We often read stories about the miracles of design thinking — but they usually focus on startups or smaller UX teams reaping the benefits. We rarely hear, though, about design thinking on the enterprise level at centuries-old Fortune 500 companies. In fact, even the thought of instituting a culture of experimentation in an established corporate environment might seem all but impossible.

With an abundance of priorities, large organizations often build products and services at a huge cost without delivering expected value to customers. But we can change that!

There is a reason some top MBA programs have shifted their curriculum to combine a “Mission Command” approach with design thinking — replacing the archaic “Command & Control” style of the past. The landscape has changed with the times and our corporate priorities must evolve, too.

I am blessed to work for a big company that embraces innovation, encouraging our product team, specifically on those UX, to push our creative boundaries. In the past, I have come across unique challenges that may seem frustrating at first, but they’ve given me the chance to sharpen my own process. And I believe working for a large firm is a surprisingly valuable experience that benefits every UX professional.

The most dangerous phrase in the language is “we’ve always done it this way.” Grace Hopper

While working in UX at a large corporation can feel at times like a battlefield, we can transform it to create a healthy, functioning, and progressive enterprise.

Opportunities:

Let’s start with some of the liberties of being in the big leagues

Conveniences: Whether it’s large corporate budgets allowing easier user-testing, an entire floor dedicated to customer analytics, or even something as simple as having your own desk, leverage them and get the tools you need to win on the UX front.

Whether it’s large corporate budgets allowing easier user-testing, an entire floor dedicated to customer analytics, or even something as simple as having your own desk, leverage them and get the tools you need to win on the UX front. The Omnichannel: The Fortune 500 club is not putting all of their resources into launching one golden product like a startup would. There are many more wheels spinning to keep the lights on in your office. Now it’s not just empathy behind why a user clicked on that button on your landing page, but how they felt when a representative pulled up in their driveway or what the mailman put in their mailbox pertaining to what they paid for on their phone with ApplePay.

Massive customer base: All of the pieces are already in place. It’s been established for close to a century that your user needs you[r services] whereas the majority of startups die within the first year without reeling in 100 legitimate customers. In an old school corporation, you are handed a golden ticket with a giant user pool and the correct outlets to reach them for quantitative/qualitative data.

All of the pieces are already in place. It’s been established for close to a century that your user needs you[r services] whereas the majority of startups die within the first year without reeling in 100 legitimate customers. In an old school corporation, you are handed a golden ticket with a giant user pool and the correct outlets to reach them for quantitative/qualitative data. Designated UX platoon: In large enterprises, UX is viewed as important enough to hire a person, but not important enough to be a separate, prioritized department. Or worse, UX professionals are thrown under an existing organizational hierarchy because no one really knows where UX people belong. A solid UX team is a godsend and if you have one, you’re well on your way to conquering the battlefield.

In large enterprises, UX is viewed as important enough to hire a person, but not important enough to be a separate, prioritized department. Or worse, UX professionals are thrown under an existing organizational hierarchy because no one really knows where UX people belong. A solid UX team is a godsend and if you have one, you’re well on your way to conquering the battlefield. Benefits: Tuition reimbursement programs or support for attending conferences are more generous, allowing you to not only improve your own skills, but create a knowledge center for your team!

Obstacles:

Some hurdles of being on a Fortune 500 product team

Hoops/Red tape: Using our battlefield analogy: There’s many moving parts like peacekeepers (customer relationship mgmt.), soldiers on the ground level (ex: insurance agents), propaganda management (designated marketing team), political diplomats (established floor for Legal). Getting all of them to align for one project is not impossible, but definitely a challenge.

Using our battlefield analogy: There’s many moving parts like peacekeepers (customer relationship mgmt.), soldiers on the ground level (ex: insurance agents), propaganda management (designated marketing team), political diplomats (established floor for Legal). Getting all of them to align for one project is not impossible, but definitely a challenge. Speed: Things move slower. A lot slower. Luckily, a designated UX leader (not just a designer) on the roster can move mountains. And, on the plus side, because change happens slowly, it comes with warning, so new hires/layoffs, mergers, etc. are planned for, preventing your project from being sent into oblivion.

