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

[Brian Gillespie]

Within companies strategy often operates at several levelsŠcorporate,
business, and operational. Senior Managers/Boards are concerned with
business and/or corporate strategy, department managers are concerned with
business strategy, and their staff tend to be involved in strategy for
projects. For the sake of this discussion it means that some people decide
what business to be in, others how to be in that business, and others just
do the work. If doing the work is a "web site", those responsible for design
may form a design strategy which will be informed by a business strategy
which will be informed by a corporate strategy. Often the successful
experience of strategy by those responsible for IA in a project team
involves vertical and horizontal coordination and collaboration between
various departments (marketing, operations, npd, etc) that rarely exists in
many firms. It tends to succeed most in companies with customer-focused
businesses whose market research involves teams of strategist, marketers,
and those responsible for designing the interfaces.


Brian Gillespie
www.designingbusiness.com