So, I was passing through a Hardees drive-through the other morning (had to feed the urge for a chicken biscuit), and decided to risk their coffee. While the coffee itself was just okay, what really impressed me was the labeling on the cup. This was no ordinary cup of joe, it was “Channel Islands Coffee”.

While it would be easy to pass this off as a simple branding gesture, this tactic goes beyond surface considerations to the heart of experience. By labeling their coffee “Channel Islands”, Hardees creates a user experience that is comfortable with just a pinch of excitement. It is West Coast— so therefore has coffee street cred— but it is not Seattle, avoiding the prospect of being labeled a gourmet coffee. It sounds exotic, but only in the sense of visiting a National Park (which the Channel Islands are). You are not visiting Ethiopia or Sumatra with this drink, but rather a series of islands 70 miles or so west of Los Angeles.

For Information Management and Technology (IMT) programs, the experience you create for your users and business partners resides in the operating model that directs your work. User experience thus becomes the sum of your business processes, roles, responsibilities, governance mechanisms, and expectations.

How can you design a user experience which achieves your business objectives and reflects your brand?

Begin by tracking a user request or event from the moment it is initiated through to completion. This involves mapping out the process, but also requires you to look at how well the process is executed. How many hand-offs occur? How efficiently does information flow through your program? How is communication and follow-up handled with the user?

Next, compare that process analysis against the business objectives you are hoping to achieve, as well as your own expectations for the program. For gaps that are identified, determine a range of options which will close the gaps. Should all users be treated equally, or do you create a tiered priority scheme for handling requests? Do all requests funnel into the same place initially, or is there a point of contact for a business group or geography?

Stepping through this analysis will create a tighter focus on your user experience. This, in turn, will develop and sustain a broader base of support for your program.

Off to Guatemala for my morning fix!