{"id":258,"date":"2012-05-22T12:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T12:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uxtraordinary.com\/?p=258"},"modified":"2020-05-25T20:39:51","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T20:39:51","slug":"actual-practical-ux-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aeoneal.com\/blog\/actual-practical-ux-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Actual, practical UX strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Bryan, of the LinkedIn UX Strategy and Planning group, contributed There is no such thing as UX strategy<\/a>, on UXmatters<\/a>. Bryan’s clearly got a handle on the subject, but some of the user responses (“This UX Strategist role should be a skill of a PO;” “I thought we decided there was no such thing as UX Strategy\u2026and that UX was strategy?”) revealed a widespread lack of understanding on what it is and who should do it (and no, it’s probably not product owners. A PO truly gifted in UX is not only extremely rare, but has many non-UX roles to fulfill. Adding this to their plate is the wrong call.)<\/p>\n

While I agree with Bryan’s thesis that there should be better understanding and use of UX strategy, but in the article he behaves as though this is a goal. Having seen UX strategy happen and consciously done it myself for the better part of a decade, I submitted the following comment:<\/p>\n

It is real, and it’s happening in some places. I think the reason for the confusion lies in lack of definition about not simply what UX means, but what strategy means.<\/p>\n

For me – and I’ve been doing user experience under one title or another for over 14 years now – UX is “everything that is the case;” it’s everything the user experiences in the context of your brand. Designing good UX is not possible without understanding product strategy; designing great UX is not possible unless product strategy integrates UX strategy. Frequently the only person who can do that is the UX designer, unless you’ve hired product people with design backgrounds, which is rare. User experience rests on the three pillars of user research, usable IA\/UI\/IxD, and purpose-driven vision. You have to understand your users’ goals, your client’s goals, and be able to bridge them.<\/p>\n

So there are different flavors of UX strategy, and a good UX strategist uses them all at different times.<\/p>\n