Setting the global product and design direction for knowledge and learning at IKEA to create a better customer experience
It all started with sharing the feeling that our current knowledge and learning channels are not delivering enough value to co-workers, to IKEA and the transformation that is needed. We did extensive global research and re-iterated on existing research to find insights and a clear statement on how good our existing channels were. I was as delegated business owner part of the team deciding about the research design but also contributing as researcher via desk research. Outcome was clear: there is an urgent need to improve massively.
Next step was to create a business case and design direction to start the needed change. As co-author I contributed to a double digit billion business case where we illustrated and calculated the design direction to find a better solution and the needed change to humanise the knowledge sharing and creation.
The business case covered also the need to bring the organisation to higher level of maturity around developing digital products. The business case was presented in several boards because the needed investment and impact is big. We also presented in at our yearly globally presentation to all retailers and their management what they could expect of the change. Result was a go to start up the programme.
My role as user experience lead is to translate the design direction into tangible steps via a roadmap and to steer the experience design process with 5 to 7 designers (including coaching), front end and full stack developers, content owners etc. I also request and receive user research, validation and monitoring based on the goals we want to achieve with the design steps. The solution is about bringing the right content in the moment of need based on the user context. This also requires involvement of other channel- and content owners of Inter IKEA and other IKEA companies. And of course, I take some design myself.
