Business Objectives vs. User Goals
In an ideal world, where we find ourselves in the highest levels of UX maturity within our organization, where we have reached the level of Integrated User-Centered Design, the disciplines of user experience are fully integrated with the everyday workings
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Business Objectives vs. User Goals In an ideal world, where we find ourselves in the highest levels of UX maturity within our organization, where we have reached the level of Integrated User-Centered Design, the disciplines of user experience are fully integrated with the everyday workings of the business. User goals are considered just as important as the business objectives, simply because they are one and the same. User research is best used to determine the direction of the business, to define its strategy, its products, and even have an influence beyond the digital aspects of the organization. However, as we have already discussed in the previous chapter, very few of us indeed will work for an organization that functions at these higher levels of UX maturity. So what challenges arise for the rest of us who are striving to enrich the products we are working to deliver by bringing the various disciplines of user experience design to the table? As much as I’d love to think that the goals of the user should come out on top every time – after all, it is they who we are designing and building our digital products for – this is simply not the case in the vast majority of organizations in the real world. Being a champion for the user, to be the one who echoes their voice internally, is an everyday struggle with the ultimate aim being to get that voice heard above all of the other competing needs and constraints within any given project that you work on. Every aspect of a project is fighting to be heard over the others: user research, technical constraints, usability testing results, personal opinions, resource, budgets, et cetera. But one thing is always heard above all others and inevitably wins out: business objectives. Part of being the voice of the user within an organization is to engage in these struggles, to identify the challenges and conflicts, and to look to resolve them by aligning user goals with the business objectives. But before we look into how we go about this, there’s something that seems counterintuitive to the overarching theme of this book that we need to understand first. © Westley Knight 2019 W. Knight, UX for Developers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4227-8_3
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Chapter 3
Business Objectives vs. User Goals
Business Goals Transcend User Needs As much as it pains me to put it down in writing, business goals are more important than the needs of the user. I know, this is a book championing UX and how other disciplines can embrace user-centered approaches, and here I am with a whole section saying that business goals are more important than user needs. It sounds like I’m not really fully invested in this user-centered design stuff, doesn’t it? So, let’s correct that now. In order to create a successful digital user experience and a sustainable product, it must fulfill the objectives of the business. It needs to provide, not only a return on investment, but continuing profit for it to be seen as a sustainable part of the business. If the product does not fulfill this most basic of requirem
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