Everyone’s Mental Models
One lens to rule them all.
We all have a lens by which we understand and engage with the world. A lens allows us among many things, to communicate, determine relations, utilise or predict. The downside of almost all lenses, is the fact that they tend to be contextual (shaped by individual's experiences during a certain period) or are category specific e.g. business (cash machine, freemium, subscription, peer-to-peer), marketing (7Ps, USP, CLV, STP, product life cycle) or design (design thinking, HCD, UCD).
Not only do these models influence how we see the world, but they also determine what we measure for success and inturn, how our employees act on it. Measure success by "sign-up rate" and your employees will find any means (good and bad) in order to reach your "marker" (their incentive); a marker that came from a product requirement and not from the people you call customer or users.
From a product perspective, the three lenses that have a direct effect on the customer experience comes from development, product and design. These three lenses shape the initial product, before marketing and support join the "experience".
None of the lenses has people truly at its center. Just hear me out. If every department's lens affects people's experiences, why would a people centered lens sit in one department (UX/UI/Design/Product)? Should people not be at the center of every department's lens?
There is "one lens that can rule them all", but it will require a fundamental adjustment from all sections of business. The first step would be to understand fundamental human behaviour and thinking (in context of your business), understand what each lens separately sees, realign them towards this human experience so that each department has an understanding of how they affect each other and their role in building opportunities for people. If they don't have a shared understanding, they are working against each other and as a result, against the people they want to engage with.
Tony Hsieh
