Keywords

1 Introduction

Creative professionals in agencies and organizations today are more valued and recognized than ever before [27]. The number of UX professionals in large enterprises started to grow significantly [5]. As devices became smaller and more efficient over the last years, mobile productivity tools, software and apps do not only have to work but also need to be easy to use and beautiful to look at. Therefore, UX was put into the spotlight and became more important. UX can no longer be passed by if a company wants to launch commercially successful products. The advent and penetration of Design Thinking throughout businesses underpinned the importance of diverse teams working together, creating empathy for users, prototyping and iterating throughout the design and development process.

Yet, the day-to-day practice shows that UX and creative teams are not always at the forefront when new projects are launched or during the early definition phases when UX also could add value. There are reports of User Experience professionals being referred to as “pixel-pushers”, making things nice at the last moment [3] or, especially in the context of Design Thinking, being labelled “post-it heroes” whose main skill is to cover walls and walls with sticky notes [16]. These examples indicate that, even though the value of design work [28] and the Return of Investment (ROI) of UX can be communicated [39], the reputation of the teams has room for improvement. In our research we noted that UX teams do work on so-called mission statements, for example, defining them in all-hands meetings, sometimes deriving them top-down, sometimes in the groups themselves. Yet, we discovered that most of the times the teams did not communicate these statements regularly nor were they known to their stakeholders, which triggered our research question why this is the case.

This paper discusses a method which enables UX teams to collaboratively define a purpose statement and use this to communicate their added value to their Lines of Business, company, stakeholders and customers. In this way, they brand their team by laying out what makes them special and what their key differentiating benefits are. Typically, UX teams are made up of individuals with diverse qualifications and experiences. This diversity is why it is even more important for a UX team to find and formulate a common purpose with which everybody in the team can identify.

The Purpose Quadrant method is based on a collaborative, interactive workshop set-up and uniquely combines elements of Design Thinking, cognitive psychology, UX as well as experience marketing, specifically branding. The collaborative and interactive set-up is essential. We discovered that a normal meeting, e.g. with everybody sitting down in a meeting or conference room to discuss a team’s purpose would not result in a statement which (a) all team members would feel they have contributed to, (b) uncovers the key differentiating attributes of the team and (c), connects the team with a ‘higher purpose’.

The method is composed of four main steps, to allow for small and incremental buckets of work and to stimulate both emotional and functional ideas: (1) Building the purpose quadrant, (2) adding benefits and impacts, (3) composing the purpose statement and (4) voting for the final purpose statement.

The Purpose Quadrant consists of four cluster areas which all participants need to embrace as they build up the Quadrant. With a focus on their current job, each participant is asked to brainstorm and note down on sticky notes (a) what they really like doing, (b) what they as a team can do really well, (c) what makes them happy in their everyday job as a team, (d) what only they as a team and nobody else in the organization can do. These four categories build the Purpose Quadrant. The participants write down as much data as possible and then present their items to the group, all under strict timekeeping on the part of the moderators. After a clustering the group votes on the three most important items from all four quadrants to take forward.

In the second step, all participants are instructed to brainstorm and write down what benefits these quadrant items create for their organization, company, customers or the society, and what their larger-scale impacts are.

Third, with all the data collected and visible, the teams start to compose their purpose statement, based on the impacts, benefits and top-rated items from the Purpose Quadrant. The statement must adhere to certain characteristics such as: be inspirational, authentic, empowering and future-oriented.

Finally, all groups present their purpose statements and the entire team votes to select a single, joint one.

This workshop method was successfully applied with several teams of the User Experience and Innovation organizations at SAP SE (a provider of enterprise software in the cloud and on-premise), as well as with individuals at the Design District Festival 2018 in Zagreb, Croatia. All workshops were completed successfully within 2.5 h even those conducted simultaneously with teams spread across the globe.

