A Simple Guide to Assessing Mobile Maturity

“Jim, how do our company’s mobile capabilities rank against our competitors?  What do we need to do be the Uber of our industry?”  

If you’re Jim, you have your work cut out.  Often you’ll want to start with an effort to gauge your current “mobile maturity”—where you are now—and then map out steps to grow and compete at a target level.

Assessing your organization’s level of mobile maturity is a daunting task—the mobile ecosystem is a large, fluid and complex web of people, processes and technologies.  And shooting for “Uber-fication” is a tall order only a few companies—all startup/disruptors—have mastered.  What’s more, by the time you complete a typical full organizational evaluation and plot a path forward the landscape will have shifted, sometimes significantly. 

Industry Guide Posts

Looking to leading industry analysts, Forrester and Gartner each provide approaches to evaluating mobile maturity based on progressive frameworks.

Based on the seminal book The Mobile Mind Shift, Forrester has developed the Mobile Mind Shift Maturity Framework (subscription required).  In short, Forrester sees mobile maturity as a progression through four key stages:

Gartner takes a five-stage approach to their Mobile Maturity Model (subscription required) which is more process improvement oriented:

Both models are very useful maps for pinpointing your current position, identifying steps to improve outcomes and finally transforming your business.  However, as Gartner pointed out in a recent webinar, “evaluating all the elements [of mobile maturity] takes too much time” and that “a complete evaluation may not tell more than a limited one.”

Getting a Mobile Maturity Snapshot

So, what’s an efficient and effective approach if you want to get a quick snapshot of your current position?  Based on working with a variety of clients’ (of widely varying levels of maturity) mobile initiatives over the years, we believe that there are seven key areas that go a long way toward quickly determining current mobile maturity level:

1. Prioritization
2. Measurement
3. Ownership
4. Governance
5. Talent
6. Technology
7. Customer Experience

For each area (and in no particular order) we’ll briefly describe three levels of maturity on the scale and also reference related posts should you wish to dig in further.

How does your organization identify and then determine which mobile initiatives will be worked on?  (See also Why Your Mobile Initiative Isn’t Getting Funded)

How does your organization measure mobile initiative success?  (See also Developing a Mobile Analytics Strategy)

 

How does your organization approach management of mobile products?  (See also Mobile Project Vs. Mobile Product)

How does your organization manage mobile initiatives and products over time?  (See also Eight Reasons Why You Need Mobile Governance)

 

How does your organization ensure that top minds are designing, delivering and evolving product?  (See also Magenic Technologies' Best in Class Consultants or Learning on Your Dime)

 

How does your organization ensure the technology foundation for mobile initiative investment will be effective and durable?  (See also Magenic Technologies’ Choosing a Mobile Development Platform)

How does your organization ensure that customers’ (internal, partners, external) mobile experiences are high quality and exceed expectations?  (See also Frictionless Mobile Experiences and Why They Matter)

Closing Thoughts

While the journey toward mobile maturity for each client is unique, we've learned a great deal from our own and clients’ mobile successes (and failures) over the years.

Maybe you’ve been scoring your organization as you’ve been reading.  How did you do?  Of course, the biggest room in the house is always the room for improvement!

Frictionless Mobile Experiences—and Why They Matter to You

We’ve all now heard how important a great mobile user experience is to customers.  But what is a “frictionless” mobile experience?

In the mobile context, “frictionless” means to simplify key elements of the user experience to the point where they’re almost unnoticed, taken for granted—and therefore truly delightful, and ultimately more useful.

Popular Examples
Let’s look at a few well-known examples:

Uber

Using location-tracking technology Uber knows where you are (you don’t have to supply an address) and the driver closest to you.  This makes getting a cab quickly one button press away—it couldn’t be any simpler.

Then, when your ride is complete, you just walk away.  No fishing for payment or tip, no receipt—no waiting while the cabbie fumbles for their manual credit card imprinter.  Secure.  Awesome!

Amazon

Amazon launched one-click buying in 2000.  Complex on the backend, but a simple-as-possible customer experience.

Now, with Amazon Dash, Amazon has made buying replenishable items even easier.  You’re out of laundry detergent?  Click a button mounted by your washer and another container of laundry detergent is shortly at your doorstep.  The cost of the Amazon Dash Button is rebated on your first purchase and shipping (with Prime) is free.  With apologies to Office Depot, this is the “Easy Button”!

