Parting Thought: Why VPs Shouldn't Do Detailed Web Design
Several friends from a well-known Internet retailer tell this story from a few years ago: Their CEO, who is a dynamic and convincing fellow, was excited about gathering more customer feedback about their company. In fact, he was so excited about this idea that he decided to take design into his own hands.
"We need a GREAT BIG comment box in the checkout flow," he told his team. The implementation team dutifully took this literally, and soon enough there was a huge comment box in the checkout that seemingly consumed almost half the page. Legend has it that users were confused, conversions dropped, and of course the designers were horrified.
What should the CEO have done instead? Probably his instructions should have been more like: "We need to get a lot more feedback from our shoppers. Can the design team come up with some effective ways to get meaningful customer input at key touchpoints in the buying process, and lots more of it?" Then there would have ensued a short discussion in the design group about best data collection methods and best placement for surveys or other mechanisms... and the result would have been much more effective.
Senior exectives sometimes like to do web design, because they are trying to help. After all, they understand business objectives and strategy thoroughly, so doesn't it make sense to fast-track things by offering explicit design direction? The answer is that usually this backfires, because most VPs aren't designers nor do they have time for the many hidden and tedious details of good design process.
You won't be surprised to hear that sometimes we have this problem at Sun. In fact, I find myself often pointing to one of my credos previously posted, which is that "VPs shouldn't do web design." And yet every now and again, we get a random missive from any one of our VPs (whom we love, mind you) that says something like "we need a BIG RED signup button on every page to promote my event" or "we need my product logo on every page so people will buy it or download it."
Of course, big red buttons and logos placed willy nilly around the site probably won't do what the executive is intending because (1) they look terrible and create noise, and (2) they aren't likely to be nearly as effective as a solution tailored to a specific objective such as increasing event sign-ups. It is hard for anyone to resist playing designer, but when VPs do it the design suggestions are often interpreted as outright commands, and often get implemented verbatim even if they're a bad idea. So, we usually talk the VP down and come up with a better, designed solution.
But all the talking eats up a lot of time. And, fundamentally, a dictated design solution from a VP is starting at the wrong place: Vice-Presidents and above in any company should be thinking about strategy and high-level business objectives, and then communicating those things to their minions. In the case of the event sign-ups or product logo examples above, it would be a lot more effective for them to tell their web team: "We need about 900 more sign-ups for this event for senior developers... can you drive something online with our campaign?" or "We need more downloads of product X, what can you do to make people aware of it and get them to try it?" or "We want to build a community of a million college students sharing tips and preferences about lip gloss" or even "We have a big product launching Wednesday and want to make a mega impression on the web." These are directions that a web team can take and execute on with great design and web strategy.
Here's another story, which illustrates a more complex problem I call the "cluster of designer VPs" syndrome. This is where you'll see multiple executives trying to do design together. Often, they're actually disagreeing about the strategy and design direction, but think they're agreeing, which makes it all the more difficult to follow for us on the design team.
For instance, recently we launched a subsite that the product team had been working with us on for around six weeks. We learned late that there were a lot more interested VP stakeholders than we'd originally realized, and that the product team hadn't managed to brief them until a few days before the site launch. So, Thursday afternoon before a Tuesday AM launch, the executive design direction started filtering in.
The conversation went something like this (I'm paraphrasing a bit to protect the innocent), mostly in email about JPEG comps:
Chris (our visual design director): OK, here are the designs approved by brand and the product team. We're really excited about them and think they really hit the mark.
VP #1: These are pretty good... but could you make it more like a big Wurlitzer jukebox, and more colorful?
Chris (a day later): OK, we really hadn't gotten the jukebox input before, but here are some more Wulitzeresque comps.
VP #1: Yeah, this is what I'm talking about! Let me copy the CEO so he can see too.
CEO: Well, of course you should rely on the direction of your web team... but I think it should look more like imdb.com. Let me copy 3 more product engineering VPs so they can add their comments.
VP #1: Exactly what I was thinking -- like a big colorful jukebox but also minimalist like IMDB.
Chris: Um, guys, it's Friday and we need to lock this down really quickly because we have 50 pages to get into production.
VP #2: I hadn't seen this before, but shouldn't it look completely different? Maybe we want to diverge from the brand completely so we can make a statement here.
Chris (Friday evening): OK, so we have the jukebox design, and also here's a more minimalist design we did back in round 4. Let's make a decision between the two of these and lock it down Saturday morning so we can get into production.
VP #3: Form... follows... function.
VP #1: Maybe we should hold off on the subsite launch until we figure out the design direction.
VP #4: Oh, we have to launch it... we have already prebriefed a bunch of folks and the product is ready to go!