Our findings are based on post-workshop feedback through interviews with individual workshop participants. In these interviews, participants pointed out that their purpose statement represents them as a team member as well as the team itself. All interviewees indicated that they use their purpose statement e.g. in presentations or email-signatures. Further, participants stated that the method helped them to understand their team’s current and future role and that their teams benefit both in terms of team-building and a stronger confidence in their added value to their organization and beyond.

The method can be regarded as new, as - to the best of our knowledge - we have combined multiple creative and group dynamics techniques in a step-by-step approach for best results. The method paces the group through the process of collaboratively brainstorming and generating their very own purpose statement rather than trying to come up with a purpose statement in an unstructured discussion or working on a predetermined statement (e.g. a purpose statement handed down from management level).

Further research needs to include a larger participant sample and extended pre- and post-workshop surveys and interviews. This will enable us to compare a team’s condition and ability to use their purpose statement to create and grow their brand both before and after applying the method.

In the following we present the importance and context of purpose, the detailed process and elements of the “Purpose Quadrant” method and related findings of our study.

2 Purpose and Its Relevance to Branding UX Teams

There is no singularly applicable and accepted definition for “purpose”. Instead, plenty of explanations and definitions are in use for the term, like ‘The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists’ [34]. Émile Durkheim specified that ‘Life is said to be intolerable unless some reason for existing is involved, some purpose justifying life’s trials’ [9]. It can also mean to give personal meaning to all experiences. Purpose is not only relevant for individuals but also can bring together a group of people. This is particularly true for teams of professionals expected to achieve defined business objectives for a company or institution. Without a defined purpose, short-term goals lead nowhere and people start to engage in undirected and indiscriminate activities [9]. Investing time and effort in meaningless and unimportant activities is something to be avoided, especially in a professional environment. Or to put it another way: A common purpose can help set the team on their path, gives direction and engenders the energy needed to perform successfully. It also results in better contributions to a company’s goals and priorities [18]. The team leaders play a crucial role in this: if they embrace the purpose-driven approach and are able to illustrate how important the team’s purpose or the company’s purpose is to their own daily work and decision making, they inspire their teams to think about their purpose and their contributions as well [14].

2.1 Purpose, Vision, Mission and Branding

When discussing purpose, the terms “mission” and “vision” also need to be discussed as these words are sometimes confused. A mission statement defines why a company or organization exists and what it does, thus giving management and employees a focal point for the near future. A vision statement, in contrast, explains where a company imagines itself to be long term [19].

Moreover, it is crucial not to confuse brand with purpose but consider purpose being an elemental part of a company’s business success as it strongly correlates with trust of consumers, customers and employees [13]. A brand is meant to be a unique attribute of a specific product or service, such that people easily recognize it as belonging to the company and quickly remember its values [31].

There are strong indications that branding and usability go hand in hand. Branding is one of the essential parts of a website and must provide engaging usability for the user [15]. Ritter and Winterbottom [35] state that ‘UX gives a brand the edge to really stand out against competitors’. Good UX influences the brand and can help to push it to new heights.

It seems ironic that the very people (i.e. UX professionals) who are pivotal for the success of a product or service suffer from their own brandlessness within their organizations. This triggered our methods research: Why not get UX teams to use purpose as an element to brand their work and values?

2.2 Business Value of UX Teams

Before the turn of the century UX Design was not seriously considered or known to contribute to business value, or to have a serious effect on it [40]. While this has improved since, in some business sectors UX is still not seen as being essential to the success of the company. Some business areas do not know the advantages and benefits of good UX design or are not convinced of its added value. Thus, it is important to involve stakeholders and managers at an early stage – at best long before a project starts - to get them to understand how UX can support their work. If the UX professional is able to ‘translate UX activities into stakeholder goals’ managers and stakeholders are much more likely to involve UX and thus raise the awareness of UX within their organization [21, 36]. Once awareness has been created, it is necessary to include UX in the entire life cycle of a product [6]. However to ‘truly transform the enterprise experience, it must become part of the larger organization’s DNA which means weaving UX into its culture, its standard operating procedures, and decision making’ [32]. Fortunately, nowadays the impact of UX Design is being noticed and appreciated more and more. Large, well-known companies like Google and Apple consider UX to be one of their key factors for success [29].

