Think Big : Designing the message

Want to hook customers? Remember that good design isn't simply about the product, it' about the entire business.

Behind every great customer experience is a tight coupling of product, service brand expression and business system. Designing for business - both the product and the message that go with it - is essential because a great experience should not be a veneer or hollow shell built to disguise an otherwise unremarkable product or service. A customer experience is the sum of many things working in concerto to create something true, authentic,, and compelling. User delight must be designed into every element. Not just the user-facing offering , but the product line, information systems, service and support, marketing communications - everything that will influence what customers hear, see, and feel.

WORKING TOGETHER - Jet Blue understands this. Most airlines do a good job of flying us safely, but what we remember are tortuous gate delays, rude staff and the painful nature of the boarding process. An enormous amount of energy has been spent in the design of the physical elements of flying, but little has gone into the back-end business processes. When thought through from the customer's point of view this could severely alter the user's perception.

In contrast Jet Blue's reservations, personnel and logistics systems were all designed with an emphatic understanding of the needs of not just the passenger, but everyone with a role in the flight experience, from pilots to service agents. This means that all these elements don't just work, but function in a synergystic way to create the magic of good experience.

Understanding the needs of everyone in a business ecosystem doesn't imply satisfying them all equally - that's a prescription for paralysis - but designing for balance in the ecosystem does increase the odds of a venture's viability or even success.

At the nexus of business innovation, three principles emerge :

1. Ensure desirability

Establish a point of empathy for the user. For example, the insights that let to the Sony Walkman and its progeny the iPod, which didn't come from traditional market research but from observing behavior. Empathy is the wellspring of value creation.

2. Balance desirability for shareholders

As your user-centered point of view develops, add in emphatic insights for all the shareholders in the ecosystem : Users, employees, shareholders society and even government. What does each entity want and need to make this product successful? an example is Amazon which incorporated the desires and needs of customers and partners.

3. Iterate for viability

Proceed as designers do, which is to create something quick and relatively cheap, show it to real people, and roll the learning back into the venture.

HOLISTIC APPROACH. Ready answers may not exist for most of the key questions that matter to your users and ecosystem - which will mean that you'll have to design experiments (Think of Google's long lasting Gmail beta) to get real information from real people about what works until viability is realized.

To meet the rising bar of customer experience, organizations must embrace this holistic approach to designing for business. It's when a company's products, services, brand and supply chain work together - Think Apple - that the experience is more than the sum of its parts.

Inspired on "Think Big" an article by Diego Rodriguez, Businessweek