Design can seem unnatural to people. Here are some practical ways to integrate design into your companies processes and other departments.

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Getting Design into
the Corporate DNA
by Brian Sullivan

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There’s no such
thing as a naturally
orange cheese.

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In the 18th century, English cheesemakers wanted to stretch their winter
hay reserves. They added cabbage, carrots, and more.

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Seasonal variations
in the color of cheese.

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Cheese made from cow’s milk in the
spring and summer has a more
buttery hue to it because the herd is
out grazing on grass rather than
chomping on hay. Cheese produced
in the winter basically looked white. It
tastes the same. Consumers felt that
the buttery color meant higher quality.

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Applying a colorant helped farmers
even out the appearance of their
cheeses over the course of the year. It
was all pretty much the same quality,
so farmers were able to satisy
customers’ concerns over the varying
hue.
Annatto seeds used
to add orange hue.

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Today’s cattle farming looks very
similar on the surface. Like the past,
large barns are erected with a
middle lane to quickly feed both
sides of the barn.

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On my cattle farms,
cattle are fed food
pellets which are
fortified with extracts
from Annatto seeds to
get the right color of
yellow or orange.

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The National Institute of Cheese has
established a color wheel for
cheese, which breaks down specific
hues based on the type of cheese –
cow, sheep, or goat.

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Spectrophotometer for that Perfect Orange Hue
The National Cheese Institute (NCI) recommends the use of this scientific
instrument to ensure their color standards are met by cheese manufacturers.

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Cheesemakers
made the unnatural
seem natural.

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UX leaders need to
make the unnatural
seem natural, too.

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Why is Design
Unnatural?

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My Education
Formal Education:
• BA in Political Science
• MA in English
• MBA in MIS
Certifications:
• Usability Analyst
• Design Thinking Facilitator

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User Researcher
• Conducted 400+ studies
• Introduced new methods
• Built labs, studios, & suites
• Manage up to 30 experts

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Work with Big Brands

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Design Strategy
• Building up the practice
• Completed 20+ workshops
• New and existing products
• Strategy = Vision + Alignment

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Accessibility Award
Accessibility program that
I developed won an award
last year.

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Founded the Big Design Conference

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Moving to Dallas (Location is Gilley’s Dallas)

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SMU UX Certificate
• Founder of the program
• Teach 2 of 4 classes
• Over 300 students, so far
• Tech Titans Finalist (2017)
• Top 50 UX Design Program

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Keynote Author
• Top 1% of SlideShare Content
• #1 Slides at SxSW 2013
• #1 Workshop at SxSW 2015
• Top 10 Slides at SxSW 2017

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Wrote a Design Book
• Published book in 2016
• Based on 10 years of research
• From DaVinci talk from SxSW
• Cover article on UX Magazine
• Dallas Morning News Feature

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Our Tools are Strange

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Our Routines are Different

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Usability Labs are Artificial

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How do we make the
unnatural natural?

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UX and
Human Resources

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1. Onboarding
You can immediately orient new employees to
UX by getting involved on their first day.
The Approach
Get 15-20 minutes in the onboarding session to talk to
new employees about UX.
• Review your UX process and why it’s important
• Show success stories of UX implementations
• Give handouts of key contacts for new hires
• Use quotes from other people to show your impact
4K+ 15 10
Employees Minutes Slides

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2. Training Programs
Partner with your HR team to building training
programs for your UX initiatives.
Training with a Purpose
HR helped us to identify the key people, worked on
promotions, and tracked completion of training
• UI training to expand adoption of the design library
• Accessibility training to help with compliance
• Usability classes to teach people how to critique
2K+ 40+ 8
Employees Classes Teachers
“The key to keeping millennial workers is
training, They want to feel growth.”

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3. Recruiting
UX jobs are in high-demand. We simply do not
have enough people to fill the open slots.
Partner on Recruiting Efforts
HR needs your help to attract talent, sell your team,
and understand what you need.
• Update all job descriptions to match your needs
• Develop a talent pipeline with your HR partner
• Establish a farm system at local colleges
500 9 5
Pipeline Job Descriptions HR People

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UX and
IT Security

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1. IT Standards
IT spends much of its time in the development
and governance of corporate standards.
Standards Workshop
As standards continue to evolve, perform a workshop
to help establish and govern standards.
• Determine the standards and governance process
• Ask for a workshop when you can
• Build a service design blueprint for governance
• Use designers to help sell standards for IT
3 12 20
Workshops Employees Hours

