SALT LAKE CITY — While the importance of breaking down silos to improve experiences has practically become a cliche, the actual process of promoting cross-team communication is often easier said than done.
It can be even more complicated when it comes to customer data programs in tech-focused companies where each employee has their own way of viewing the problems and solutions, according to Adam Hagerman, director of UX research at Indeed.
“It is very hard to wrestle control over people who are very individualistic,” Hagerman said during a Tuesday panel at the Qualtrics X4 conference in Salt Lake City. “It's a culture in tech.”
Indeed has been breaking down silos by building coalitions, rather than trying to take charge of employees’ activity, according to Hagerman. If every stakeholder is looking at customer, employee and other relevant data from the same angle, collaboration naturally becomes easier.
Hagerman calls this unified approach to deciphering customer data a shared vocabulary. The job search platform has a wide userbase on a single program, which can make it difficult to arrive at a single, actionable version of truth.
The vocabulary distills that noisy data into a cohesive narrative that tells the story of who the customer is, what they need from Indeed, how they’re trying to do it, and how the company can help them do it better, according to Hagerman.
From there, teams can identify and collaborate on changes that will improve the overall user experience.
“Something I tell my stakeholders is that I'm not here to make the decision for you, but I'm here to help you,” Hagerman said. “I'm here to make sure that you have the information you need to make the decision by having that shared vocabulary.”
Indeed also ensures that relevant information is available and actionable to anyone who might need it, from executives to engineers. The shared vocabulary helps stakeholders at all levels share the same understanding of the job search platform’s challenges and objectives.
“I don't want the conversation that our C-suite has to be different than the conversation that our frontline engineers have,” Hagerman said. “I want them to be talking consistently about the problems that matter.”
