We all understand the critical importance of focusing on and improving the customer experience (CX) of any organisation. But all too often organisations fail to truly harness the value of CX and its integration points to strategy, business and operating model design.
There’s an opportunity for CX practitioners to evolve their skills and mindset to understand key strategy and business design concepts, and how the voice of the customer can help drive the strategy of the entire organisation. Not just particular channels and services.
We acknowledge that the market has reached a level of maturity where organisations are aware of the need to include the customer perspective in the design of products and services through projects. Industry thought leaders have successfully guided organisations to ensure that multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) have a mix of delivery management, research, service design, architecture and technical capability. This should be celebrated.
But…
If we don’t change our knowledge management practices as well, projects will continue to deliver point-in-time insights that seldom offer enduring value and reuse. The next level of maturity is to evolve the mindset and skills of CX practitioners to think beyond static artefacts built in graphic design programs. We’re not talking about replacing the role of these products. They play an important role in championing the customer perspective in a rich and engaging way that is vital to drive change.
The opportunity that’s being missed is ensuring the data-points from these products become reusable knowledge assets that live in a repository related to other views of the business. The rise of business architecture, supported by dynamic modelling tools, provide organisations with a 360-degree view of the business. These perspectives help decision-makers drive transformation across the entire organisation in a way that incorporates the ‘outside-in’ and ‘inside-out’ needs of the business.
Over the last year we’ve noticed CX practitioners and business architects coming closer together but falling just short in bridging the gap of connecting their respective knowledge-bases. They are missing out on the opportunity to connect information assets to reveal a ‘vertical slice’ from the customer’s needs and pain-points, the performance of the organisation represented through value streams, the capability required to deliver value, and the operating model components that bring the business to life.
The insights derived from interrogating the up-and-down stream impacts of these perspectives is what helps decision-makers prioritise where to allocate precious resources. If the voice of the customer is buried in static artefacts stored in project folders, rather than making their way into the business architecture knowledge-base, we can’t empower executives to make informed decisions that address customer needs.
This represents the true transition from CX Practitioner, to CX Architect.
Krishan Jogia is the Managing Director of Evolve&Amplify, a problem-solving advisory that specialises in delivering executable strategic advice that’s human-centered. He can be reached at krishan.jogia@evolveandamplify.com
Fran Mether is a Principal Consultant at Evolve&Amplify, a problem-solving advisory that specialises in delivering executable strategic advice that’s human-centered. She can be reached at fran.mether@evolveandamplify.com