The disciples of Six Sigma speak about it with passion and faith
that would be envied even amongst religious circles. Jack Welch, the
legendary CEO of GE is one of its most fervent believers. Here’s the
proclamation prominently posted on the GE website:
“Today's competitive environment leaves no room for error. We must
delight our customers and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed
their expectations. This is why Six Sigma Quality has become a part of
our culture. Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE — it is now the way
we work — in everything we do and in every product we design."
The fact that GE remains so committed to the gospel of Six Sigma
after over 20 years of its implementation demonstrates that it isn’t
just a new “flavour of the day” concept. To add to the aura, the names
of the practitioners have grand names like “Black Belts” with the
distinction of “Master Black Belts” being reserved for the high priests
of the Six Sigma world. There’s even a “Six Sigma for Dummies” book
with an introduction by the leadership guru Stephen Covey! The list of
converts is literally a who’s who of the business world especially
those in the manufacturing world and more recently financial
institutions.
So being a leading edge kind of thinker and involved in the world
of intranets/Internets you’re probably wondering, do I need to know
about this cult and how can I find time to learn this stuff if I do?
Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have been privileged enough
to train as a Black Belt in the super secret methods of Six Sigma and I
can share a few of its powerful secrets with you.
Where it all began…
Although its roots began in Motorola in the 1980’s, it was really
Jack Welch, of GE who made it famous, touting returns of billions of
dollars in savings and a revolution of the culture within GE. Allied
Signal, Apple Computers, Dell, Microsoft, 3M, Bank of America, and
Bombardier are just a few of the hundreds of organizations that have
adopted Six Sigma methodologies. Most of the companies have enjoyed the
benefits through their manufacturing processes which means that, if you
own a car, use a cell phone, or a computer, you have probably enjoyed
the benefits of the methodology without even realizing it.
So you’re probably thinking this is all very nice, but what does
it have to do with intranets or Internets?
Everything, if you truly care about the quality of the user
experience. Properly applied, Six Sigma delivers a methodical, rigorous
and measurable way of improving usability, which will take your site to
new levels of performance.
So what exactly is “Six Sigma”?
In simple terms, Six Sigma is
a rigorous and disciplined problem solving methodology that uses data
and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational
performance by identifying and eliminating "defects" and “variation” in
manufacturing and service-related processes. The emphasis on data and
the use of heavy duty statistical analysis gives leaders a powerful
toolset and a sound dashboard of input metrics with which to measure
their businesses. But in case you think this is only fodder for data
lovin’, pocket protector wearing, pencil necked statistical nerds, (not
that there’s anything wrong with that) think again. The heart and soul
of the philosophy is core to all businesses and especially intranet
design.
At its heart, Six Sigma is a philosophy that is firmly routed in
the pivotal role of the customer or user for defining value and the
raison d’etre for the company and its services. The methodology is so
effective because of its simple but profound premise that the value of
a company’s good or service is based upon knowing precisely what
the customer needs and cares about and measuring specifics about how
well it delivers on that specification. The ultimate goal is to
delivery a near perfect product every time, which is achieved through
identifying and controlling all the key variables that have an impact
on the variation and defects in the product or service.
Although most companies pay at least lip service to the concept of
customer feedback and customer requirements, few have taken this to the
level of analysis and identification as Six Sigma companies. The
starting point for any Six Sigma project is identification of the
“voice of the customer” (VOC) and the definition of “CTQs” or “critical
to quality components” of your product or service. In plain speak,
these are essentially the specifications of what value your product or
service should deliver as defined by the customer. For manufacturing
companies, the definition of a CTQ is often quite straightforward. You
may determine that a car should be able to accelerate at a certain
speed and carry a certain payload. A cordless phone specification may
include the ability to receive signals 100 feet away from the
base.
Defining the customer requirements in specific measurable
attributes is key to the methodology. But we deal with real people and
soft fuzzy attributes like “usability” and “navigation” you may cry. We
can’t possibly measure and define this the way a widget manufacturer
measures its output…or can we?
Voice of the Customer
Let’s say you are building an intranet site and you want users to
be able to find a few key telephone numbers easily and the company’s
policy on Internet use. You would analyze user requirements (the Voice
of the Customer) and establish what is the acceptable range of time and
effort required to complete each of these tasks from their perspective
as your “CTQ” (or design specification). Then you would use a highly
developed set of data gathering techniques and analytical tools to
isolate and identify the key factors that influence the overall
performance and variation on the “usability scale” that you are trying
to move.
Jacob Nielsen’s
recent article on usability indicates that “when doing website
tasks, the slowest 25% of users take 2.4 times as long as the fastest
25% of users.
This difference is much higher than for other types of computer
use; only programming shows a greater disparity.” This is a big
challenge for anyone involved in the web or intranet design because
there is a population of users who will have a much worse experience
than what is possible and we don’t have the luxury of selecting only
users that can navigate poorly designed, disorganized and complex
sites.
If it sounds a bit strange to be analyzing the user experience in
such a precise fashion, it’s probably because of the relatively recent
history of intranets/ Internets and the fact that quality as a
distinguishing feature often only hits organizations after a product or
service has reached an advanced level of maturity. (Does anyone
remember Japanese cars in the 70’s? How about the first generation word
processors? ) Combined with the fact that characteristics of the user
are such an important factor in determining usability, it’s no wonder
that IT departments might look at you a bit funny if you ask them to
consider intranet/Internet usability issues from a user defined Six
Sigma perspective. “We deal with people”, they are inherently
flawed and useless! Does anyone remember “Nick Burns, the
Computer Guy” on Saturday Night Live? (Here’s a link if you
want a trip down memory lane and thankfully an era of technical support
that has for the most part, gone the way of the do-do bird. but I
digress…)
Opportunities to improve
However, it is precisely these challenges in intranet/Internet
design which present huge opportunity for improvement through the use
of a more rigorous approach and a measurable customer centric starting
point. The Six Sigma process is data intensive and often requires data
that you haven’t collected before, but this in and of itself would be a
good discovery because it may represent a blind spot in your metrics
and who knows where that discovery might lead.
In closing, all I have to say is that having myself been
“converted”, I have seen the power of this methodology first hand and
it is compelling. Given that the number one complaint of intranet users
is “I can’t find what I’m looking for,” there’s a clear need to listen
to the Voice of the Customer and bring a more rigorous methodology to
improving their experience. If it worked for software, surely it can
benefit intranets.
Bob Galvink, former CEO and President of Motorola has stated that
“The lack of initial Six Sigma emphasis in the non-manufacturing areas
was a mistake that cost Motorola at least $5 billion over a 4 year
period.”
Prescient Digital Media is a
veteran web and intranet consulting firm with 10+ years of rich history.
We provide strategic Internet and intranet
consulting, planning and communications services to many Fortune 500 and
big brand clients, as well as small and medium-sized leaders.