LavaCon

5 Principles of Cross-Functional CX

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Why CFCX?

• No single team or department can pull off holistic change
• Continuous improvement is a multidisciplinary effort

1. CHANGE

Embrace dynamic change

• Change is dynamic – embrace it!
• Being wrong is like an oil change
• TRUST (benefit of the doubt)
• Action Items
  • Assemble your squad
  • Cultivate trust & collaboration
  • Build a plan together
• Key Questions
  • What are your perceived and real blockers for change?
  • Are you holding onto anything for what USED to be a good reason?

“A flow of new ideas is not a negative judgment of the previous ideas and decisions – no hard feeling upon changes.”

2. LANGUAGE

Speak the same language

• Save yourself unnecessary hassle – speak the same language!
• Internally across functions + externally
• Resist overengineering
• Action Items
  • Collect your taxonomies
  • Build a customer-facing words list
  • Align bit by bit
• Key Questions
  • What internal jargon are you imposing on customers?
  • What classifications are for hypothetical insights?

3. ENVIRONMENT

Acknowledge complex environments

• Acknowledge how complex it is!
• Outside-in is insufficient
• Context is make-or-break
• Action Items
  • Ensure feedback is bidirectional
  • Prioritize meaningful and actionable insights
  • Talk to customers (about them)
• Key Questions
  • What does your customer’s ecosystem look like?
  • Who and what else is involved?
  • What are their constraints and dependencies?

Reality check: Your product/service is a tiny dot in your customer’s ecosystem

4. EFFORT

Make effort intentional

• Effort isn’t inherently negative – just be intentional!
• Less is usually more, except when it’s not
• “Positive friction” exists (not the best name IMO)
• Action Items
  • Lower cognitive load for low value activities
  • Keep only value add for customer
  • Stop saying seamless or frictionless and aim for “smoother”
• Key Questions
  • If you HAD to remove or simplify something, what would it be?
  • Where are you asking for customer effort that is not DIRECTLY valuable to them?

5. ISSUES

Mitigate issues

• Cannot eliminate – so mitigate!
• Reduce discomfort (see previous image)
• Customer Support interactions = opportunity
• Action Items
  • Meet customers where they are
  • ID triggers and pick a review cadence
  • Coordinate with onboarding or cross- training
• Key Questions
  • WHEN (not if) your customers experience issues, what will they be?
  • What will be the best resolution for them?

Aim to be the brand that stands out as most helpful when things go wrong.

Bonus: HAVE FUN

• Cuz why not
• Cuz jokes can lead to good ideas!
• How can we seek a new perspective or encourage creative thinking?