Are you really customer centred?

Decades ago, the field was dominated by deep, iterative work directly with end users. We regularly ran depth interviews, observed users in the field, and iteratively tested prototypes in the lab. 

However, due to market and job shifts, there has been a new breed of practitioners enter the field who have come from a visual design background. 

Of course, this new wave brings enormous value, with sophisticated design systems and improved user interface design skills. But with limited time, budget, and a shift in skills, visual design is often prioritised over deep customer understanding. 

A Litmus Test for customer centricity: Measuring “Exposure Hours” 

As a leader, you need to determine if your team is engaged in genuine user experience work and not just ‘surface design’. A simple way to assess this is to measure “exposure hours”; the number of hours your team spends with end users or customers. 

Ask yourself how many hours has your team spent meeting with your end-users in the last week? The last month? The last year even?

The amount of time teams dedicate to understanding the motivations, needs, and barriers of your customers directly impacts the quality of the solutions and experiences they provide. 

For many today, exposure hours are not what they should be. Without these crucial hours spent with end users and customers, your team is working from assumption, not insight. We should remind ourselves that the most critical function of a UX or CX practitioner is to act as a champion for the only stakeholder not invited to the meeting; the customer. 

Overcoming the "No Time, No Budget" Objection 

The most common blocker to customer contact is the "no time, no budget" objection. This perspective is valid, though flawed. A counter perspective is, "what is the cost of not meeting with your customers?"  

Skipping upfront research and testing may reduce short term cost and lead time, but it may also result in wasted resources long term, a failed project, and costly rework. 

User research doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive. Knowing how to select the correct method, audience type, and recruitment solution can quickly deliver great value. Afterall, some research is better than no research. 

A Commercial and Regulatory Imperative 

A core focus of user research should be inclusivity. One in four people in the UK have a disability, representing 25% of your potential market. Viewing accessibility as a niche issue means actively ignoring a quarter of your potential customers. Quite simply, if it's not accessible, it's not usable. But when we focus on inclusive design, we actually improve access for all users. We improve the experience and outcomes for everyone. 

There are also more regulatory considerations beyond accessibility. For example, frameworks like the FCA's Consumer Duty now mandates that businesses work towards providing and evidencing "good outcomes" for customers. This puts vulnerability, accessibility, and inclusivity at the heart of financial customer experience design. 

Driving Real Organisational Change 

The impact of customer centred work is profound. On one hand, we can evidence the real challenges of real people to senior stakeholders, imparting empathy the way in which data sheets can’t. While on the other hand, by understanding our audience needs and designing solutions to solve real problems, we get see improved outcomes and better digital performance.  

If you’re not regularly meeting with your customers, are you actually doing UX?