Square

Square has something for both retailers and customers.  First, for retailers, Square is a small device that turns any connected smartphone or tablet into a point of sale terminal.  And transaction fees are lower than most competitors.

For customers and retailers alike, Square delights by associating your credit card with your account.  As a result, the retailer now has no need to print a receipt as your receipt will go directly to your email address—and you don’t have to carry a receipt or enter your email address (after the first time).  A very simple transaction for both parties.

Now let’s look at how to create a frictionless experience from another angle:  the learning pattern the experience requires.  Typical mobile experiences tend to be cognitive; that is, the learning pattern requires the user to read basic instructions in order to learn how to use an app.  Frictionless app experiences, however, tend to be perceptional where the learning pattern provides the user just enough information to allow an empathetic engagement where the user can “feel” their way through the experience.  No instructions required.

Here are several more examples from a learning pattern perspective:

Domino’s Pizza iPad App

By using a known, almost pre-prescribed perceptual learning pattern, customers engage and “play” with building the order they want.  Little or no cognitive learning is needed and the experience is almost entirely perceptual.  Customers are engaging in the experience without really knowing it.  The “why” can be understood by Domino’s mission statement: “Sell more pizza, make more fun."  The experience was so well received it got Domino’s a webby. 

Motion Savvy App

Natural user interfaces (NUI) are redefining what “frictionless” experiences can be.  Not only can they provide intuitive engagement patterns that are built on a perceptual learning model, they can take very complex cognitive learning patterns and translate them. The Motionsavvy mobile app uses a NUI to provide a masterful engagement model that will only become more mainstream as a learnable model.  Voice, eye tracking, gesture tracking and location will be the new input devices for these emerging models.  The “Why” is rooted in the source of all of user experience… the right accessibility offered in the best mental model.  Leap, Kinect for Windows, and Myo are all emerging and will redefine how we engage with our devices.

Shyp App

Using a very simple experience the customer becomes part of the process verses just engaging with an app. Simple, direct, and a clever model that plays on the embedded expectations that customers already have with regard to buying and selling on the web.

So, why does all this matter to you?  Because without a conscious focus on creating a frictionless experience pitfalls await.  A few examples:

• It is all too easy to simply duplicate an experience designed for the web
• Mobile’s unique hardware capabilities are not well used (e.g., GPS/location services)
• The mobile ecosystem is not effectively leveraged and you lose opportunities to add value

In short, you risk losing mobile users and that means losing significant business to competitors who are thinking how to create a frictionless experience.

How to Eliminate Friction
So, how can you make your mobile users’ experience frictionless?  Here are a few suggestions to get started:

• Simplify registration and authentication.  Use Facebook, Google+ or another service—don’t make users create yet another user account with IDs and passwords they won’t remember.  Use biometric authentication—no one forgets their thumb.  And don’t make a user log in unless they have logged out on purpose (secure apps like financials, healthcare, excepted).
• Respect users’ time (and lack of patience).  Can data be loaded in the background?  Can important information be shown on one screen instead of two?  Can a transaction be completed with one tap instead of two?  Or better, can you do something valuable for the user without their explicit input (e.g., use location services to fix their location, determine time to get to an appointment, etc.)?
• Use appropriate learning patterns.  “Intuitive” is overused when describing mobile user experiences.  But what we’re aiming for is an experience that flows (e.g., is perceptional), needs almost no explanations, clearly identifies objectives and makes it easy to perceive how to reach them.
• Remember.  Remember me and my data so that I don’t have to re-type anything.  If I have to input data, make it easy—for example, accept voice input or a text message (see what /Slash has done to make things easier).
• Leverage context.  Is the user at home, in a store, at an event or favorite haunt?  If they’re in a store, push information they want like offers or coupons.  If they’re at an event, inform them when friends are nearby.  Anticipate needs and desires.
• Technical ecosystem.  To make things even more seamless, make sure you take advantage of the users’ technology ecosystem.  For example, a user may have a smartwatch, TV device, tablet, etc.  How can those devices—all with their unique usage contexts—become part of a complete and satisfying experience?
• Experience ecosystem.  What partnerships with other apps might support your offering of a complete experience?  For example, Spotify partnered with Nike+ and RunKeeper to deliver music while users are exercising.  Sonos, who makes wireless audio systems, partnered with Pandora and Spotify to enable Sonos users to play their music libraries from directly inside the Sonos app.  Less friction, more satisfaction.