2.3 Individual Purpose and Purpose-Driven Organizations

People spent most of their time at work, and so it is not surprising that employees demand recognition for their work and contribution to the company’s success [1]. In large corporations in particular, it is hard for employees to identify their own contribution in the organization’s overall achievements and to reflect where and how they managed to influence their company’s performance. This is also true for UX teams and professionals - especially in large companies it is difficult for them to detect their wide range of influence [10]. If people don’t see that they add value, they do not feel related to the organization and its purpose, and this potentially leads to a deterioration of trust [13]. The global purpose of a company usually is quite broad and tends to be phrased in rather a general way. This makes it difficult for individuals to see their own values represented. Consequently, we recommend that employees and teams both actively work to understand their company’s purpose and come up with their own purpose which reflects their values and benefits.

SAP’s CEO Bill McDermott confirmed the importance of a company purpose for employees by stating in an interview [22] that SAP was purpose-driven even before a purpose-driven brand became more popular. ‘Not just because it is the right thing to do but because it’s the smart thing to do. This is a generation that is inspired by purpose, and our purpose is to help the world run better’ [11]. He emphasizes the importance that people feeling personally connected with the company’s purpose. This is underpinned by the fact that employees are five times more likely to stay with an employer that is guided by a convincing purpose. Furthermore, research shows that purpose-driven companies perform ten to fifteen times better in Standard & Poor’s ratings than companies which are not [11].

Another factor to consider is that in today’s business environments many employees and freelancers work remotely or in distributed teams from different locations all over the world. And these numbers are increasing, as per Luk and Brown who state that ‘The global mobile workforce is set to increase from 1.45 billion in 2016, accounting for 38.8% of the global workforce, to 1.87 billion in 2022, accounting for 42.5% of the global workforce’ [25]. This fact makes it even more necessary to have a common purpose that keeps the teams and their members motivated to work collaboratively and push product design and development into the right direction [12].

3 Purpose Quadrant: The Method

The request which triggered the development of the Purpose Quadrant came from a UX team manager from SAP SE. She/he? wanted us to facilitate a 30-min slot in her/his weekly team meeting to help the team devise a purpose statement. Based on the findings from the research outlined above it was obvious that a simple 30-min discussion would not deliver an ambitious and reputation-changing purpose statement for the team. This is when we decided to meet this challenge in a systematic way, which resulted in the Purpose Quadrant Method.

In this chapter we will outline this method in more detail.

3.1 Study Group Setup

We will document the Purpose Quadrant method as used for two exemplary teams at SAP. These teams are good representations of other SAP teams with regard to team size, knowledge and skills set, as well as professional and locational diversity. The first team (study group A) consisted of 25 UX specialists distributed across three locations (Germany, India and Canada). The 10-member team of study group B was based in one location (Germany), and had a diverse mix of UX specialists, marketeers, innovation experts as well as developers.

Study group C consisted of 5 voluntary participants of a workshop at the Design District Festival in Zagreb, Croatia. The participants had backgrounds in various design disciplines, and all worked for different agencies or companies. This gives a clear variance to teams A and B, as the participants did not attend the workshop as part of a team but as individuals in their own right. As such the results from study group C are not comparable to those of study group A and B. However, as the method was applied successfully for this “individualistic” setup, we will discuss these results as well, especially as they document that the method can also be applied to individual creative professionals such as freelancers. Moreover, this aspect offers an outlook and opportunities for further research.

