humanizing IT - Innovative Service Management Consulting and Training: Tedder Consulting

Why ITSM implementations often fail customers

I must admit that this is a different interpretation of the customer and user roles than I’ve typically followed. However, it could explain how many ITSM implementations have missed the mark when it comes to delivering business value and business results. As I’ve said before, many ITSM implementations are about managing IT, not about delivering or enabling business outcomes. What could be possible if ITSM implementations shifted focus externally to the humans that use the services provided by the business?

But many ITSM implementations – many IT organizations – haven’t focused on the humans that use the products and services provided by the business. In fact, the products and services that IT delivers are often not built or delivered with humans in mind. Procedures used by IT are often IT-focused, not business-focused. The performance targets and measures for these products and services are defined by IT, not by the people that use the products and services. IT designs products focused on technology “wow factors” (as defined by IT) and less on the people that will be using them.

And because the focus is on IT, and not on the customer, the associated ITSM implementation is basically used to set expectations for the user. Even in that situation, those expectations are defined by IT, usually with little to no input or agreement from users.

How human-centered design can help

The correlation between employee (or user) experience and customer experience has been long established: when organizations enable better experiences for employees (“users”), employees in turn provide better experiences for customers.

When employees feel valued, engaged, empowered, and supported, they are more likely to go the “extra mile” for customers. When employees have the right technologies and solutions, they can resolve customer issues quickly and creatively. Positive employee experiences foster empathy and collaboration, which employees pass on to customers.

What are some things that IT organizations can do to enable a better user experience?

For IT, this means providing users with intuitive and streamlined processes, systems, and products, built with the user in mind. This means listening – and acting on – user feedback. This means providing empathetic support of users.

In other words, make the experience with IT a humanized experience. And the best way for IT to deliver a humanized experience for the user is to include the user as part of the development of solution designs – a core principle of human-centered design.

But getting users involved in solution design is often not so easy. First, it requires a mindset shift within IT to focus first on solving problems, not implementing solutions and technology. Convincing non-IT managers to participate in solution design and decision making can be a challenge. Many non-IT managers are reluctant to allocate resources without a clear return on investment or to take ownership of solution designs. IT often struggles to communicate in non-technical terms, and users often lack the technical understanding needed to contribute to solution design discussions. This results in communication gaps, making it difficult to translate user needs into technology requirements. There are often differences in priorities between IT and users; what’s important to IT may not have the same weight with users. Finally, an organization’s culture may get in the way. If an organization values traditional, hierarchical structures and predictable outcomes, the organization may be hesitant to have users participate in solution designs as it can introduce expected feedback or challenging of existing assumptions.

Three things IT (and ITSM) can do to stop failing the customer

Here are three actions that IT – and ITSM – organizations can take to stop failing the customer.

Cultivate an “experience” culture – Promote a culture that values and celebrates collaboration, empathy, and continual learning[iii]. Culture change happens a step at a time, so persistence pays off. When users participate in a solution design, publicize it. Share what was learned. Talk about how the new solution enabled positive employee experiences.

Map the internal user journey – An internal user journey map is a visual representation of how employees interact within an organization, including the user’s actions, thoughts, and emotions. From an ITSM perspective, identify when users interact with IT systems, processes, and tools to achieve a specific result. Doing this will identify pain points and improvement opportunities with those systems, processes, and tools.

Map the customer journey – Like an internal user journey map, a customer journey map depicts how customers interact with an organization, from initial awareness to post-purchased. Like an internal user journey map, the customer journey map will help identify improvement opportunities for the organization. But the benefit doesn’t stop there for IT and ITSM. Not only does this help IT (and related ITSM practices) understand the customer journey, but also helps IT develop empathy regarding user and customer interactions.

As organizations continue to journey further into the digital economy, a humanized customer experience will become a competitive differentiator. IT organizations, and their associated ITSM implementations, must embrace the benefits of adopting human-centered design in developing solutions. Involving users in solution development results in more humanized outcomes that improve both the employee and customer experiences.

[i] Humanising IT is a trademark of HIT Global.

[ii] Katrina Macdermid, “Human-centred design for IT service management”, Norwich, TSO, 2022, p. 30.

Organizations have dehumanized IT.

It’s not a question of “has it happened at our organization?” It is the recognition that it has happened.

Despite the investments organizations have made in technologies and process designs intended to solve business problems, the critical component of the solution has been overlooked. That component? The humans that are interacting with those technologies and process designs.

Four ways organizations have dehumanized IT

How have IT organizations become dehumanized? Here are a few attributes of a dehumanized IT organization.

