Design guru Jared Spool has an excellent post on the subject of the difference between CX (Customer Experience) and UX (User Experience) over here. He argues along the same lines as I’ve ascertained (Jared’s always a few years ahead of me!!!) that the root discipline of Marketing owns CX and traditionally advocated on behalf of “the voice of the customer”; whereas the technology industry gave rise to its own human-centered take as “UX” — originally grounded in making computers “user friendly” and then later segued into making “computational products valuable” to more kinds of users beyond just techies.
There used to be a boundary at the moment of purchase separating CX and UX. What evolved into CX was responsible for everything that happened up until that moment. What evolved into UX focused on everything after that moment.
But that distinction is no longer helpful. That boundary is now blurred.
Jared Spool
Spool makes the following observation that is becoming more evident today especially when traditional, non-tech companies start to get transformed digitally — and then there’s confusion around the question, “Who owns the customer?”:
| CX | UX |
| “CX teams are concerned with the design of their products and the experience it delivers. They can’t succeed if they focus only on what happens before the sale.” | “UX teams are concerned with ensuring their products demo well and have the right features to sell. They can’t succeed if they focus only on what happens after the sale.” |
He then teases apart the terminology difference with the word “persona” as its used in Marketing (more about segments) versus how it’s used in Product (more about behaviors). Another dichotomy he introduces is the difference in the two approaches to how data gets used:
| CX | UX |
| “CX teams work well with large sample sizes from analytical data. They love quantitative models. They focus on what customers say they like/need.” | “UX teams work well with small sample sizes. They love qualitative methods. They focus on how people behave with the product.” |
Spool’s conclusion is that working in an integrated fashion is the solution — one where both qual and quant data can be used to serve the customer best. How can that integrated work happen best? Just listen to Cookie Monster.
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