Both study groups A and B were randomly subdivided into smaller groups of 5–7 members each. Study group A’s Canadian team members formed a group of only two. A set of basic rules was agreed upon with the team members, that is: regardless of their hierarchy level, seniority or any other factor, all team members, their opinions and concerns are treated and valued equally. This was to avoid a purpose statement being handed down or influenced from management, which could result in the purpose developed by the team not being accepted. In contrast to top-down management approaches, a non-hierarchical environment is required to ensure that everyone feels listened to and valued, and that every input is equally appreciated [26]. Only then does the result reflect the opinion and ideas of all members, both locally and remotely, and participants identify with the purpose statement generated. This workshop setup, with its parallel workstreams in the different locations, proved to be one key success factor of the method.

The individuals in study group C were not part of a team and thus no groups were formed. This allowed everyone to develop their own purpose statement.

3.2 Preconditions and Preparations

In Design Thinking projects and (User Experience) Design activities, conducting user research is a widely used and important approach at the beginning of a project. The goal of this research is to get an understanding of, and empathy for, the needs and pain points of the people for whom a team designs and develops. These might be end-users of software, or stakeholders and clients who are involved in processes or are the recipients of services. UX teams often act as an internal agency between an organization’s various departments, for example consulting, marketing, and development. Therefore, as the end users of the team’s UX services, a UX team’s stakeholders and clients need to be interviewed to understand their needs and expectations for services around UX design or research. Hence, for the “Purpose Quadrant method”, these research activities must be executed before, and the results be available and visible, during the workshop. Any ideas and findings derived in the workshop must be reviewed against the impact they might have on a team’s (internal) customers and end-users. It must be clear to the team which job they are hired and paid for by their stakeholders [2]. The research results and an understanding of the Jobs-To-Be-Done are the basis that supports the bottom-up, team-internal activity of creating a purpose statement that the team identifies with and that also resonates with the team’s audience. The topic of researching the stakeholder group is not part of this research paper as this is thoroughly discussed in the respective body of knowledge. Nevertheless, it is important to note that both study group A and B (and some individuals in study group C) reported that, in particular, their acceptance and standing within their organizations and stakeholders could be improved. For study group A and B, this was one of the key factors mentioned in their workshop briefing.

While study group A had conducted research interviews with several stakeholders about a year before the actual workshop, study group B conducted a small survey to understand their stakeholders’ expectations of their team shortly before the workshop. As no communication ahead of the workshop was possible with the members of study group C, upfront research with these participant’s stakeholders was not an option.

Our review of the manager’s initial briefs revealed that a meeting or round table discussion would not work for generating a team purpose. Therefore, we decided to dedicate 2.5-h in a workshop setting to this task, with all team members expected to participate in person at their respective location. As mentioned before, integrating remote teams is of utmost importance for the success of the method and for a purpose statement that is embraced by all teams at all locations. The goal must be for all team members to be included in the activity, regardless of their office location. Yet, there are limitations due to time zone differences, and these also affected study group A. With our guidance, this team formed 5 sub-groups, two each in Germany and India, and one in Canada. In preparation, each location had reserved a room for the duration of the workshop, with additional buffer time before and after. The teams in Germany and India were connected live via video conferencing, with additional video cameras and screen-sharing facilities installed. While the team in Canada could not be synched into the same session due to the vast time zone stretch, they were instructed and facilitated by us in a separate session a few hours later the same day. They conducted the Purpose Quadrant method just as the other teams did, with the only difference that they could not live-share their intermediate results with the German and Indian groups. These multi-location workshop settings need to be planned and tested thoroughly in advance, to avoid delays and technical problems during the actual workshop.

3.3 Method Considerations and Implications

We used different methods based on creative problem-solving techniques such as documented by Oswald [33] and the design thinking methodology. These include brainstorming to generate as many items and ideas as possible, and clustering (affinity diagrams) to give the items a structure and enable prioritization. By voting individual items and ideas up and down in priority, the vast amount of ideas is condensed, thus providing guidance and direction for the team on their move forward.

