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Summary
During our May 28 community videoconference, we provided a live interactive preview of some "in development" material from the upcoming EX2020 virtual conference. We had two speakers from one of our themes trying out their talks, with provocations and reactions from the Enterprise Experience community. Melinda Belcher, who heads up the Content Design practice at Mastercard's Tech Hub in New York City, described what it's like to "boomerang" from in-house, to agency, and back again, with all the cultural and operational aspects. Sol Mesz, co-founder and Product Strategy Director at Kambrica, one of the leading UX consultancies in Argentina, offered advice on how to hire the right UX consultant for enterprise projects.
Key Insights
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The Enterprise Experience Conference is designed to foster year-round conversation, not just during its annual event.
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Dan Willis emphasizes the complexity of insider vs outsider dynamics in enterprise UX, especially under COVID-19 remote work conditions.
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Melinda highlights agencies’ short-term, project-based structure contrasts with enterprises' long-term product ownership and continuity.
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Agency work often lacks feedback loops; it's rare they get to see long-term impact of their work in enterprises.
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Effective agency integration requires including junior agency members in meetings and feedback to avoid burnout and poor deliverables.
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Melinda underscores that agencies bring strong resource allocation, project tracking, and accountability skills to enterprises.
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Saul Mezz argues that typical vendor selection criteria (portfolio look, industry experience, price) are inadequate for choosing strategic consultants.
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Consultants should be valued as partners who add strategic business value, not just vendors executing tasks.
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Flexibility is key; consultants must adapt to the client’s culture, but clients should also leverage consultants’ diverse experience.
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Consultants can provide critical business support including helping internal teams justify decisions, handle conflicts, and present outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"Conference is really just the polished version of the community conversation, so why not keep those conversations going?"
"Having an agency person embedded gave me a real taste of what enterprise life was like without actually being part of it."
"We bring agencies in to evangelize and help us tell our story because we don’t often have the talent or time to do that ourselves."
"An agency project can end quickly and you might never see what happens after you send a PDF."
"You hire agencies partly for their accountability; if they fail, we fail together."
"When hiring a consultant, partnership over vendorship is crucial because you want results, not just project completion."
"You want someone who brings flexibility who can adjust to your way of doing things but also push boundaries."
"Consultants don’t suffer internal politics as much but have to defend their work continually, so they provide business support."
"If you miss out on flexibility, you miss out on the learning and experience the consultant brings."
"Software never ends when you’re in house; there’s always follow-up and iteration, unlike many agency projects."
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