February 23, 2009
2 Comments

A successful company is one where everybody owns the same mission

“I think a successful company is one where everybody owns the same mission. Out of necessity, we divide ourselves up into discipline groups. But the goal when you are actually doing the work is to somehow forget what discipline group you are in and come together. So in that sense, nobody should own user experience; everybody should own it.” - Don Norman

“I think a successful company is one where everybody owns the same mission. Out of necessity, we divide ourselves up into discipline groups. But the goal when you are actually doing the work is to somehow forget what discipline group you are in and come together. So in that sense, nobody should own user experience; everybody should own it.” – Don Norman

Read more from an interview with Don Norman on where user experience should be positioned within a company in this article.

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  • That's a good point, Mark. In order to feel comfortable challenging ideas from outside of your given discipline, you need to feel the support is there to do so. You can also look at it from another perspective, though. In order to have that champion at a higher level in the company for shared ownership of design related roles, you need to prove that it does indeed make a difference. Take a small project, have people walk into the project without feeling tied to their roles, and see what happens. It could turn into a case study for a larger scale change within the organization.
  • I get the principle but believe this approach can only be practically realised through the culture of the team and, ultimately, the organisation within which that team operates (if that doesn't sound too abstract).

    Someone, unfortunately, still needs to hold the torchlight.

    So what am I saying that's of any value: I hope it's that this kind of thing needs to be driven by the people in charge so that a positive culture of shared ownership has the best chance of developing.
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