March 4, 2024
User experience (UX) initiatives are a key driver of business growth and revenue. It’s an integral part of most organizations’ change management process. UX projects seek to iterate and improve websites, apps, and products by using customer data and other inputs.
Its value isn’t vague either, it’s massive, and don’t just take it from us: Forbes shared in this article that for every $1 invested in UX, it results in a return of $100, which is an ROI of 9,900%. Amazing, right!?
That said, the business impact of UX still gets push back, some asking if it’s really required while others might be concerned that it will slow projects down.
It’s clear then that continuous demonstration of the value of UX in achieving business objectives is still required.
To discuss this further, Steven Shyne, co-founder of CXperts, and Ben Good, UX manager at Newell Brands, have joined Marwa Mhtar from WEVO in a webinar event to discuss how a particularly successful project for Yankee Candle is the prime example of how to ‘Align UX with Business Outcomes for Impact’.
Steven, Ben, and Marwa discuss how to synchronize UX strategies with company goals, the metrics that matter, advocating for UX, and tips for creating a cross-functional collaborative environment. Below are a few highlights from the webinar.
On how to articulate the importance of UX projects in terms of business impact
Ben shares a Newell Brands “cheat code” in their workflow. By having UX research & design and A/B testing & conversion rate optimization it becomes very easy to quantify the impact of UX.
“We don’t have separate or disparate UX projects or UX prioritizations - it’s directly integrated into our digital product roadmap, which is comprised of multiple business units and their top priorities, so we are directly integrated and embedded with our key business goals and objectives.” - Ben
“The more closely integrated you can be with those rather than just focusing on your own UX initiatives, the more impact is going to be easily quantifiable.” - Ben
However, not all companies know the value of UX and have it streamlined into their workflow.
“10 years ago UX did not have a seat at the table, and that is true for most companies today” - Steven
“We at CXperts try to pride ourselves on understanding, connecting with, and empathizing with end users as much as possible. We always try to be the advocate in the room. So it's sort of that proverbial empty chair that we always need to have for customers to make sure that we're involving them in the decision making process.
But we also understand very much that we are being sponsored by or procured by marketing teams. And so we need to make sure that we're making decisions that benefit both the end users and the company.” - Steven
A Yankee Candle case study showcasing the impact of UX work
Steven explains a banner project for Yankee Candle that was conducted through WEVO, a UX Research platform that generates massive amounts of qual and quant insights with 120+ consumer participants. The WEVO study collected baseline UX sentiment on product listing pages and product detail pages, which fed into quick fixes, AB tests, and design iterations.
“This [WEVO study] created probably 30+ hypotheses for us in terms of - hey, let's test this idea. And last year our A/B testing program drove a multimillion dollar improvement of revenue.” - Ben
A year later, a second WEVO was run on the updated product pages and demonstrated marked improvement across the board in several different core areas.
“We have direct revenue contributions from that WEVO study where we took a point of friction or a user need, that aligns with the business goal and objective, and we ran iterative tests on those to increase overall conversion rate and drive greater revenue.” - Ben
“It is a really great overall case study in being able to run WEVO, understand where to focus your efforts, and prioritizing which things need to be fixed and how, and then running another kind of comparative study to see the overall cumulative effect of all those activities.” - Steven
On fostering a collaborative UX culture across teams and departments
“From the UX research side, it starts in the beginning where if you're curious, which UX researchers innately are, ask someone on other teams and you would be surprised at how many champions you might be able to build out there.
Ask customer support teams about top issues they are hearing, marketing teams about different areas of the site that seem to be breaking down, and development teams on feature launches they may be uncertain about”. - Steven
“So start to ask and then you'll build interest, you'll build advocates, and then you have to close the loop. You have to socialize your findings as well. If you begin with that ask and you get those champions, make sure that you share your wins and learnings.” - Steven
“As a UX practitioner, you almost need to be a diplomat for UX. You’re building relationships, you’re building partnerships.” - Ben
“My favorite example is imagine if you're a UX practitioner and you're driving a bus. The goal should be to get as many people on the bus with you as possible. You all are driving towards the same destination - a better experience for your consumers, a better result for your business and your brand. You can all align around that, have some conversations on the bus and figure out how you might make that happen, but you're all riding on the same bus together.” - Ben
How UX professionals can better position themselves as vital contributors to company
Steven urges that all UX professionals need to sell UX.
“No matter what role you're in, no matter what department you're in - you're in sales. Even if you're a researcher, you have to be able to sell the importance of research, you have to be able to sell the value of the insights that you've collected and you have to be able to sell the prioritization of the recommendations you're looking to make.” - Steven
“The way you do that is with data, the way you do that is understanding the opportunity, either cost or gain by the company, and being able to underpin the importance of your research with the opportunity costs.” - Steven
Ben agrees and shares that becoming a good storyteller is also key in articulating the value of UX.
“And I know [storytelling] is a buzzword, but it is very true. The more engaging you can be, the more you can speak the language of the people that you're talking to, it's going to help make your work more effective.” - Ben
Ben add’s his advice that to better contribute to company success, it is important to find an executive sponsor.
“Depending upon the org structure, find a C-level executive, find a senior director, find a VP, figure out what problems they're trying to solve and help them solve them. You're going to get this side road into UX of greater autonomy, greater capability, potentially larger budget, potentially greater influence for UX for your organization if you can find a higher level sponsor and help them solve some problems”. - Ben
“It may not even be UX related problems initially, but it will get you to UX related issues and problems. If you can learn their language, learn what problems they're trying to solve. And help them solve them consistently. You'd be amazed at how that will unlock UX for you and your organization.” - Ben
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Steven and Ben share even more inspiring and insightful ideas in the full webinar, which you can watch here.
To learn more about how CXperts partners with Newell Brands and leverages research tools like WEVO to tackle business objectives and lift revenue, reach out to CXperts at hello@cxperts.io.
Find out more about WEVO here and visit www.wevo.ai/takeapulse for a 1 month free trial of their new product.
And checkout the Newell Brands digital team’s dedicated work at Yankee Candle.
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