Summary
In this session, you will learn about Verizon’s model for transforming and scaling our CX operations and design practices, and how establishing a set of Experience Principles has played a critical role in elevating and democratizing CX across the organization.
Key Insights
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Verizon's design group is positioned under marketing, informing their decision-making and advocacy dynamics.
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Design maturity influences how design teams can impact beyond their own group, involving cross-functional teams such as policy and finance.
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Verizon’s CX transformation framework organizes design capabilities under focus areas like people and portfolio to systematically manage impact.
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Creating experience principles that are broad and channel-agnostic enables adoption across diverse teams beyond designers.
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Experience principles articulate how experiences feel and behave, complementing traditional visual branding guidelines.
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Leadership buy-in, especially from the CMO, was critical and happened organically, amplifying company-wide visibility of the principles.
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Language choice in principles is crucial; using familiar company terms aids in adoption and reduces alienation of non-design teams.
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Experience principles can be linked to measurable KPIs, elevating design impact to the same level as business goals.
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The process of adopting and operationalizing experience principles is ongoing and requires continuous practice, feedback, and iteration.
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Balancing succinctness and meaningful detail in principles is key; one-word attributes resonated better at Verizon’s high organizational altitude.
Notable Quotes
"Customer experience or CX refers to the holistic picture of the customer relationship, beyond just digital UX."
"Verizon’s design group makes up about one third of our marketing employees, which is small for a large corporation."
"Design maturity dictates the amount of influence or impact design has even outside of the design group."
"Experience principles needed to be channel agnostic and team agnostic to speak to a broad company audience."
"Language, language, language — matching familiar terms within the company was the most important factor in adoption."
"Meaningful experiences are useful, simple, and reliable; human experiences are personal, caring, and supportive; responsible experiences are honest, ethical, and sustainable."
"Our CMO was creating a brand strategy at the same time, which amplified and elevated our experience principles unexpectedly."
"Teams are starting to have interesting conversations: is this honest? Is this not honest? That alone is a huge deal."
"Creating the principles took about two to three months, but adoption is ongoing and will take a year or more."
"Experience principles are a critical step in democratizing design and equipping teams to make customer-centric decisions."
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