And, last of all, pay attention to the user experience through analytics and automated reporting of application issues—there’s always room for improvement.

Closing Thought
Create the frictionless mobile experiences users crave and meet your business objectives successfully.  Do something amazing!

Why Your Mobile Initiative Isn’t Getting Funded

One of the biggest challenges in starting your company’s mobile journey is getting funding.  Potential financial sponsors are often positioned at one of two extremes.  

On one hand, some sponsors seriously underestimate the strategy, expertise, and overall effort that goes into building mobile apps and supporting a successful mobile program.  These sponsors tend to make a number of faulty assumptions, often including the following:

• We don’t need a strategy—let’s just start with my pet project idea and see what happens
• We have people internally who can develop applications, so they should be able to do mobile apps, too
• It’s a small screen—how much effort can it take?

At the other end of the spectrum, potential sponsors will find every reason why now is not the right time to tackle mobile enablement.  They will typically bring up a variety of valid—but surmountable—concerns that, if not effectively addressed, will kill your mobile initiative.  Here are some common examples:

• Fear of the fluid technology environment and potentially wasted investment
• Security and compliance risks
• Existing technical debt, question ability to integrate legacy back office systems

In addition to the challenges presented by both types of sponsors, you may be making your own missteps in presenting a case for mobile investment.

• Lack of focus on producing ROI by impacting key KPIs 
• Lack of an innovative, compelling story—you’re just “mobilizing” existing processes
• Unrealistic perspective on mobile TCO
• Selecting a set of mobile technologies before having a solid grip on business objectives

Clearly, there are many pitfalls to getting your mobile initiative off the ground and securing funding.

Here are several ways you can address your financial sponsors’ assumptions and fears—and look smart in the process:

Start with Strategy

Do an assessment of the organization’s needs as a whole.  Identify mobile opportunities in terms of mobile moments.  Then prioritize based on business value, feasibility, risk, differentiation, opportunity for innovation, and so on.  Make sure to identify KPIs that impact the business for each potential mobile product.

This is often a good time to invest in a few proofs of concept.  Target opportunities to translate a series of mobile moments into an app vignette, which can be as simple as a visual prototype (no code) or a skeleton app (coded)—both of which must run on a mobile device.  

The key in either case is to create an amazing user experience that you can socialize to enable stakeholders to envision success.  Alternately, if you have technology risks, you may wish to focus on proofs of concept that smooth the way forward by addressing technical barriers.

Create Product Roadmaps and a Supporting Technology Roadmap

Think of your mobile opportunities as products, not projects.  Each product needs to have a roadmap that maps out evolving business value.  Look for opportunities to innovate, differentiate, and positively disrupt existing inefficient processes.  Each product roadmap needs to support a clear, compelling story of how investment is strategically aligned with overall digital strategy and business objectives.

Create technology roadmaps that support product planning.  Don’t make the mistake of selecting a technology stack before business objectives are clear!  Also be cognizant of the reality that user experience design for each product may also influence technology selection.

Technology road mapping is also a perfect time to align needed infrastructure upgrades with creation of new mobile products that will deliver clear value—don’t miss this opportunity.

Plan for Delivery

Become familiar with the key workflows and expert resources required to operate an effective mobile delivery organization.  Understand probable release cadence, deployment and all the factors that drive it.  Don’t hesitate to bring in outside experts to provide guidance both for delivery process and technology selection.

Be realistic in estimating TCO.  Identify which resources and skill sets may be staffed internally versus relying on partners.  Determine if your delivery strategy will be reliant on partners long term or needs to include a knowledge transfer plan to bring key components or roles in house over time.

How will product maintenance and support be prioritized?  Who will users call for help?  Who will be responsible for training support resources?

Don’t Forget Governance

Once the mobile journey is begun users’ expectations—already high--will quickly rise.  Plan how you will approach maturing your organization’s ability to manage a portfolio of mobile products.  From best practices to standard architectures to ensuring leverage and alignment with business objectives, position your mobile governance model to enable mobile teams, not create barriers.

Closing Thoughts

The secret to getting your mobile initiative funded is to align with business objectives, demonstrate a value-driven plan based on product roadmaps, plan for operational success, and put in place an appropriate governance model to sustain success.