ux strategy, architecture & design

The major projects I’ve been working on over the past year have highlighted the difficulties organizations have coordinating the efforts of multiple business units in delivering a service to the same customer audience. And it has struck me that large organizations are a little like a group of musicians – capable, talented, experienced, and with a desire to play well. And yet, when it comes down to it, the result is a cacophony.

To the customer this noise makes itself known in the form of inconsistent or conflicting information coming from different sources; two different units offering what is ostensibly the same service – but with different rules; poor transitions as you’re passed from one unit to the next – “for security purposes, may I have your date of birth?” (Again?!); or gaps in the service where fairly obvious needs are going unmet. Worse, service requests that “fall through the cracks” because of unclear lines of responsibility.

Internally, these issues look like communication failures; siloing; internal politics; empire building; demarcation; resource issues; or poor understanding of the customers’ needs.

A common response to these issues is to ‘improve communication’. Various tactics come into play: cross-functional teams; inter-project briefings; new lines of management and reporting; perhaps a complete corporate restructure. To our musicians, we make them aware of one another, and give them the environment and channels in which they can communicate. Perhaps, like jazz musicians improvising, we hope that something wonderful and coherent will coalesce from the noise. But like musicians tuning up before a performance, they begin by warming up – playing anything they feel like to get the air flowing, or the strings loosened, and although small groups of two or three might come together and play something harmonic, out in the audience the effect is still unstructured and chaotic.

Enter the Conductor

Having seen a number of organizations attempt to address this issue, I’ve seen a recognition dawn that the problem is one of coordination. Our ‘players’ are out of time; out of sync; and out of tune. So organizations hire in a ‘conductor’ – someone whose sole responsibility is to coordinate the efforts of different business units when delivering a service to a particular audience. This role is a proto-service management function, but often the focus is on communication instead of an holistic view.

Our conductor expends a great deal of effort getting different units to talk with one another, and plan joint activities. Projects collaborate, but two different collaborations are still working at cross-purposes. Communication involves more and more groups, but still something’s missing.

The Score

If you’ve caught on to the whole music metaphor, what’s missing is the score. You know – the music. Without music the musicians and conductor are essentially lost. Yes, with communication and time you’ll get snatches of music – maybe even beautiful music – but it won’t be the sustained sweeping grandeur of a symphony; nor the free-flowing groove of a jazz quartet.

And now that I’ve mentioned jazz you’re probably thinking “Ha! Jazz musicians don’t use music!” and you’d be wrong. They do; and they practice and practice and practice. Chord progressions, improvizations, chorus and verse. They practice transitions, solos, changes in tempo and key. And when they’ve got it so down that they can feel it in their bones, well yes: then they play it without the music.

But let me ask you this: is your organization practicing as hard as that jazz quartet at playing together, seamlessly, melodiously? Or are you still at the stage where having a score would help ensure everyone knows their part. And there’s nothing wrong with that – most symphony orchestras have sheet music in front of them.

So, what’s the score? What’s the design equivalent of the sheet music that helps your organization play in sync, in tune and in harmony? It’s your experience strategy, of course.