For some time now, we've been hearing about the "UX unicorn" or the professional in charge of everything in a user experience (UX) area. Or, why not, in an e-commerce or digital channels in general. At Interaction South America, the largest annual UX event in the region, the topic has been discussed repeatedly. Our colleague Gustavo Soto has talked about this character in a LinkedIn column.
Once the unicorn's profile is defined, as someone who has the role of "measuring and improving, understanding and executing actions," according to Gustavo, the question now is: will it be possible to have such a character in charge of everything?
It would be difficult to answer such a question in a column, but below I will try to share some of my personal experience, especially in Chile and Canada.
My last position in Canada, before resigning and heading "to life" towards Chile, was e-commerce coordinator in a hotel group. What we often see today in Latin America as an E-commerce Manager.
Well, I was in charge of 7 websites, and among them was an e-commerce store. 5 sites belonged to hotels, each with booking modules, and a corporate portal that was more static.
I reported to the marketing director who, in turn, reported to the vice president of marketing. Both were located in Montreal, while I was in Quebec City, 233 kilometers away.
No one reported directly to me, but there was a person in charge of e-commerce store shipments and answering inquiries, reporting to the manager of one of the hotels, if I'm not mistaken.
The store was only part of their job; the rest of their role was related to the hotel where our office was located.
Some of my responsibilities as e-commerce manager:
- Optimize e-commerce sales and booking results.
- Ensure the positioning of different brands on the web (at that time, 2009, this mainly involved search engines and other online media, because social networks did not have as much relevance in digital relationships as they do today).
- Keep portals updated, considering the rotation of promotions, new products, and agreements.
For this, the tasks and activities could be:
- Conduct user testing, propose improvements, and implement them.
- Analyze traffic and campaign reports, propose tactics, actions, and improvements, and implement them.
- Coordinate campaigns, maintenance, and continuous improvement initiatives with different providers. From drafting a brief to describing the details of a new feature requirement, to asking for a new metric to be measured.
This last point leads me to part of the answer to the question: is it possible to "do it all"?
Yes, in my opinion, it is possible. Provided that certain conditions are met, which I will detail below.
Interacting optimally with a provider, for me as a client, means something simple: that things work.
- That I don't have to meet 5 times for what is needed to be understood.
- That there isn't an account manager who transmits 25% of the message downwards and the remaining 75% gets lost in limbo.
- That I don't have to send 178 reminder emails or "when will the job be done" messages.
In this position in Canada, but also in my previous job at another Canadian company, something remarkable has been the quality of the relationship with providers.
From the journalist who helped us write for the web or IVR messages, to the manager of the technology company in charge of the booking platform, to the metrics manager of the other agency, etc. Everyone contributed to the success of our projects and initiatives.
Several were from Montreal, only a few from Quebec, so I saw them very little. Mostly, we communicated by email and phone. Slack and WhatsApp didn't exist, but we worked in an absolutely coordinated way. Collaboration and communication were never a problem.
We did have delays in some production steps, as we made a major change to the booking and e-commerce platforms. But they were never terrifying.
I don't remember staying late at work (as I have often had to do in Chile). When I took work home, it was my choice, generally driven by my enthusiasm for the job, the desire to move forward, and often the thousand ideas that needed to be channeled.
However, the day started around 8:30 AM and ended at 5:30 PM, if I'm not mistaken.
Some of these providers were companies with a certain hierarchical structure, and others were freelancers.
I never met the journalist. I always spoke with her by phone, but since she lived in another city, we never met. She had a long-term professional relationship with the company, so she was very aware of the communication tone, editorial style, knew the internal interlocutors, etc.
If she needed material about a hotel, she would contact the respective person in charge.
This means your superior is there to support your decisions in front of other departments and suppliers.
The only redundant thing, sometimes, was having a conference call with my boss, explaining something to her, and then she would call me back with the vice president on the line because she had forgotten or couldn't explain something well and needed my support.
But nothing more. And that wasn't tedious. It seemed like we had to repeat ourselves.
However, now, contextualizing and thinking about my other positions in Chile, it was really nothing compared to all the time one has to spend here lobbying or doing hallway politics, rather than actually doing their job.
Once, we also encountered some reluctance from senior management (the CEO) when we had to make a major change to the site. Finally, we presented all the metrics and user testing results, and she agreed, understanding that the recommendation was well-founded.
That was a tremendous achievement, and the changes yielded excellent results in terms of reducing shopping cart abandonment and increasing sales, although at the time I found the process a bit slow.
I felt it took us a while to convince her. Although when we said we were going to do user testing, she was very quick to get on board and head to Montreal and Toronto for the tests.
Putting everything into perspective, given how difficult it has been to implement changes in my respective roles in companies in Chile, it really wasn't complicated at all in the hotel group.
Empowerment is the result of a process where trust is generated and both parties respect agreements - generally informal ones - for things to work well on a daily basis.
It's not just about having empowered collaborators, nor about having superiors who allow their collaborators to be autonomous.
It's about creating the right balance between both. Once again, I've seen very little of this locally. If distrust reigns, you cannot be empowered.
Obviously, no one can do and undo without limits.
Budget is a limitation everywhere. However, once you have the playing field marked and you know what you can and cannot do for the "superman" or "superwoman digital" formula to work, you cannot ask for authorizations at every moment.
In this sense, I think it is very difficult for that to work in Chile given that it is complicated to gain hierarchical authority and power of action.
The day has 24 hours, of which only some are working hours. If in those few hours you have to spend X amount asking for permissions, your power of action decreases considerably.
For this reason, you need to have a team and start dividing tasks and responsibilities.
In addition to organizational factors, you must have the necessary tools to do your job, with a certain degree of automation (when necessary and it makes sense).
You cannot work with manual processes, or with obsolete or limited tools.
Obviously, the above is possible understanding that nothing is perfect, that there is always the budget limitation, and that, precisely, part of the job of a "digital superman" should be to recommend the acquisition and implementation of suitable tools.
Surely, you can't build the next Amazon with one person in charge and an army of external contractors, but I am firmly convinced that a good result can be achieved in a medium-sized company if all conditions are met.
If there is a lack of authority, no support from superiors, or if the tools, budget, and providers are not available, it is clear that a team of people must be assembled to cover all of the above.
If you are in a high executive position and are considering hiring one person to be in charge of everything, at a minimum you should take out a sheet of paper and do an honest exercise to get a clear diagnosis of these factors:
- Authority and support you will give to the position.
- Expected and delivered empowerment.
- Providers.
- Budget.
- Tools.
Finally, my team was more external than internal. I also teamed up with hotel managers; they were my internal clients.
In my previous job in Canada as marketing coordinator, I also had no direct reports and reported directly to the vice president of marketing. In an essentially manufacturing company, we were the smallest department.
The vice president of marketing also oversaw the commercial area, which was much larger, and marketing. In marketing, there were two of us, then I was alone, and later we returned to a team of two. My colleagues were sales-oriented: sales manager, field salespeople, customer service executives.
Marketing efforts were mainly concentrated on trade marketing, advertising, events, print, and a bit of web.
There, too, providers were key (agency and freelancers). The trust and authority that my superior and the company's senior management gave me were incredible.
Meanwhile, I leave the question and hope someone dares to share their experience at a local (in Chile or regional) level: Is it possible to have one person in charge of everything? If the answer is yes: Under what conditions?
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