VP #1: I like the jukebox; let's go with it.
VP #2: I like the IMDB idea. Could we design something like that? These comps don't quite work for me.
Chris and me (Saturday noon): Um, guys, it's Saturday noon. Someone needs to pick the direction from the two comps by tonight at 6 PM or you will not have a web site on Tuesday morning.
VP #4: What time are we launching, anyway? Is it 8 AM Pacific time?
VP #2: I thought it was 8 AM Eastern time.
VP #4: We should figure that out.
Chris and me (Sunday 11 AM): We haven't seen any more feedback or decisions. How about we just go with the jukebox design? Could we just do a quick concall?
VP #5: I just saw all this email. Let me have a look at the designs and I'll send you input Monday morning.
Assistant to VP #4 (Monday 8 AM): We've decided to put the launch on hold so we can sort out the design.
Chris and me: OK, we'll stand down.
Me to Chris, privately: I would keep working on this. They always change their minds at the last minute!
VP #4: (Monday, 4 PM): We just had a big meeting and decided to go with the jukebox design. And, it's launching at 8 AM Eastern time, 5 AM Pacific.
Chris and me: Um, you realize someone in publishing will be working on this all night, right? Will someone be up to review the final staged pages around 3 or 4 AM?
Assistant to VP #4: I don't know, that's pretty early for our folks but we'll see what we can do...
So, somehow the subsite launched and despite all of the machinations everyone was happy with it and there were lots of congratulations on a job well done.
But, there are four big lessons from the project. First, senior executives typically shouldn't try to do detailed web design but instead should communicate strategy and business direction so their web teams can execute on design and deployment. Second, make sure you understand who all of your stakeholders are and get them involved early. Third, have a single decision maker in charge, so you know who is approving final direction. And fourth, lock down your designs a week or two ahead of time so you have time to execute sanely.
It's worth mentioning that do have VPs at Sun who have keen sense for design. Curtis Sasaki, our VP for Sun.com, has an inspiring vision and a very good visual design sense. John Fowler, the EVP for Systems, is a gifted writer and has actually rewritten some product pages on occasion. Ingrid Van Den Hoogen of Brand of course has an excellent sense of brand. But the thing I notice is that the more design talent an executive has, the more like he or she is to give strategic direction rather then get out the crayons and start to color.
My advice for your company, big or small, is simple: Don't let your VPs practice design without a license!
Technorati Tags: Design Web-Design CustomerExperience
Tunes: 26: Rob Thomas: Little Wonders
"We need a GREAT BIG comment box in the checkout flow," he told his team. The implementation team dutifully took this literally, and soon enough there was a huge comment box in the checkout that seemingly consumed almost half the page. Legend has it that users were confused, conversions dropped, and of course the designers were horrified.
What should the CEO have done instead? Probably his instructions should have been more like: "We need to get a lot more feedback from our shoppers. Can the design team come up with some effective ways to get meaningful customer input at key touchpoints in the buying process, and lots more of it?" Then there would have ensued a short discussion in the design group about best data collection methods and best placement for surveys or other mechanisms... and the result would have been much more effective.
Senior exectives sometimes like to do web design, because they are trying to help. After all, they understand business objectives and strategy thoroughly, so doesn't it make sense to fast-track things by offering explicit design direction? The answer is that usually this backfires, because most VPs aren't designers nor do they have time for the many hidden and tedious details of good design process.
You won't be surprised to hear that sometimes we have this problem at Sun. In fact, I find myself often pointing to one of my credos previously posted, which is that "VPs shouldn't do web design." And yet every now and again, we get a random missive from any one of our VPs (whom we love, mind you) that says something like "we need a BIG RED signup button on every page to promote my event" or "we need my product logo on every page so people will buy it or download it."
Of course, big red buttons and logos placed willy nilly around the site probably won't do what the executive is intending because (1) they look terrible and create noise, and (2) they aren't likely to be nearly as effective as a solution tailored to a specific objective such as increasing event sign-ups. It is hard for anyone to resist playing designer, but when VPs do it the design suggestions are often interpreted as outright commands, and often get implemented verbatim even if they're a bad idea. So, we usually talk the VP down and come up with a better, designed solution.
But all the talking eats up a lot of time. And, fundamentally, a dictated design solution from a VP is starting at the wrong place: Vice-Presidents and above in any company should be thinking about strategy and high-level business objectives, and then communicating those things to their minions. In the case of the event sign-ups or product logo examples above, it would be a lot more effective for them to tell their web team: "We need about 900 more sign-ups for this event for senior developers... can you drive something online with our campaign?" or "We need more downloads of product X, what can you do to make people aware of it and get them to try it?" or "We want to build a community of a million college students sharing tips and preferences about lip gloss" or even "We have a big product launching Wednesday and want to make a mega impression on the web." These are directions that a web team can take and execute on with great design and web strategy.
