Demand Better Processes From Your Interactive Agencies

Forrester's evaluations of Web sites and design personas created by the leading interactive agencies in North America and the UK show that agencies struggle to consistently create digital experiences that meet customer needs. To address this variation, some agencies are adopting a number of tactics that deliver quality improvements including: business strategy consulting practices, hybrid Agile development processes, effective collaboration frameworks, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, formal persona creation and usage practices, journey mapping, quality assurance (QA) checking, as well as improved measurement and reporting techniques. To drive agency partners to adopt more systematic approaches that deliver consistently good results, customer experience professionals should question agencies about their processes at the selection stage, prepare their own organizations to work with new development processes, establish sign-off rules, and explore ways to incorporate performance-related components into agency fee structures.