In the latest episode of Insights Unlocked, Richard Dalton, Head of Design for Consumer at Verizon, shares his framework for designing sustainable customer experiences from how you build the team to nurturing a customer-aware organization.

Episode web page

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Show Notes:

Introduction:

Host introduces Richard Dalton, Head of Design for Consumer at Verizon.
Richard’s role at Verizon involves overseeing the design of all consumer-facing interactions, including apps, websites, and physical interactions and store experiences.
He leads a team of 250 designers (and growing) who create human-centric experiences for over 100 million customers.

Key Themes and Takeaways:

Creating Effective UX Design Structures:

Richard emphasizes that hiring talented designers is not enough; organizations must also invest in building internal design teams and supportive structures.
The need for internal design of the organization to enable the creation of exceptional experiences for both employees and customers.

Behavior-Based Metrics for UX:

The limitations of broad metrics like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for design purposes.
Richard's preference for specific, behavior-based questions to measure customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Examples of actionable metrics, such as product usage patterns and customer behaviors.

Extending UX Beyond Digital Interfaces:

The misconception that UX design is limited to surface-level elements like colors and navigation.
How every department in an organization, from legal to procurement, impacts the overall customer experience.
The importance of a holistic approach to UX, ensuring all organizational decisions consider their impact on customers.

Fostering a Customer-Aware Culture:

Richard's vision of a future where all employees understand and prioritize customer impact in their decision-making.
The dream of seeing policy discussions centered around customer impact even without a designer in the room.

Visualization and Communication:

The significance of visualizing complex information on a single page for better decision-making, inspired by Edward Tufte's design principles.
The critical role of effective storytelling in ensuring that important information influences organizational decisions.

Verizon's Design Team Expansion:

Richard announces Verizon's plans to hire 180 designers.
The goal is to increase the representation of full-time employees in the design team, reducing reliance on contractors and agencies.

Episode Links:

Richard Dalton on LinkedIn
Verizon's careers page
BLOG: A primer to design systems: Making yours in 5 steps
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