UX Strategy Fundamentals

Start with why: define the site's purpose, audience, and value for users and clients in the definition phase. Align user needs with business objectives to guide strategy, content, and success.

Begin every project by asking three crucial questions to define scope and value. Foster understanding among designers, developers, and stakeholders about what is worth doing and the value provided.

Balance business goals and user needs by evaluating feature ideas for importance, feasibility, and viability. Target high-importance, high-feasibility features, the sweet spots delivering real value and guiding UX strategy.

Align all stakeholders around a shared mental model and clearly document decisions to prevent miscommunication and ensure agreed content, features, and responsibilities guide the project.

Identify what value your website provides by understanding the target audience and their desired experiences, including real-time tracking, then differentiate from competitors and substitutes.

Identify your users' needs, and what they expect from your app or site, and reflect on why these matter to shape your design vision and how they interact with it.

Determine strategic value by weighing importance and feasibility, score opportunities from 1 to 5, and allocate a fixed point budget to prioritize actions like increasing purchases per visit.

Learn how user experience extends beyond users to business goals through the value loop, where perception, action, proof, and trust drive sign-ups, ROIC, and value back to creators.

Define the website’s success by clarifying business objectives, metrics like subscriptions or sales, and who funds the project and its stakeholders, then identify competitors to differentiate the offering.

Identify and align business goals by engaging stakeholders, define measurable success, and evaluate industry constraints, competition, and strategic fit to guide UX strategy.

Identify your or your client's business goals, reflect on key questions from the lecture, and document insights to guide future UX strategy work.

Put users first by conducting user research with open-ended questions to learn what they expect, why it matters, and how your site differentiates itself from others.

Identify user needs by asking open-ended questions to uncover tasks, goals, and value for both B2B and B2C audiences, aligning design with user workflows and business goals.

Create a decision path to connect user needs with information architecture, content strategy, and visual design, using progressive disclosure to balance information and guide users from consideration to action.

Map a decision path from the user's purpose to action by revealing needed content: cost, features, benefits. Build trust with testimonials, reviews, ratings, and a free trial to purchase.

Define website requirements intentionally by asking what users need to do—functionality, content, and data—through an iterative process, and reject the idea of a 'requirements tree' and of gathering requirements.

Generate requirements through discussion with users and stakeholders, discover needs and scenarios, debate pros and cons, and avoid being an order taker to maximize value.

Identify the three kinds of ux requirements—things people say they need, what they actually need, and what they don't know they need—driven by data and analysis. Focus on the problem and the desired outcome, validate solutions beyond symptoms, and explore scenarios to ensure solutions address core needs.

Document requirements clearly to establish scope and a shared reference for progress. Embrace lean agile by capturing backlog items and user stories, sharing visuals to prevent surprises.

Defining and controlling scope prevents scope creep by clarifying what can be realistically delivered within time, budget, and team skills, with clear sign-off and task prioritization in iterative work.

Prevent scope creep by documenting assumptions in your proposal and contract, and by maintaining a running list of what’s doable now versus what goes to the next iteration.

Play the by a feature game to create a realistic project scope, prioritize user-focused features, assign relative prices, and have players explain why each feature matters.

Plan user testing early to gain scope clarity, reduce costs and stress, and align on devices and browsers scenarios by focusing on the 3–5 key use cases that matter most.

Identify your users and how they will use the site to shape a focused test plan. Prioritize relevant scenarios by devices, operating systems, browsers, connection speeds, and tech savvy.

Categorize and prioritize browser and device support by dividing into fully supported, partially supported, and unsupported categories, ensuring readability, full functionality, and consistent user interface across devices and browsers.

Review six core testing types: functionality, usability, errors and exceptions, compatibility, performance, and security, by validating links, forms, cookies, and sessions, plus CSS/HTML, database connections, and SEO crawlability.

Identify usability issues by testing navigation, content, and presentation, and measure task success using surveys and online testing tools like Loop 11 and Optimizely, including moderated sessions.

Test errors and exceptions, design for failure, and ensure clear, actionable messages. Learn how to recover from interruptions and protect user data during stalled transactions.

Assess browser compatibility and operating system and device compatibility to ensure links and forms work properly across mobile, desktop, and other platforms.

Explore performance testing to ensure sites handle heavy traffic, covering load testing, stress testing, and worst-case scenarios, plus planning with hosting and key inputs like login and signup.

Learn how to test security by validating login controls, URL access and parameter changes, input validation, restricted directories, SSL transitions, and server log monitoring with built-in tools and plugins.

Identify the essentials upfront: define what you're creating, why it matters, and ensure teams share the value. Use scenarios, progressive disclosure, and thorough documentation to avoid surprises and guide testing.