Case Study: Investigating sensitizing concepts for UX and business developmentpractitioners in a Swedish company to improve collaboration : Sensitizing concepts used to improve collaboration between UX and BD teams and to introduce UXperspectives and meth

Abstract: Recent years have seen an increase in the popularity of user experience (UX) perspectives and methods among all types of industries. However, despite this popularity there is still a large lack of knowledge when it comes to the value that UX perspectives and methods can provide in organizations. Introducing UX perspectives and methods to business development (BD) teams in organizations has shown an advantage for the practitioners involved when it comes to the quality of the products or services they produce. Current research within human-computer interaction has a knowledge gap when it comes to introducing business development teams to UX perspectives and methods in aim to later integrate them. This study aims to investigate the collaboration between a UX team and a BD team in a Swedish company to provide insights into how an introduction to UX perspectives and methods is received by a BD team. Sensitizing concepts have been previously used in role-playing and workshops to elicit sensitization in practitioners, which is central to this study. This study uses action research and case study as an approach, and utilizes qualitative data-gathering methods to understand the current collaboration of the groups. A workshop containing role-playing sensitizing scenarios was used to elicit sensitization in the practitioners of the value in an improved collaboration and the value in UX perspectives and methods for the BD team. The results of the study suggest that sensitizing scenarios are an effective method for introducing UX perspectives and methods to a BD team. Additionally, the results also propose what aspects of UX perspectives are of interest to BD teams and how a closer collaboration benefits both the UX and BD team in the case company. Despite the workshop being effective in sensitizing practitioners, there were limitations that influenced the practitioner’s perceptions of the other group. This study provides insights into how sensitizing concepts can be used to elicit sensitization in UX and BD practitioners to the value in an improved collaboration, and to introduce UX perspectives and methods to a BD team.