availability of specialized UX skills
in a particular geography play a role
in shaping the global UX team.
Here are some best-practice rec-
ommendations based on our com-
bined experience of more than 40
years in the global UX field.
Leading Global UX Teams—Factors to Consider
Product Strategy
Target Market
Product Scope
Need for UI Consistency
Designing a New Product for
Global Consumption

In this case, the goal of the UX team is to create a multinational product, a challenge unto itself. If a distributed team is assigned, each local organization must engage in frequent coordination with other design locations. They will need to coordinate their activities with product management, engineering, and marketing teams as well, and if these teams are geographically distributed, this adds another dimension of coordination complexity. The keys to success in this scenario are a shared design methodology, strong communication skills in team members, and high-quality program management discipline to ensure that no deliverables are dropped. Our recommendation is to plan and optimize for global dependencies in this case.

This scenario is not unlike what we face in multiple projects in the enterprise software company where we work. The products we create address complex, mission-critical business processes for our customers, who may be multinational companies that are interested in distributing the software globally. To meet this strategic business goal, the UX team is located in multiple geographic locations, mainly in the U.S., Germany, Israel, India, France, Canada, and China. A user-centered design process is rolled out to all locations; training and other resources are made available to the UX professionals. Visual designers, who work closely with the global

Ux organizational
Strategy
Centralized UX
Decentralized UX
UX Mission (Governance,
Innovation, Consulting)

Stakeholder
Location
Developers
Product Management
Marketing
Quality Assurance
Ux Skills
Availability
User Research
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Prototype

• Figure 1. Factors to consider in leading global UX teams.

marketing team, are located centrally to ensure consistent branding. The visual design guidelines and visual assets are made available to all locations. User researchers are available in most locations. However, based on the initial target market of the software release (U.S., Asia, Europe, or Latin America), user researchers travel to conduct site visits to better understand local business conditions. Alternatively, local user research agencies could be contracted. Interaction designers work closely with product management and development throughout the product development lifecycle, so it is advantageous to co-locate interaction designers with these key stakeholders for each project.

Furthermore, our company, simi-
lar to many other software firms,
has adopted the agile software-
development methodology. Agile
recommends co-location of critical
functions for close cross-functional
collaboration. One way to manage
these competing goals is to adopt
a modular approach and co-locate
cross-functional teams for each
module, once the overall concept
and direction has been agreed
upon. The key to success is strong
program management that plans
time for UX reviews at strategic
intervals to ensure that the various
product modules work in an inte-
grated and consistent fashion.

Localizing an Existing Product for National Consumption In this case the goal is usually to make modifications to an existing product design to meet the needs of the target market. These include functional (for example, language, date formats, currency), legal (for example, country-specific laws pertaining to tax, privacy, trade), and business-process (for example, workflows, cultural tendencies) requirements [ 2]. The key to success here is to capture and validate the local requirements accurately to create a compelling product for the target market.

November + December 2011

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