what you're trying to do into one of those 5 things and
> >> you'll
> >> have no trouble getting their attention.
> >>
> >> I learned a long time ago that senior executives don't care about
> >> usability
> >> testing. But they do care about:
> >>
> >> 1) Increasing Revenue
> >> 2) Reducing Expenses
> >> 3) Increasing Sales from New Customers (aka increasing marketshare)
> >> 4) Increasing Sales from Existing Customers (aka leveraging
> >> customer base)
> >> 5) Increasing Shareholder Value
> >>
> >> Ask yourself how conducting a usability test (or a field study,
> >> card sort,
> >> prototype, or any other UX activity,) can achieve one of those 5
> >> things and
> >> you'll have your answer as to how and when to use the test.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps.
> >>
> >> (Sorry for the flame, but you hit one of my pet peeves - showing
> >> disrespect
> >> for the other hard-working members on *our* team.)
> >>
> >> Jared
> >>
> >>
> >> Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
> >> 510 Turnpike Street, Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
> >> 978 327-5561   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
> >> Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Adrian Chong
> > www.adrianchong.com/blog
> > ________________________________________________________________
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