The Experience Kickoff – What It Is and Why We Do It

Where We Were

Prior to Experience Kickoffs, we would host a Creative Kickoff meeting with the client, but it was focused solely on design, and not UX patterns. Great for the creative team, as this helped them get focused directives for designing compositions, but not so much for the UX team, as there was no input on user interface ideas to help inform wireframes. We were on separate islands, and not collaborating as early or as much in the beginning stages of a project.

What Changed

The Experience Kickoff combines a creative and a UX kickoff addressing both design and interface/behavior. Based on the project’s discovery phase (client goals, users, etc), we explore design elements and user interface patterns, which allows us to gather feedback from the client in an informal, open-discussion meeting. We really get to hear their gut reactions on both aspects and it also fosters brainstorming and different ideas being brought to the table that may not have happened without this type of activity. We cover everything from brand personality and tone, to navigation patterns, to messaging tone-of-voice, to delight, and so on.

An example of a slide from an imarc Experience Kickoff. It shows three different examples of website messaging.

The End Result

We’ve done quite a few Experience Kickoffs and we learn something new and different with each one. Since they are tailored to each client, we focus on different concepts and use unique examples. The outcome is a focused idea of what patterns, styles and other concepts could be most successful in the client’s web project. We arrive at more informed wireframes, as well as design compositions. This also fosters more collaboration between Creative and UX, which results in greater success for the project.