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2. Company Tools
IT recommends on corporate tools for security
and compliance reasons. Be a part of it.
Tools Committee
The UX team established a Tools Committee to help
standardize tools and create a tool sandbox.
• UX created the committee (we work with teams)
• Collaboration tools are needed for UX
• Usability team inspects all IT tools (some UTs)
• UX has its own sandbox to play with new tools
9 1 42
People Meeting/Month Tools Evaluated

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3. Procurement
UX teams need preferred vendors for staff
augmentation and special projects.
Procurement Meetings
Procurement wants to connect the right vendors to fit
your needs. They do not know who to contact.
• Develop your own list of preferred vendors
• Review existing vendor list with Procurement
• Annual meeting to review/update the vendor list
• Streamline the SOW process with Procurement
1 10 SOW
Annual Review Top 10 List Streamline

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UX and
Corporate Strategy

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If it’s not part
of the process,
people don’t do it.
Universal Truth #1

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Over my career, I have probably seen over 30 different
operating models—Waterfall, agile, scrum, etc.

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Hey, they left UX
out of the process
…again.
Universal Truth #2

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1. Get UX into the Process
If UX is not part of the process, you will need to work with the right people to get it into your
operating model. UX is a key differentiator for almost any company.
• Find opportunities for Design Strategy, User Research, Design, Prototyping, and Usability at each stage.
• Ensure these insertion points get documented into the Operating Model, so people actually do it.

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2. Use Design Thinking for Corporate Strategy
Design Thinking is crucial to your corporate strategy. New products and key differentiators
are frequently uncovered through design thinking.
• Develop core curriculum and toolkits for people who want to learn more about design thinking
• Perform train-the-trainer (T3) training classes with key people
• Focus on pilot projects to help build momentum (ex: one project capture two big fishes for me)

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3. Kano = Strategy
Product Managers often just want to keep up
with the competition. Parity is a losing strategy.
The Approach
In strategy workshops, I like to show personas and
build a journey map. I use Kano to talk strategy:
• After brainstorming opportunities, use Kano
• Tell people to put ideas into three Kano buckets
• Explain how to use Kano in their Elevator Pitch
and Sales Strategy
115 12 2M
Pain Points Differentiators Investment

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3. Kano for Sales Pitches
Look, we listened to you.
(List your basic expectations.)
Plus, you’re faster and more efficient.
(List your performance payoffs.)
Here’s how we beat the snot out of
all of our competitors.
(List the differentiators.)

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UX and
Development

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1. Design Must Be Ahead of Development

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2. UI Sync-Ups
UI sync-ups ensure a design is coded correctly.
A designer sits with a developer during a build.
Case Study
We established UI sync-ups as a normal sprint routine
to make sure things were implemented correctly.
• Designer sits with a developer during a build
• Frequency can be daily, if needed
• On one project, a designer went to another country
2 12 28
Designers Developers Pages

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3. HTML Prototypes
Meet developers with HTML code to ensure
your vision. Code is the best handoff to them.
Case Study
We produced a HTML-ready site based on discussions
with the product team. We saw these results:
• We realized design issues right away with the code
• The team could quickly tweak the HTML
• After sign-off, usability testing within 5 days
• Less UI sync ups were needed on the project
2 6 54
Designers Pages Micro-Interactions

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UX and
Implementations

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1. UX Client Checklist
The easiest thing to say to a client is “Yes!” Use
a client checklist to control the UX decisions.
Case Study
We worked with the Implementations teams to create
a checklist for our customers.
• We updated the data collector for configurations.
• We put notes in the checklist to answer questions.
• Best practices written for certain pages/flows.
• Usability reviews each implementation.
6 8 14
Designers Pages People

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2. UX Inspection
To help with the launch, the UX team provides
inspections to ensure smooth releases.
Best Practice
We established ways to involve the UX team as a
product gets launched.
• One month before launch, two inspectors review.
• Quick report is turned within 3 days.
• Two weeks are given to fix identified issues.
• Customer satisfaction scores are very high.
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Inspectors Month Weeks to Fix

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3. Instrument Analytics
We all know analytics are important. UX can
help with the instrumentation of analytics.
Best Practices
UX can work to help ensure the right user analytics
get captured beyond basic system-level data.
• See what’s important to the Product Managers
• Determine key business goals and metrics
• Create/update your own user metrics
• Work with the analytics team to capture them

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Design is
Unnatural

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Human
Resources
IT
Security
Corporate
Strategy
Software
Development
Customer
Implementations
• Onboarding
• Training
• Recruiting
• Standards
• Tools
• Procurement
• UX in Process
• Design Thinking
• Kano=Strategy
• Design Planning
• UI Sync-Ups
• HTML Code
• UX Checklist
• Inspections
• Instrumenting

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Go make the
unnatural natural!

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Go move
that cheese!

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Q & A