To avoid lengthy discussions and the possibility of dominant team members overruling others during the activities, ‘silent’ brainstorming was applied as a key method. Silent in this context refers to people noting down on sticky notes as many of their ideas as possible (one idea per note), without talking to each other during the brainstorming. Afterwards, each team member has a set amount of time (monitored by the workshop leads) to share their ideas with the others and pin the sticky notes to the board.

In general, brainstorming is meant to trigger creative, unexpected and great ideas. But this is only one of the advantages brainstorming offers on the way to a new or better solution or while solving a problem. Brainstorming does not only help create an idea but encourages people to generate as many ideas as possible in a defined time slot. In addition, it enables participants to build on the ideas of others. That way participants come up with new ideas even after they thought they had written it all down before [20].

To achieve the best outcome from a brainstorming session, it is recommended to work in a diverse team and group setup, ideally mixing people from different locations, professions or disciplines, and of various ages and genders. In brainstorming together, they can illuminate the problem from different perspectives, rather than all taking the same angle on it. Diverse teams develop more creative solutions [7, 23].

Brainstorming is not only about solving problems and creating new, fresh ideas. A well-facilitated brainstorming session can ‘help your team build consensus, recognize common goals, and […] have positive outcomes on attitudes and relationships. Participants feel included, respected, and valued for their input’ [24]. The high number of data points (visible in the form of sticky notes) in each of the activities and across all our study groups proved it.

3.4 The Purpose Quadrant Process During the Workshop

Phase 1 – Setting Up the Groups and Introducing the Method

In the study groups A and B, we collaborated with the team managers. They welcomed the team to the workshop and introduced its goal. Following on from this, we outlined the Purpose Quadrant method and explained the importance of purpose. Using a team building warm-up exercise, the teams of study groups A and B were split up in diverse sub-groups (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Process overview of the Purpose Quadrant method.

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We did not form groups for study group C, as the participants were individual design professionals and wanted to develop their own personal purpose statement.

Phase 2 – Ideating on the Purpose Quadrant Questions

Following the group setup, the key step of the method, the Purpose Quadrant Questions, is explained to the participants. The Purpose Quadrant contains four questions that are designed to nudge participants away from the overall workshop goal (i.e. the work towards a team’s purpose) and to writing down as many data points as possible for each individual question during a silent brainstorming.

While the Purpose Quadrant questions are oriented on various techniques from personal [32] and workplace coaching [17] which focus, for example, on self-reflection, goal setting and reaching clarity about one’s personal strengths and abilities, we developed four questions which we grouped into motivational aspects and aspects which reflect a participants’ pride in their work (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Visualization of the Purpose Quadrant questions and their relation to motivation and pride in work.

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The Purpose Quadrant visualizes the relationship between motivational aspects and aspects that generate pride in one’s work (see Fig. 2). The lower of the motivational aspects quadrants collects ideas about what UX professionals really like to do in their daily business. In one workshop a participant mentioned that he likes to generate wild and crazy ideas. Someone else noted down that he likes to ‘flash’ (inspire) people or customers with their products and ideas. Additionally, it was stated that it is fun to put oneself into the shoes of the customer. Then, the teams were asked to note down things that make them happy as a UX team. In this category participants highlighted, for example, that they appreciate the diversity of their work, and that topics are changing on a regular basis, resulting in many learning opportunities. It became obvious that the collaboration and cooperation between and across different teams makes them happy, too.

In the category of aspects which generate pride in work, the groups brainstormed on tasks that the UX team completes with high proficiency, which they can do really well. It turned out that they considered themselves very good in creative problem solving, and in thinking outside of the box. Afterwards, the focus was put on things that only the (their) UX team can do. For example, team members mentioned skills like the ability to create end-to-end products which hardly anybody else in the organization would be able to in the same way. Or the unique ability to represent complex things in an easy and consumable way. The later especially is a key success factor of UX teams and should not be underestimated.