Here's another story, which illustrates a more complex problem I call the "cluster of designer VPs" syndrome. This is where you'll see multiple executives trying to do design together. Often, they're actually disagreeing about the strategy and design direction, but think they're agreeing, which makes it all the more difficult to follow for us on the design team.
For instance, recently we launched a subsite that the product team had been working with us on for around six weeks. We learned late that there were a lot more interested VP stakeholders than we'd originally realized, and that the product team hadn't managed to brief them until a few days before the site launch. So, Thursday afternoon before a Tuesday AM launch, the executive design direction started filtering in.
The conversation went something like this (I'm paraphrasing a bit to protect the innocent), mostly in email about JPEG comps:
Chris (our visual design director): OK, here are the designs approved by brand and the product team. We're really excited about them and think they really hit the mark.
VP #1: These are pretty good... but could you make it more like a big Wurlitzer jukebox, and more colorful?
Chris (a day later): OK, we really hadn't gotten the jukebox input before, but here are some more Wulitzeresque comps.
VP #1: Yeah, this is what I'm talking about! Let me copy the CEO so he can see too.
CEO: Well, of course you should rely on the direction of your web team... but I think it should look more like imdb.com. Let me copy 3 more product engineering VPs so they can add their comments.
VP #1: Exactly what I was thinking -- like a big colorful jukebox but also minimalist like IMDB.
Chris: Um, guys, it's Friday and we need to lock this down really quickly because we have 50 pages to get into production.
VP #2: I hadn't seen this before, but shouldn't it look completely different? Maybe we want to diverge from the brand completely so we can make a statement here.
Chris (Friday evening): OK, so we have the jukebox design, and also here's a more minimalist design we did back in round 4. Let's make a decision between the two of these and lock it down Saturday morning so we can get into production.
VP #3: Form... follows... function.
VP #1: Maybe we should hold off on the subsite launch until we figure out the design direction.
VP #4: Oh, we have to launch it... we have already prebriefed a bunch of folks and the product is ready to go!
VP #1: I like the jukebox; let's go with it.
VP #2: I like the IMDB idea. Could we design something like that? These comps don't quite work for me.
Chris and me (Saturday noon): Um, guys, it's Saturday noon. Someone needs to pick the direction from the two comps by tonight at 6 PM or you will not have a web site on Tuesday morning.
VP #4: What time are we launching, anyway? Is it 8 AM Pacific time?
VP #2: I thought it was 8 AM Eastern time.
VP #4: We should figure that out.
Chris and me (Sunday 11 AM): We haven't seen any more feedback or decisions. How about we just go with the jukebox design? Could we just do a quick concall?
VP #5: I just saw all this email. Let me have a look at the designs and I'll send you input Monday morning.
Assistant to VP #4 (Monday 8 AM): We've decided to put the launch on hold so we can sort out the design.
Chris and me: OK, we'll stand down.
Me to Chris, privately: I would keep working on this. They always change their minds at the last minute!
VP #4: (Monday, 4 PM): We just had a big meeting and decided to go with the jukebox design. And, it's launching at 8 AM Eastern time, 5 AM Pacific.
Chris and me: Um, you realize someone in publishing will be working on this all night, right? Will someone be up to review the final staged pages around 3 or 4 AM?
Assistant to VP #4: I don't know, that's pretty early for our folks but we'll see what we can do...
So, somehow the subsite launched and despite all of the machinations everyone was happy with it and there were lots of congratulations on a job well done.
But, there are four big lessons from the project. First, senior executives typically shouldn't try to do detailed web design but instead should communicate strategy and business direction so their web teams can execute on design and deployment. Second, make sure you understand who all of your stakeholders are and get them involved early. Third, have a single decision maker in charge, so you know who is approving final direction. And fourth, lock down your designs a week or two ahead of time so you have time to execute sanely.
It's worth mentioning that do have VPs at Sun who have keen sense for design. Curtis Sasaki, our VP for Sun.com, has an inspiring vision and a very good visual design sense. John Fowler, the EVP for Systems, is a gifted writer and has actually rewritten some product pages on occasion. Ingrid Van Den Hoogen of Brand of course has an excellent sense of brand. But the thing I notice is that the more design talent an executive has, the more like he or she is to give strategic direction rather then get out the crayons and start to color.
My advice for your company, big or small, is simple: Don't let your VPs practice design without a license!
Technorati Tags: Design Web-Design CustomerExperience
Tunes: 26: Rob Thomas: Little Wonders
