So what, then what? A UX & Product Strategy Blog

Happy to announce that we will be adding blog-posts to this site from today. First blog is about why I founded eX&P Strategy?

Per one job hiring portal statistics on its digital properties, UX Research and design job postings have dropped 71% and 70% respectively from peak 2022 numbers. Does this show that research and design's role has reduced in product development?

Conventional wisdom would indicate that you need more of the trained high quality researchers and designers. More so, in the wake of information explosion and new forms of human-machine-interactions (Generative AI etc). Also having worked decades in various industries, it is also clear to me that much can be done, in increasing the maturity of the product development, at most if not all today's corporations.

What is ripe for change?

1) Decision-making is still arbitrary. I strongly believe Research can transform the landscape, but only if it is given an ability to lead and enough run-way. I can create a process and a system specific to your company, where product portfolio investment decisions can be made more or less a science. Not just with financial models, but a more holistic one with clear customer & competitor intelligence driven business models, where data supports, validate/invalidate hypotheses, sizes and ranks opportunities. Smart organizations would want to invest in such a research capability. Research as such is strategic, and investing in research is also a strategic decision. Businesses need to hire visionary leaders, and give them enough runway to be successful. Do hold them accountable, but set clear success measures and do it collaboratively and think long term. When I say research, some adjacent practices that deal with collection and analysis of information are either closely coupled or merged together to improve signal quality.

2) Innovation processes and harnessing the strengths of research, design, and technology for a chance to uncover that 100X idea. I am a strong believer that innovation portfolio should be led by someone with strong research and system design skills. This is also an area where most corporations struggle today, especially larger ones. Coupling innovation function with Research, bringing a similar decision-making framework as point #1, and giving an ability for this team to run small ventures and or spin-offs (as appropriate) would not only put accountability to the discipline, but also finally give the respect it deserves.

3) Optimizing business processes - This is again a huge area for research led growth. Giving this organizational lens to research will amplify the value of the discipline many fold and can show why its a high value practice. I am convinced that setting accountability goals, and letting research lead this aspect can also lead to wonders in how organizations operate.

If you are a digital leader, and read this far, first of all, thank you. Secondly, please feel free to book a slot on my schedule to discuss.

Many thanks for reading!