Phase 3 – Voting for the Work Group’s Most Important Purpose Quadrant Items

Subsequently, all participants in each group presented their data points to their group members who were prompted to ask questions and to add ideas, building on those of the others. Following the presentation of the data points, the groups clustered them by topic. Finally, the participants used voting stickers to rank their most important data points. These were carried forward to the next phase of the method. The exercise was closely monitored by us as workshop leads and we followed a strict time-keeping to avoid the teams falling into lengthy discussions during presentation, clustering or voting.

Phase 4 – Brainstorming Benefits for the Purpose Quadrant Data Points

In this phase the team members were encouraged to also take their stakeholders’ view into account and to emphasize with them. With the results from the previous phase in mind, the participants were asked to think about the benefits they provide to their stakeholders based on the highest voted Purpose Quadrant items. As a reference point we suggested to think about customers, users and consumers, marketing as well as sales teams and other stakeholders. To aid teams A and B in this process, we displayed SAP’s purpose statement [37] as an example. Study group C was shown examples of purpose statements from several global brands to avoid too close a focus on just one company’s purpose statement. Considering all this information, the participants were asked to do another silent brainstorming to come up with as many benefits as possible. During this process they listed with benefits like adding future-oriented approaches to their organizational DNA, easy to use products, or a shift to more consumer-oriented and cheaper development.

Phase 5 – Assigning Impacts to the Benefits

The following phase was entirely dedicated to the larger impact that the team’s work has on their organization, company or the society. In another round of brainstorming, the participants noted down how the benefits defined earlier impact their work ecosystem all the way to their customers and end-users as well as business partners and the society. For example, using the SAP company purpose which defines its impact as ‘At SAP, our purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives’ [37]: The claimed impact in this example is that ‘people’s lives are improved’. Example responses for impacts created by the workshop teams ranged from ‘happy employees’, ‘creating a leading advantage in the market’ to ‘helping to manifest a creative and innovative image’.

Phase 6 – ‘Pitch Your Purpose’: Developing and Presenting the Group’s Purpose and Voting for the Team’s Final Purpose Statement

The next phase is the most important one as the groups (or individuals in study group C) were tasked to develop their purpose statements. A central point was to connect to a ‘higher purpose’, that is, to define the team’s own purpose, but basing it also on the company’s stated purpose. The participants were asked to create a statement that encompassed all of the following characteristics: inspirational, clear and challenging, differentiating, empowering, future-oriented, clear and concise as well as authentic [8].

In a final step, each group’s purpose statement proposals were presented to the entire team, followed by a direct voting on the team’s final purpose statement. As one group (based in Canada) of study group A did not attend the workshop at the same time, each group’s presentation was recorded on video and stored on a team server. This allowed a final, anonymous voting by all team members using a digital voting tool. Study group B was able to vote directly in the workshop session. For study group C there was no need for a cross ‘team’ voting as all five participants presented their final personal purpose statement.

4 Discussion

The results of the workshops have shown that it is possible to develop a team purpose statement within a relatively short timeframe of up to 2.5 h, in a cross-locational team-setup as well as for individuals. The main findings which will be discussed are based on our qualitative notes and observations from study groups A and B. These are teams at SAP SE from which we collected non-standardized feedback through short individual interviews after the workshop which describes a limitation to the results which need to be confirmed by further research. A questionnaire for collecting both qualitative and quantitative data is currently being developed, as described in Sect. 5, but could not yet be used as either post- or pre-workshop data was missing. At this stage our data represents an initial collection of data items which we will further examine for construct validity and internal consistency upon availability of the data. The same is true for study group C.

Finding A – The Purpose Quadrant Method’s Modular and Interactive Approach Supports the Fast Creation of Coherent Purpose Statements that are Generated Bottom-Up

When we presented the process, the teams interested in creating a purpose statement initially had some reservations against dedicating a whole workshop and several activities to this method. Yet, it quickly turned out that the Purpose Quadrant method and the workshops are highly effective in generating a common purpose statement, faster than traditional discussion and moderation techniques can. A comparison group who was not part of this study needed several meeting iterations over several weeks and the result was generated more or less top-down by management, not bottom-up from within the team.

