Business Value of UX

The Business Value of UX

Brought to you by the UX Center of Excellence - a group of user experience professionals dedicated to creating great experiences for GE customers and employees.

What is UX?

Working collaboratively and iteratively, informed by user needs.

The Business Value of UX | 2

User Experience, or UX for short, is the term used to describe an innovation process that uses a deep understanding of user needs to help create GE products and services that provide meaningful experiences to our customers. UX uses a set of design methods to unlock actionable insights that help to define products. It takes these insights to design and develop the behavior of the products we create, organize the workflow for interacting with them, and to connect them with our brand.


The UX Process

An innovation process that makes great products.



User experiences are created in stages over the course of a product’s development. UX teams engage end-users to discover insights; they design and prototype concepts and work them into detailed solutions; they implement the final product and evaluate how customer and users respond release after release. Every product requires its own approach based on local constraints, but these stages represent a healthy UX process that can bring exceptional user experiences to life.



The UX process is fundamentally iterative. Research is gathered and synthesized into insights; insights seed concepts that are cyclically transformed into full-fledged products. At each step, the team’s output is validated with users and other stakeholders, and their feedback is incorporated into the next iteration of work. This iterative process helps teams continually improve the quality of what they make and helps them to catch problems more quickly.


Market Undercurrents

User Experience Design is a necessary competency to navigate today’s competitive landscape.


More and more companies, particularly those that provide significant value through software, differentiate through and are known by the qualitative details of the experiences they provide. The push for UX excellence largely began in the consumer space, and now the expectations set by electronic devices and mobile apps are bleeding into industrial and enterprise contexts. Many exciting developments in IT area appearing in the hands of consumers first and only then making their way into other arenas. – Mark Andreesen 1 1 The Economist, “The Consumer-industrial Complex” 2 Intel, “Consumerization: What is in Store for IT?” July 2010 3 The Economist, “The Power of Many”


At least in the consumer space, UX-focused companies create exceptional value for shareholders. The TeehanLax UX Fund is an investment portfolio with equal shares in 10 UXfocused companies. It was created with the belief that companies that deliver great user experiences will see it reflected in their stock price. 4 TeehanLax, “UX Fund” as of 10/24/2011, http://www.teehanlax.com/uxfund/

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Not only have competitors developed UX competencies visible to the public, they have decided to monetize them by providing external consulting services. Additionally, many are positioning themselves as thought leaders by using their brands and resources to push UX thinking forward.


Over the last six years, user experiencerelated jobs have increased by as much as 450% in the U.S. as shown by the growth of job postings mentioning “User Experience” on Indeed.com 5

5 Indeed.com, http://www.indeed.com/jobanalytics/jobtrends?q=%22User+Experience%22&l=


Direct Business Benefits

User Experience activities and investments result in immediate tangible business benefits.


In today's consumerized B2B world, superior user experiences can positively influence business results in myriad ways. A strong UX practice yields more desirable, performative and cost-effective products.     If GE's combined Energy and Technology Infrastructure revenue in 2010 is $75.4B7, committing to UX could hypothetically unlock a $10.8B opportunity, based on a 14.4% increase in sales.

6 Forrester, “Best Practices in User Experience Design (UX)” 7 GE, Form 10-K 2010


A superior user experience can redefine a product category and change the way users approach a task. Such experiences, delivered through attractive, well-engineered products can become “must-haves” for an industry.

8 IPC Case Study, frog, Inc.


Users of well-designed products and services make purchases more frequently, develop brand loyalty and help secure steadier revenue streams.

9 IfrogIndex ROI of Design Presentation, frog, Inc.


Products that connect with customers on an emotional level can command a premium in the marketplace.

9 frogIndex ROI of Design Presentation, frog, Inc.


The better aligned a product is with user needs, the better it will accomplish the task he or she is trying to perform. If wellenough aligned, switching to a competing experience can be seen as losing functionality.

6 Forrester, “Best Practices in User Experience Design (UX)”


Reductions in task completion times can add up to massive productivity savings for a business. In a commerce context, customers who move easily for information to pointof-purchase will complete sales more often

10 SAP Case Study, frog, Inc.


Due to tight collaboration between design and development teams, along with improved focus on key features, opportunities for experience optimization are more readily identified. This can dramatically enhance task completion times and customer efficiency.

10 SAP Case Study, frog, Inc.


UX can reduce avoidable rework of produced by mitigating some of the most common factors for why software projects fail and get requirements right when the cost of changes is lowest. UX activities can be thought of as wellness activities for product development. UX activities up-front can avoid a lot of costly surgery on products down the road.

11 IEEE, “Why Software Fails”


Even a small reduction in cost could mean big savings. If R&D Spend in 2012 is 5B2, even a 10% reduction in avoidable rework in this amount would mean a savings of 250M. Let’s say there are 150 NPI in 2012 12 and you spend 200K per NPI on UX Activities. GE is still saving $470M overall. 11 IEEE, “Why Software Fails” 12 Estimations based on GE Annual Outlook 2010


On average, 5% of product features are used 95% of the time. UX can prioritize feature sets to aid in faster time to market and meet customer expectations.13

13 Strategic Data Systems, “UX Business Impacts and ROI” 14 GE Money Case Study, frog, Inc.


Broad GE Benefits

The User Experience Center of Excellence coordinates the individual UX efforts of product teams to generate value across businesses.


Product teams get support and recognition when they work with the UX Center of Excellence to contribute to the broader UX effort at GE. Drive adoption of repeatable UX practices within GE through projects. Increase productivity of UX investments via knowledge sharing within and across GE businesses. Decrease cost per project by leveraging UX expertise, tools and assets across GE.


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1 The Economist, “The Consumer-industrial Complex” 2 Intel, “Consumerization: What is in Store for IT?” July 2010 3 The Economist, “The Power of Many” 4 TeehanLax, “UX Fund” as of 10/24/2011, http://www.teehanlax.com/uxfund/ 5 Indeed.com, http://www.indeed.com/jobanalytics/jobtrends?q=%22User+Experience%22&l= 6 Forrester, “Best Practices in User Experience Design (UX)” 7 GE, Form 10-K 2010 8 IPC Case Study, frog, Inc. 9 frogIndex ROI of Design Presentation, frog, Inc. 10 SAP Case Study, frog, Inc. 11 Robert Charette, IEEE, “Why Software Fails” 12 Estimations based on GE Annual Outlook 2010 13 Strategic Data Systems, “UX Business Impacts and ROI” 14 GE Money Case Study, frog, Inc.


Business Value of UX

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