We‘re now designing experiences that have products, rather than products that have experiences.

I love this quote! I came across it in the Disegno Journal of Design in an article about the Lufthansa aircraft cabin design. The article shares a great example of a radical focus on customers and how to create valuable experiences for them.

Whether we design physical or digital products, we must start by defining the experience we want to create, and only then design the products and services that enable that experience.

Often organizations start the wrong way around: building stuff without intentional thought towards the people who will be using it. The resulting experience is accidental, undesirable, unpleasant, and does not match user expectations.

Other times leaders and teams start with good intentions, but in the light of deadline pressure, the customer experience gets deprioritized – with the thought that one can come back to it later. In the meantime, fundamental technology and architecture decisions get made – that impact the customer experience – which cannot be changed later or at a high cost.

How to avoid losing track of good intentions

Leader must continuously repeat the message to keep it top of mind. And with leaders I mean all leaders in the organization – not just the person with the CX job title. All leaders from business, tech, finance, marketing etc. everyone in the organization is responsible for creating a great customer experience.

Leaders must establish the right measures, because you get what you measure. This must include customer experience measures, in addition to business and technology measures that are typically tracked.

Leaders must use and foster integrative decision making. This is „both and“ discussion making, instead of „either or“. The question is not whether to launch your product on time or provide a great experience. Instead the question is how to launch a product on time with a great customer experience.

Why should organizations care about starting with the customer experience in mind first? Because the proof is in the numbers: customer focused organizations have higher revenue in comparison to others in their industry. (As reported in many articles). They have happier customers who stay with them longer.

Source of quote: Tom Lloyd from PearsonLloyd. Creators of the Lufthansa aircraft cabin design. (Spotted in Disegno, Journal of Design #17).