2009 chi panel | fault lines of user experience: the intersection of business and design

CHI 2009| Fault Lines of User Experience | 8 April 2009 | page 1

Fault lines of user experience:

The intersection of business and

design

Patricia Hallstein

Vice President, Customer Experience, Economist.com

9 April 2009


Customer experience at Economist.com

Some background to anchor the perspective I can contribute to

the conversation

The Economist is a small company and a publication with a

long history and a big global influence

I joined the Economist.com business unit as VP of Customer

Experience in July 2007 to build a user experience practice

and team

Economist.com has very ambitious growth goals both in terms of

key numbers (web stats, contribution to the Economist Group)

and in terms of creating a fundamentally different digital

product

Economist.com is currently transitioning to Agile/Scrum


The Economist newspaper


About The Economist

The Economist was founded in 1843 to “take part in

a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward,

and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."

Attracting a global readership, generally passionate about The

Economist and very engaged with the brand

Growing while the news publishing industry is in decline


Economist readers are

intellectually curious,

opinionated and

influential.

They think and act globally.

They thrive on ideas, and

come to us for ideas and

inspiration.


read advertisements 63%

Source: Affinity Vista; Ipsos-Economist 2007 Subscriber Study

say The Economist is their favorite publication 76%

of subscribers consider The Economist to be essential weekly reading

90%


Thousands post pictures of

themselves, friends, family, even

pets on flickr.com

Die hard fans share videos of

themselves reading articles aloud

on YouTube


Fans volunteer to translate The Economist

Eco Team translates every article as soon as an issue hits the stands

Eco PDF Team bundles up finished translations into Eco Weekly, a bi-weekly

PDF with two complete issues for forum members to enjoy and share

nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/media/02economist.html

ecocn.org/bbs/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/media/02economist.html

http://ecocn.org/bbs/


Readers meet up and gather online on

Facebook

MeetUp groups

Run by fans

Facebook

More than 90,000 fans

One official and many independent groups, e.g.

• SIR - I am rather fond of your publication The Economist 15,875 members

• The Economist is my Bible! 73 members

• I love the covers of The Economist 125 members

http://www.meetup.com/economist/

http://www.facebook.com/search_redirect.php?q=the,economist&fc=0&gc=0&cl=300&rc=541&rank=35&friends=0&sns=0&sf=p&init=s:quick&cururl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fs.php%3Fref%3Dsearch%26init%3Dq%26q%3D%2522The%2BEconomist%2522%26sid%3D1552bdb697b8a600e032ff8ddd0288f5%26n%3D-1%26o%3D4%26sf%3Dp%26s%3D30%26nctrct%3D1239172735562&is_friend=&sid=1552bdb697b8a600e032ff8ddd0288f5&num_uq=1&id=2207565830&o_type=2&rid=0&ab=X&t=c:name&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgroup.php%3Fgid%3D2207565830










facebook.com/pages/The-Economist/6013004059


The Economist is growing in every corner of

the globe

July-Dec 2008 % change

vs . July-Dec 2007

Worldwide 1,390,780 +6.4%

North America 786,977 +9%

Asia-Pacific 133,846 +5%

United Kingdom 186,995 +3%

Latin America 15,651 +3%

Continental Europe 239,152 +2%

Middle East/Africa 28,159 +1%

Source: ABC Dec 2008


CIRCULATION change 07-08

0.2%

0.7%

9.2%

-1.3%

The

Economist

Fortune

Business

Week

Forbes

NEWSSTAND change 07-08

-9.3%

2.9%

10.9%

-13.4%

The

Economist

Fortune

Business

Week

Forbes

Circulation and newsstand growth (US)

Source: ABC Dec 2008


Engagement (US)

Read 4 out

of 4 issues

Minutes

spent with

each Issue

Magazine Is

“one of my

favorites”

The Economist 53% 56 41%

BusinessWeek 33% 35 16%

Forbes 32% 37 17%

Fortune 33% 39 16%

Source: ABC Dec 08


Economist.com


Economist.com

Was run on a small budget and minimal crew since dotcom

crash in 2001.

Now a key area of investment for the Economist Group.

Big challenge for the business unit overall:

Design a digital presence for The Economist that is as

meaningful to the world and would be missed as much if it

disappeared as the newspaper.


Economist.com mission

Economist.com wants to become “the foremost destination

for analyzing and debating the global agenda.”

This clearly calls for a customer-focused approach on a strategic

level.


