How CX governance helps you win / Kirsikka Vaajakallio / Episode #166

Service Design Show

I have a family with two small kids who are quickly growing up. The challenge many parents, including me, encountered was... how do we keep our home somewhat clean and tidy.

My initial and naive strategy was to pick up everything left behind. But this strategy breaks down pretty quickly, as you can imagine. So then I tried to distribute the responsibility to everyone in the family. If everyone does their part, it should be a minor task, right? But of course, it didn't take long before I realized everyone had very different interpretations of what "clean and tidy" meant. At this point, it dawned on me that the only way to solve this challenge once and for all was by putting a clear plan in place that everyone would commit to. Yes, I needed a "house-cleaning governance model" just with a better name of course :)

And this brings us nicely to the topic of this week's episode: CX governance. Many CX initiatives start in small pockets of the organizations. This works well in the beginning, as it allows for speed and quick iteration. But at some point, you will have many CX initiatives going on at the same time. And most likely, by then, because of the lack of alignment and coordination, you're wasting a lot of time and resources. The solution is to put a CX governance model in place. But that's easier said than done...

So in this episode, you'll hear the chat I had with Kirsikka Vaajakallio, where we explored questions like:

• What is the right time to implement a CX governance model?
• What are the key components of a CX governance model?
• What makes a CX governance model effective?
• And what is the role of a service design professional?

All in all, a very interesting conversation about a highly underrated topic in our field from my perspective.

I know CX governance is probably not the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning. But after this episode, you'll hopefully see how useful it is to have a common set of rules when you're playing the CX game.

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 166
05:00 Who is Kirsikka
06:15 Lightning round
08:30 What is governance
12:00 How did it start
16:15 When do you need this
19:45 Taking the leap
22:15 Building interest
29:30 Making it tangible
33:00 What needs to be included
35:30 Who owns the initiative
38:15 Long-term success
41:45 Selling the story
46:30 The key question
50:00 Can you start small
52:30 Asking the right questions
55:00 Closing thoughts

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsikka-vaajakallio-6265554/

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

Join our alliance of and for in-house service design professionals.

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