Sociomedia UX Strategy Forum 2014 Spring

March 10th & 12th, 2014. Arcadia Shigakukaikan, Ichigaya, Tokyo

Globalization has lowered product prices and the network environment has evolved considerably over the years. To keep up with these changes, business management strategies are now shifting from “Improving” products and services to “Innovating” products and services—not only in the technological sense of the word, but also aiming for “user-centered” innovation.

What is required of business managers/leaders today is the ability to capture the user-perspective and invent new types of products and services in order to create innovative additional value; we are in the age of “UX (User-Experience) Strategy.” UX Strategy is a business strategy which focuses on the proactive management of customer experience values, and the administration, operation and implementation of/in corporate structure and activities to place UX at the center of an organization’s strategy.

The Sociomedia UX Strategy Forum offers insight into the means of implementing UX strategy—from the outline to practical methods—giving examples of actual cases of UX strategy implementation in Japanese firms, and information about trends overseas. In the four forums over the course of 2014, we will cover various diverse themes that encompass UX strategy.

For the first forum, Sociomedia UX Strategy Forum 2014 (10th and 12th of March), we will welcome Marc Rettig as our main speaker. Marc is experienced in guiding businesses in the field of UX Strategy both in the U.S. and around the globe. He will be speaking on the general overview of UX and recent trends (Day 1) and the substance of UX strategy and acquisition of methods/approaches (Day 2).

Day 1 (March 10th) Title: "UX Trends" - Marc will begin with his lecture on "Introduction to UX," a lecture he gives at Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate School of Design and at conferences in the U.S. He will also be reporting on "UX Asia front-line," fresh topics about lectures at UX Hong Kong (held at the beginning of March), and end the day with "UX project cases—stories about UX implementation—," introducing actual projects he led in the U.S and in Asia. Recommended topics for an audience seeking to implement UX strategy in their organization, and who are interested in getting the latest trends on UX.

Day 2(March 12th) Title: "UX Strategy in practice" - Day 2 will be on methods for implementing UX Strategy. Marc will be speaking on “The three approaches to implement UX Strategy.” The second session, “Key points when addressing UX Strategy” by Toshikazu Shinohara of Sociomedia is about how to implement UX Strategy organizationally. For the final session, Marc and Toshikazu will discuss current trends: "UX Strategy now -UX in the U.S., and UX in Japan-."

Event Details

Timetable

Day 1 "UX trends" - March 10th, 2014 (Mon.) with consecutive interpreting

• 13:00 Doors open
• 13:30 - 14:40   "Introduction to UX — from the UX Course at Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate School of Design -" - Marc Rettig
  This lecture offers basic knowledge about and inspiration for implementing methods of UX design, and the “big picture” of UX values. The presentation will be based on lectures from Rettig’s recent conferences, and from the Graduate School of Design where he currently teaches.
• 14:50 - 15:20   "UX Asia Front-line: Lectures and Workshops at UX Hong Kong 2014" - Marc Rettig (Interviewed by Toshikazu Shinohara)
  Asia is progressing rapidly in the UX-oriented-creation of products, software and services. More and more UX events are now being held in Asian countries. Toshikazu Shinohara of Sociomedia will interview Rettig, who was the keynote speaker and workshop leader at UX Hong Kong 2014 (March 6th-8th), on the latest news and trends of UX in Asia.
• 15:30 - 17:00   "UX Project Cases—Stories about UX implementation" - Marc Rettig
  Rettig will introduce some of his past UX projects. Stories include:

  • A) A case where a software team in Asia implemented “user-participatory software development”
  • B) A case of a start-up company (that deals with medical software) succeeding in innovating their product after conducting a software usage survey.
  • C) An example of a firm that a drew up a “3-year Strategic UX Plan”

Day 2 "UX Strategy in Practice" - March 12th, 2014 (Wed.) with consecutive interpreting

• 13:00 Doors open
• 13:30 - 15:00   "The Three Approaches to Implement UX Strategy" - Marc Rettig
  The practice of management and design are sources of power in business strategy—they facilitate decision-making and trial-and-error. However, they are only effective for problems that can be solved through research and special knowledge, and many problems in business and design are much more complicated. The challenges that businesses face can be put under these two categories:

  • Challenges in Dynamics — The relationship between the elements that make up a situation is continually changing, which is why situations constantly change. And because the “outcomes” come from the complex dynamics of various situations, it is not possible for us to understand the actual "causes" of change.
  • Social Challenges—Situations are created by people, and are made up of elements that are not visible; relationships, identities, stories, conversations, etc.

  In this session, Rettig will introduce three approaches to practice UX strategy even in these complex situations.
• 15:10 - 15:40   "Key Points when Addressing UX Strategy" - Toshikazu Shinohara
  If you want your organization to acquire and continue to develop user-centered approaches and methods as a strategy for competition, only having the knowledge of UX concepts and methods is not enough. An organization needs to adopt and apply the best UX strategy against the challenges it faces; what’s necessary is the institutionalization of UX.
  In this session, Shinohara will describe the elements of UX strategy and explain the methods for choosing and implementing UX strategy for different types of organizations. The session will offer a practical perspective for people seeking to build UX Strategy organizationally, and for those who are already in the implementation process and want to evaluate their strategies.
• 16:00 - 17:00   "UX Strategy now - UX in the U.S., and UX in Japan" - Marc Rettig x Toshikazu Shinohara
  The two-day forum will close with Rettig and Shinohara’s open discussion on the many aspects of “UX strategy now.” The discussion will cover topics such as how the word “UX strategy” came into being, methods that companies are using, and new approaches for organizations. Using examples of projects that Rettig and Shinohara have led, they will share their knowledge of current situations of UX strategy in the U.S, Japan, and in other parts of Asia. There will also be time at the end for participants to ask questions and join in the discussion.

Speaker Profiles

Marc Rettig

Marc is founding principal of Fit Associates LLC. Fit offers creative experiences that transform teams and organizations by connecting their culture, design and decisions to life outside their offices and to their own core purpose. After a first career in software systems, Marc has spent more than fifteen years supporting the design of interactions, products, and services. He has worked with corporations in many sectors, including Philips, Nissan, Microsoft, Comcast, Whirlpool, Seagate and SAP, as well as numerous startup companies.

He is on the faculty of the groundbreaking MFA in Design for Social Innovation program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was the 2003 Nierenberg Chair of Design at Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Design, and has also taught at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago.

Toshikazu Shinohara

President of Sociomedia, Inc., a user experience design consulting company. Shinohara with his expertise consulting for business teams and organizations, and in running IT start-ups, continues to employ his comprehensive expertise in UX, IT and design as a UX strategy consultant committed to helping businesses innovate.

Shinohara also teaches design and IT courses at universities and is active in establishing industry standards by serving as a board member at the Human Centered Design Organization, and as the president of UXPA Japan.