[Sigia-l] Strategists (What do they do that IA's don't?)

[George Olsen]

Whitney's caveats (your mileage may vary, separate roles played from
titles) are well-heeded.

With those in mind, if we go back to the omniprescent three-ring Venn
diagram of business, engineering and user experience (or marketable,
feasible and desireable, if you prefer), we see how the differences in the
roles shakes out.

IAs/UXs are focused on the user experience circle, that's say, the product
(in the broad sense) itself.

Business strategists are focused on business/marketing/branding circle,
stuff like is the product financially viable, will adding this
functionality give us a competitive advantage, will adding this feature
competitive with one of our other products, what time-to-market window do
we have to this product, how does this product fit into our overall sales
strategy, etc.

Obviously there end up being overlaps, and the more senior an IA/UX you
become the more you get involved in strategic issues.

But there's definitely a point at where it becomes a different skill set.
I'm comfortable talking about how user research has uncovered an unserved
need that appears to provide a strong competitive advantage. I wouldn't be
comfortable doing a financial analysis about launching a product based on
meeting that unserved need.

I think the fuzzier interaction comes with dealing with business analysts,
whose role is defined in about as many ways as IAs are.