Things move slower. A lot slower. Luckily, a designated UX leader (not just a designer) on the roster can move mountains. And, on the plus side, because change happens slowly, it comes with warning, so new hires/layoffs, mergers, etc. are planned for, preventing your project from being sent into oblivion. Technology: It may feel like you’re constantly trying to play “catch-up” with the latest tool trending on TechCrunch. Do not let this intimidate you. Although not ideal, you can either fight tooth and nail to get a 100 year-old, billion-dollar company (that’s invested unimaginable amounts of money into their backend) to change or learn as much as humanly possible about the current tech and build with it.

It may feel like you’re constantly trying to play “catch-up” with the latest tool trending on TechCrunch. Although not ideal, you can either fight tooth and nail to get a 100 year-old, billion-dollar company (that’s invested unimaginable amounts of money into their backend) to change or learn as much as humanly possible about the current tech and build with it. Qualitative data just isn’t good enough: User behaviors via hours of usability test videos are dandy, but without accurate numbers (quantitative data), can be a hard-sell in stakeholder meetings.

User behaviors via hours of usability test videos are dandy, but without accurate numbers (quantitative data), can be a hard-sell in stakeholder meetings. Silos: Designer throws deliverables over the wall to developers…never touches them again or even speaks with a developer. Classic waterfall.

Designer throws deliverables over the wall to developers…never touches them again or even speaks with a developer. Classic waterfall. Agile/Scrum: It does happen, but may be “mislabeled” or followed incorrectly, often becoming an odd form “WaterGile” or “ScrumFall”.

You sit pondering “Well if (noun) wasn’t so (adjective…likely, a negative one), we would’ve had met our NPS goal (or whatever metric you use)!”

What Can We Do?

Begin with a practical survey of your firm’s landscape and focus on the How and Why your group is spending so much time or pumping large amounts of cash (remember, corporation here, no startup budgets) into these services and then applying the same How+Why into an action plan.

Break down the walls between developers, product owners, program managers, and yourself…LITERALLY! I’m lucky that Farmers Insurance encourages pairing with developers. This is INVALUABLE. A defect affecting a critical user story that takes 2–3 email threads in Microsoft Outlook and a week to solve can be done in an hour or less. We can quickly move to the next task, improving efficiency; while assuring our user’s needs are on the forefront.

Stakeholder meetings need to have a dedicated UX’er involved. I can’t argue this enough. Reach out to your immediate superior about getting involved sooner in the thinking rather than later, even if it is just to be a fly on the wall and take notes for your own benefit. I cannot see a manager who wouldn’t gladly allow you do this on a large initiative if it can save the company tons of headache and technical debt (as well as save everyone’s butts!). This is how you define value and build teams that have a shared understanding of goals that can provide solutions fast, without unneeded delay.

Yes, radical collaboration is a thing and damn good one, if done correctly.

Get involved in DevOps. An absolute must. DevOps increase an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at an extremely high velocity. With releases happening at such a rapid speed, a UX’er’s job is never done. Get a broad idea of how these wonderful features you’re creating are functioning on the backend. Learn the bugs coming out of tests and how they affect the user so you can plan ahead before they unravel into something bigger. A good rule of thumb is to stay 2 weeks ahead of release schedules at all times.

Your Quant’ skills need to be as good as (if not better than) your Qual’. Qualitative data like sharing user comments from recorded usability tests of a small sample will may seem low value at first to the movers and shakers of your project. Once backed by quantitative data, these go from being “nice-to-have,” to an absolute necessity that will also help inaugurate your UX team as the true advocates of the user. Become best friends with your analytics team and kindly ask to subscribe to their daily/weekly overview emails (trust me, every company has one of these circling internally), and find patterns in customer experiences sooner rather than later.

Have a UX Checklist (coming soon in Part II!) made specifically for corporate atmospheres. Once you solidify this, send it as far as your reach can go and share it with EVERYONE! It’s of absolute importance that everyone working there knows how things will be done going forward. It’s on you, the fancy UX specialist, to enforce this. If you get any pushback, immediately shine light on how this affects your core customer and following it can save hundreds of hours. And, don’t forget ADA Compliancy!