Building a customer experience practice

I joined a new Economist.com leadership team in July 2007,

to start a user experience practice—objectives:

Create a customer-focused organization

Build a team

Agreed strategy and process

Established at strategic level

Start with small budget, prove value to business, editorial,

readers with key project

Build customer insights program and introduce user-centered

process


Defining the Economist.com

strategy


18

Mission: Pursue the

“severe contest” online

Vision: The Economist online is the foremost destination for analysing and debating the global

agenda. It draws on the intelligence of journalists, readers and guest contributors

Learning and Growth

Benefits to Economist

Value Proposition

Process

Brand Finance

For readers

For ad clients

L5 Establish a culture of excellence

L2 Identify & fill or develop strategic job roles

L1 Get better at

strategic change

management

L7 Establish user

–centred design and

development capability

L6 Integrate technology

with business strategy

P6 Product innovation and

lifecycle management

P7 Gain and maintain

customer insight

P5 Ad, sales and

campaign management

P8 On-brand

reader acquisition

V1 I value The Economist

online as the premier

destination for debating

the global agenda

F4 Grow and retain

on-brand target audience

F5 Grow network of

on-brand contributors

F1 Ensure our sustainability by

dramatically growing profit and revenue

F2 Grow client base

L3 Align

organisation

with strategy

F3 Increase operational efficiency

L8 Develop

editorial

curation skills

L4 Stakeholder

alignment and

internal brand

management

Version 17

P9 Integrate print and web

editorial departments

A1 I learn or discover something new

A2 I gain a deeper understanding

A3 I am able to connect with other "ideas" people

A4 I have a forum to put forward and test my ideas

A5 I am inspired to act

C1 I reach my desired audience

C2 I get results from a unique programme

C3 I get a premium service

P1 Community development and management

P2 Content publishing

P3 Guest writer management

P4 Reader services


Proving value and

establishing UX process

“Quick Win” project


Homepage and navigation before


Key players

Editorial leadership

Sales

Circulation marketing


Introducing user-centered process Creative, iterative, user-centered

Research:

Understand

business objectives

user goals

technology constraints &

opportunities

solution

Solution:

Strategize

User insights

(ideally

personas

& scenarios)

Solution plan

Products

& features

Design

Interaction:

getting around,

engaging

with content

and others

Visual design:

Typography

Images

Colour

Measure

Usability

Satisfaction

Engagement

ROI

Develop

1. Prototypes

2. Beta

3. Final


Homepage and navigation after


Key results

Exceeded expectations in traffic growth:

Page views per visit in May jumped from 3.3 to 3.6,

contributing 1.2m new monthly page views

Daily averages jumped after launch:*

• Page views increased by 18%

• Average pages per visit increased by 16%

• Number of unique users increased by 2%

Intangible results:

Sense of accomplishment for all stakeholders

Buy-in to user-centred process

*Mon through Thur traffic following the launch, compared against the daily average 6 weeks Mon through Thu prior to launch.


What made it successful

Research and strategy phases

Extensive stakeholder interviews

Design phase

Frequent reviews with stakeholders and editorial

Long, iterative design phase

Development phase

Rapid, iterative user testing and interface progression (3 days)


Status quo

Where we stand


Becoming a customer-centered

organization: Successes so far

Customer focus is part of the high-level strategy for

Economist.com

Established customer focus for the organization

Established user experience process

Established a customer insights program

Developed and introduced personae (target audience

segments)

and user value propositions

Proved value and established trust with three major

stakeholders—

editorial, circulation marketing, ad sales


Lessons learned

What worked

Learning to speak the language of the environment and to

address key stakeholders’ goals, in our case:

• Editorial: original mission, journalistic ethos

• Circulation marketing and sales: need to meet their numbers

• Business overall: ROI, “blue ocean” strategy

First, prove value in a meaningful case

Then, focus on customer insights that allow people to draw their

own conclusions

What did not work

Getting bogged down for a while in too many individual initiatives

and projects


Introducing Scrum

Current challenges


Current challenge: Tactical focus through

Scrum

Introducing Scrum created a tactical focus for the

organisation

Moving the site to a new platform in parallel scrums required

the CX team to focus on streamlining design

• addressed by creating a digital design framework

Introduction of Agile (Scrum) project management “by the

book” re-enforced a strong tactical focus and a strong focus on

technology


Scrum process flow focused on development

phase


“Sprint 0”

pre-work

Understand target

audience (personae)

- goals, needs,

behaviours.

- adoption challenges

and opportunities

Define user tasks and

intents (scenarios)

Competitive analysis

– generate ideas

Write and apply CX

prioritization for

stories

Begin user

modelling

where

needed

Apply best practices

to design

Continue user

modelling

Iterate and review

Validate with users

Validate with

users

Scrum process flow and user-centred

design?


Re-establishing a strategic role for CX

Focusing on establishing and spreading customer insights to

empower scrum teams

• Introducing personae, scenarios, task flows

Influencing how Scrum is established in the organisation

• Engaging in enterprise transition to scrum

• Influencing how backlogs are written

• Introducing “sprint 0”

• Working on establishing a mid-term customer-focused

visioning and planning process outside Scrum


Thank you

2009 chi panel | fault lines of user experience: the intersection of business and design

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