Identifying the Business Value of What We Do

Imagine we’re starting work on the user registration functionality of a web site. After conducting a thorough set of user tests, we discover that half of all users who attempt to register can’t successfully complete the process. Those who do register find the process very frustrating. Fixing the registration process to eliminate any frustration would important, right? Not necessarily.

How does an improved registration process help the business? How does increasing the number of registrations help the bottom line, either immediately or in the long term? If we can’t answer these questions, why should our organization invest any resources to fix it?

Money is the Great Equalizer

Usually, resources are too constrained to do everything the organization wants to accomplish. Therefore, decisions need to be made, based on some priority system. (Via UIE)