cooperatively and competitively to support new products, satisfy customer needs, and eventually incorporate the next round of innovations.1
Moore saw business ecosystems as a changing set of relationships based on evolving factors, such as new technologies, regulations, environmental concerns, and other trends. To understand these changing dynamics, ecological frameworks would reveal which ecosystems to participate in, identify opportunities to provide new value to customers, and “[orchestrate] the contributions of a network of players.”2
A good example of this in action is the frenemy relationship between Apple and Samsung. While these two giants compete vigorously in increasingly more product categories, Samsung is also a provider of components to Apple’s computers, phones, and tablets. Similarly, Apple and Google partner and compete (and sue) in multiple ways.
Another example is the Amazon Marketplace (see Figure 3.2). While Amazon is viewed as a disruptive competitor in many retail segments, it actively recruits other retailers to sell directly on Amazon’s platform. This enables Amazon to provide a greater selection of merchandise while keeping its customers in close orbit. This strategy also creates a greater return on investment on core capabilities, such as the technologies, partnerships, and processes behind transacting, shipping, and returning.
FIGURE 3.2 Amazon Marketplace is built upon the concept of keeping your friends close and your competitors even closer.
Experience Ecosystems
Your organization’s business ecosystem should inform your work, but don’t stop there. You can also codify the seen and unseen relationships that shape customer needs and behaviors. This vantage point—an experience ecosystem—places the customer at the center of the world to help make sense of their context. You then can see more clearly if and how you are a part of that world.
This simple reframing can help challenge inside-out thinking that tends to oversimplify the variables that determine customer needs and behaviors. This understanding can then inform the design of your system of channels and touchpoints from value propositions to discrete interactions. As illustrated in Figure 3.3, reminding stakeholders that their product or service is merely one part of the customer’s life has rhetorical value on its own.
COURTESY OF CAPITAL ONE
FIGURE 3.3 Placing a bank’s products and operations in proper context.
An experience ecosystem complements other models, such as personas and customer journeys, which provide insights into your customers and their experiences. In fact, it’s a best practice to gather qualitative and quantitative data to synthesize into multiple frameworks. The next section covers what entities and relationships you will need to identify in order to understand and document an experience ecosystem.
Unpacking an Experience Ecosystem
Unpacking an ecosystem is not unlike peeling an onion: there are many layers, and at some point in the process, you might start to cry. From our research, we have found varying approaches to breaking down the elements of an ecosystem. The same terms have different or overlapping meanings, depending on the methodology. Based on our experience, the following components can help produce good insights while keeping the focus on the customer:
• Actors
• Roles
• Artifacts
• Factors
• Places
• Interactions
• Relationships
• Boundaries
Actors
Ecosystem actors can come in different shapes and sizes. Most are simply people who participate (or could participate) in your product or service experience. Others are companies or institutions that compete, partner, regulate, or otherwise affect ecosystem dynamics. Overall, actors fall into one of four categories.3
• Customers and external stakeholders: It’s common for organizations to focus myopically on customers (or users) of their products or services without considering the broader group of people who affect customer needs and behaviors. These people can be friends and family, professionals (such as realtors, financial advisors, or life coaches), or others directly or indirectly involved in the experience. Getting your arms around all of these external stakeholders is critical for understanding the human dimensions of an ecosystem.
• Internal stakeholders and agents: Organizations are not people, but they are made of many people. Internal stakeholders include all of the different employees who play one or more roles in and gain value through the delivery of products and services. In a hospital, internal stakeholders might include doctors, nurses, technicians, administrators, marketers, and the board of trustees. Some of these actors interact with customers directly; others may be behind the scenes (see the section, “Current-State Service Blueprints”). Actors in this category may also be third parties, or agents, who act on behalf of your organization. For example, it is common in the cable industry for companies to contract third-party installers and technicians to deliver in-home service. Well-orchestrated experiences tightly integrate these agents to ensure consistency and efficiency.
• Organizations and government: Zooming out a bit, other organizations and institutions vie for your customers, influence product or service requirements, or provide capabilities for you to leverage. These actors include competitors, partners, suppliers, activist groups, government agencies, and other third parties. These relationships can be complex and constantly in flux.
• Products and services: It is useful to also think of individual products and services as unique actors in an ecosystem. For example, Apple may view Samsung as a competitor, but this level of granularity is not very useful if you are looking at the ecosystem around business communication and collaboration. Understanding these companies’ phones, tablets, computers, and other products and services and their relation to the ecosystem provides greater insight.
Roles
It is sometimes helpful to distinguish actors from the roles that they play in an ecosystem. In a couple, one spouse may take on the role of handling paying the bills, while her partner handles the budget and investments. Different actors (a child, nurse, or hospice staff) may play the role of caretaker, each supporting an elderly patient in different ways. Roles (and how actors relate to them) give you a better handle on how other people provide value in an ecosystem. These insights can spark new ideas for supporting, replacing, or augmenting actors through new products, services, or artifacts.
Artifacts