IT associates think and work in terms of a “ticket.” An IT-related issue is treated as a faceless and voiceless number, rather than as an issue that impacts the productivity of a fellow colleague. IT masks its interactions with the consumer behind technologies, such as email or messaging through a service management tool and neglects the opportunity to connect and empathize with the consumer.
IT sends out generic, post-interaction surveys, rather than host face-to-face discussions with consumers. Exasperating the situation is that these surveys typically ask the same questions over and over, oblivious to the humans receiving those surveys. Furthermore, what little data that is captured on those surveys is rarely reviewed, much less actioned.
IT organizations do not conduct regular service level review meetings, much less have real SLAs. A service level review meeting should be a great opportunity for face-to-face discussions with consumers and key stakeholders to review service level agreements (SLA) to determine if IT products, services, and performance meet business needs. But what many organizations call a “SLA” is nothing more than some defined configuration parameters used in a service management system. Even worse, those parameters are defined with no input from the consumers served by IT.
IT organizations develop new solutions with no involvement from the consumers that will be using those solutions. The frequent approach to new IT solution development is to conduct a few meetings with sponsors and key stakeholders to gather their requirements and gain commitment on budget and resources. Any consumers that will be using the new solution are usually not included in those meetings. In many cases, the “solution” is jammed into an already in-use technology that often is neither fit for purpose or use.

Why is humanizing IT so important

There are many reasons why humanizing IT is so important. First, it’s well known that happy employees deliver better customer service. A humanized IT approach delivers better human-centered designs and intuitive user-friendly systems and interfaces.

This recent research journal article discusses many benefits that result from humanizing technology teams. A benefit that may not be obvious is enhanced employee satisfaction and retention. By creating a more human-centric work environment, IT organizations can improve employee well-being, leading to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.

Humanizing IT can also differentiate an organization’s products and services in the marketplace. This recent article discusses how companies that think that business decisions are taken solely on ROI and impact to the bottom are fooling themselves. Embedding human-centered designs within an organization’s products and services encourages emotional connections in B2B relationships, which drives brand loyalty and customer retention.

Enter human centered design

In a world where digitization, automation, and artificial intelligence are driving businesses to invest increasingly in technology, the more that the consumers of that technology value human interactions and connections.[i] This is where human centered design (HCD) can help.

HCD is an approach for problem solving that starts with understanding what consumers need and arrives at a place where innovative solutions address those needs.[ii] HCD is about solving problems, not implementing solutions. This means that effective HCD requires a mindset shift within IT from ”problem solver” to “listener and learner”. By using the HCD approach, IT gains a better appreciation and understanding of consumer challenge, builds better connections with the consumers of solutions, and drives better trust and communication with consumers.

Challenges

While embracing the HCD approach has numerous benefits, organizations are often faced with challenges in adoption.

First, many organizations take a “technology-first” mindset. Rather than first understanding the end-user perspective, organizations identify and implement a technology that seemingly addresses a business problem. On the surface, this “technology first” approach may seem like an easier and quicker fix for business and consumer challenges. But the reality is that technology will only be as good and well-received as the consumers are able to use those technologies easily and successfully.

Convincing senior management can also be a challenge. Traditional metrics, such as efficiency and ROI, may not capture the value of improved user experiences.[iii] Some leaders are concerned that becoming human-centered comes at the expense of ignoring business needs.[iv]

Overcoming deeply entrenched ways of working can be problematic. Organizations have developed ways of working that have evolved over longer periods of time. Employees have been and continue to be evaluated and rewarded based on these ways of working.

Take some first steps for rehumanizing IT

Adopting a human-centered design approach within IT will not happen overnight. But every journey begins with a few steps. Here are a three steps for starting to rehumanize IT.

Ditch those satisfaction surveys. Instead, conduct regular focus group meetings to not only capture consumer feedback, but get direct face-to-face input regarding improvement opportunities.
Conduct Gemba walks. Take a page from the Lean methodology and go to where work is being done. Observe, not evaluate, how consumers are interacting with technology. Show respect to consumers by listening to their concerns.
Begin participatory designing. Participatory design is a core concept of HCD. It means involving the consumer at the beginning of design activities. Consumers sometimes find it difficult to articulate what their challenges and problems are until they see, feel, and experience those challenges. Involving the consumer from the beginning of design efforts will result in solutions that are more user-friendly, intuitive, and accepted.

HCD can a be a transformative approach for businesses and the IT organizations within those businesses, especially when it comes to the implementation and use of technology. Starting with and including the humans that will be using those technologies in the design of products and services is the key to success in this digital age.

[i] https://www.thinklikeapublisher.com/humanizing-content-as-an-answer-to-ai/ ,Retrieved January 2025.

[ii] https://aircall.io/blog/customer-experience/10-benefits-of-human-centered-design/ Retrieved January 2025.

[iii] https://www.lusidea.com/blog/challenges-in-adopting-human-centric-design-practices , Retrieved January 2025.

[iv] https://www.hrdconnect.com/2023/10/06/human-experience-management-enabling-business-performance-through-human-centered-design , Retrieved January 2025.

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