The essential techniques in our proposed method, along with a clear focus on developing a whole framework of a team’s unique skills and diverse qualities are key to successful purpose statements: (a) Brainstorming to create as many data points as possible (diverging) with the voice of each participant, be it manager or employee, carrying the same weight, (b) the Purpose Quadrant questions which aim for the positive, motivating and empowering aspects the participant’s work, and (c) voting techniques by which the teams choose the most important items (converging).

Finding B – Carving Out Benefits and Impacts Helps Refine a Purpose Statement and Adds to Participants’ Self-recognition of Their Work Impact

Brainstorming benefits and impacts did not result in as many data points as the Purpose Quadrant questions generated in the previous phase. However, it was apparent that especially in this phase the participants were much more engaged in discussions. They started to make statements about the larger effects and influences their work can deliver. Further, getting the participants to consider their stakeholders’ viewpoints and Jobs-To-Be-Done helped them to define the benefits and impacts through identification and empathy with the stakeholders.

Finding C – The Purpose Quadrant Method can be Applied to Various Team Set-Ups

As the practice showed, the method is transferable. Thus, practitioners can use this method within their teams and organizations, as well as with individuals.

After we developed and applied the method with the team from which we had received the initial brief, we were able to use the method with different team setups, from other professional areas, and with diverse backgrounds. The Purpose Quadrant method only needed to be slightly adapted to each team in terms of focusing it on their particular stakeholders, customers and users in phases 4–6. All workshops were also executed within the 2.5-h timeframe. It is recommended to have one workshop lead for every 10–12 people to manage the team interactions and dynamics as well as timekeeping.

The workshop setup in Zagreb was different, yet the method proved successful in this situation, too. Working with individuals rather than teams requires much more information and introduction as well as individual guidance. The participants cannot work in groups during the phases, however, they still benefit from the cross-presentation of each person’s intermediate results between the phases. As there is no common company purpose applicable to all the participants, the activities in phases 4 and 5 needed to be explained in more detail. Purpose statements of several brands were required so the participants were able to find an example they could relate to. While for the teams at SAP the result was one team purpose statement to which the whole group subscribed, the individual workshop setting resulted in five naturally diverse purpose statements. All participants indicated these to be very personal and were happy and proud to go forward with them.

Finding D – Diverse Teams and Participation of All Team Members Increases the Identification with the Generated Purpose Statement

In all our study groups the teams were complete to a large extend. Single drop-outs (e.g. a participant had to leave the workshop earlier) led to those participants questioning the final purpose statement of his group. Bringing this participant back to the level of discussion of the workshop created additional effort for the other group members.

Feedback given to us in the post-workshop interviews positively highlighted the fact that all team members actively and jointly contributed to the team’s purpose statement in a collaborative fashion. Frequently a marked improvement of team-spirit was mentioned, indicating a team building effect. Hence, the method can be used as part of a team building activity. We recommend it to be set up as described in this paper to avoid conflicts with other elements of the team building.

The companies that the participants in study group C worked for had no explicit purpose statement. Interestingly, these participants showed a stronger identification with their work, and had more knowledge about how their work influences their company’s achievements. This might be due to the fact that these participants worked for smaller companies, agencies or were working as freelancers. In a direct feedback gathering session after the workshop (using the ‘I like I wish’ method [4]) participants indicated that they strongly identified with their personal purpose statement for their work and were confident in efficiently communicating it to their work peers.

Finding E – Authenticity is Key for the Acceptance of the Purpose Statement by the Team and Its Stakeholders

In each workshop, all groups generated one purpose statement, and from these proposals the final purpose statement was chosen by vote. Thus, it was possible to monitor how the different statement proposals resonated across the groups and teams. If a purpose statement was precise and meaningful as well as honest we noted a higher appreciation in voting results.

