What is UX strategy?

User experience (UX) strategy is about “getting a clear understanding of how your user experience ladders up to business goals,” says Tom Lowry, Director of Advocacy at Figma. “You act as your core audience’s change agent, developing a strategic plan that will win them over.”

Read on to learn more about:

• How your team can benefit from UX strategy
• Key components of a UX strategy
• 4 easy steps to build a UX strategy with FigJam

Benefits of UX strategy

A UX strategy “sets a clear and consistent direction by prioritizing what to build, based on the business and your users,” explains Tom. This helps design and other teams stay on course to develop a stellar UX that drives ROI.

According to Tom, UX strategy helps answer key questions. How should we collaborate to solve our users’ key challenges, across multiple touchpoints? Does this product or feature fulfill our business objectives and goals? Does it map to our vision? How will we measure success?

Key elements of UX strategy

The main components of UX strategy include vision, goals, and a plan of action. “Defining a clear vision, mission, and values helps teams align on what they need to deliver,” says Tom. That way, you can gut-check your UX design strategy against your company’s overall strategy. For example, “making design accessible to all” is a key Figma value proposition that applies to all projects—big and small.

“As for goals, senior leadership establishes the overarching framework. Then different teams develop their own goals and metrics, based on what they’re responsible for,” explains Tom. “Our prototyping team might establish goals to improve our design system’s UX, while the growth team will set new user acquisition or conversion goals.” UX design goals should always support business goals, he adds.

With strategic goals and measures in place, Tom says, project managers and team leads can create a high-level action plan. Together they clarify objectives and build a roadmap, outlining key user problems to solve, given company timelines, budget, resources, and other dependencies.

What does UX strategy cover?

UX strategy can cover a broad set of products, features, or services—or focus on a single product, feature, or service. “You could apply UX strategy to a specific feature request—such as adding a toggle to a user interface—or to an app-wide functionality that could significantly move the ROI needle,” Tom explains. Whenever you prioritize one deliverable over another, assess the tradeoffs thoroughly, balancing user needs against business goals.

Build your UX strategy in 4 steps

When you plan your UX strategy, you're laying the foundation for user-centric products and features. Savvy UX design teams use four basic steps to build UX strategy.

Step 1: Set goals.

Your company probably already has mission, vision, and values statements. If not, FigJam has a template to help clarify them. Your strategic UX goals should marry your company's stated business goals with user needs.

Step 2: Validate your goals with research.

Interview business stakeholders at your company to understand their expectations, and hear how they measure success. But don't stop there—collect outside perspectives, too. Analyze competitors to identify advantages and disadvantages, and go deep with user research: build personas, review social media interactions, and comb through support tickets to identify user needs.

Step 3: Evaluate and ideate.

Bubble up key headlines or themes from all your research to help leaders decide which product or features make the cut. Then brainstorm to identify the tools, technology, and players you need to bring your strategy to life.

Step 4: Build your roadmap.

Map out milestones that support your vision and meet your goals, then pinpoint activities and tasks along the way to achieve those milestones. When you move into the execution phase, Tom says, “prepare to iterate” on your roadmap. UX strategy offers crucial early guidance, but user feedback and testing will solidify your direction—or prompt you to pivot.

Pro tips for UX strategists

• Stay focused on your users. “User-centricity is huge,” says Tom. “Your UX strategy should include figuring out who your core persona is, so you know whom you’re designing for.”
• Review data and qualitative findings. “Analytics help you understand how people are using your product,” adds Tom. “Product usage metrics should influence roadmap prioritization.” But don't rely solely on quantitative data, he says. Qualitative feedback can help you pinpoint potential moments of delight.
• Connect the dots. Tom advises designers to collaborate closely with research, project management, sales, support, and other teams to get a complete picture of the business and your users.

Jumpstart your UX strategy with Figma

To get started, “kick off collaborative sessions on FigJam,” recommends Tom. FigJam’s ready-made brainstorming and diagramming templates can help your team quickly iterate on UX strategy and process.

For inspiration, Tom suggests connecting with other people in the design community on UX strategy. “I’ve found it really helpful reaching out on LinkedIn to designers in similar stages, facing similar problems,” he says. “The Figma UX strategy community is a great resource for UX strategy templates and examples shared by designers from around the world.’

Ready to align business goals with user needs with UX strategy?

Sources

[1] https://designlab.com/blog/what-is-the-ux-design-process/

[2] https://www.coursera.org/articles/what-is-ux-strategy