In phase 6, most of the individual workshop groups created more than one alternative for their purpose statements. These drafts were subject to strong discussions in the group, especially in how far a statement should have an advertising character which precisely matches the known needs of the stakeholders. Most notably, these more constructed draft versions usually did not make it to the finish line and were rejected as a group’s purpose statement.

This also became apparent during the final voting process after phase 6, where the purpose statement proposals of all workshop were presented to the entire team and then anonymously voted for. Statements which were less original, and which tried to ‘please’ stakeholders or to communicate very sophisticated team abilities (i.e. technical skillsets) received fewer votes than more personal, engaging and authentic statements.

The manager’s manager of study group A released the team’s final purpose statement for global internal use at SAP SE, commenting favorably on the authenticity, meaningfulness and clarity of their purpose statement.

Finding F – Branding a Team with a Purpose Statement Helps the Team’s Standing

This finding is based primarily on observed and reported statements from participants and their managers. We have not yet collected enough data, nor has enough time passed to evaluate a mid- to long-term impact (see Sect. 5).

Both study group A and B have used and are still using their purpose statements in numerous ways. The statements are included in e-mail signatures, in presentations for (potential) stakeholders, they are shown on their landing pages in the internal Web portal or on WIKI pages, as well as team productivity tool’s cover page. We noticed that the purpose statement became a part of the team’s identity, positioned as a tagline next or below the team’s name. The team managers stated that the purpose statement helped them communicate their service offering and the value of their team to stakeholders or customers. Internal stakeholders who approached the managers of both study groups claimed that the content of the purpose statement encouraged them to request project support in the first place. The manager of study group A also mentioned that the purpose statement helped him to communicate the team’s charter in a short and precise manner when talking to applicants for jobs or internships.

5 Limitations and an Outlook to Further Research

There are a number of limitations in the research on the Purpose Quadrant method.

While the sample variation in the participant’s cultural, biographical and professional profiles was significant, especially in study groups A and B, the number of experienced creative professional to experts was much higher than the number of novice participants.

An important limitation is the small amount of qualitative data and the lack of quantitative data. It is possible to evaluate the applicability and validity of the Purpose Quadrant method through the existing qualitative data [30]. However, only by collecting and analyzing quantitative data will we be able to express to what degree a team’s standing in an organization has improved by using and promoting their purpose statement. We are planning further research to quantify the validity of our method.

As long-term observations are still missing we plan to evaluate how a participant’s identification with the purpose statement develops both midterm (3-month post-workshop) as well as longer-term (after 6 months). That way we can determine (a) in which way and how often the purpose statement is used and (b) how the perception of the team changes over a longer period. The data will be collected from both participants and their stakeholders before and after the workshop activity to obtain a holistic view and to detect potential changes in the perception and appreciation of the team and its services. The research before and after the workshop will contain questions to collect qualitative data as well as quantitative data. In addition to Likert-scale questions this will also include several Semantic Differential questions. These questions aim to capture the attitude of the participants as well as stakeholders towards the team’s standing and reputation. We prepared the category pairs, for example “trust worthy” and “not trust worthy” or “creative” and “not creative”, headed by the question ‘How do you feel that others perceive your team?’ for the participant version and ‘How do you perceive the services, attitude and experience of team xy’ for the stakeholder version.

Determining the value of a team’s brand in metrics is of a complex nature and could not be examined in the study. Measuring a team’s brand value and brand contribution requires comparable data from other teams and, hence, requires the existence of a companywide framework for measuring the metrics. While study group A and B’s company, SAP SE, receives rankings for brand value and brand contribution by external analysists such as the BrandZ [38], we are not aware of companies collecting this data for teams within their organization. Future areas of research are to explore methods for re-designing existing team rankings and performance evaluations to enable a brand characteristic and purpose-driven results evaluation.

6 Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to examine the interaction of various discipline’s method strengths and their utilization to improve a UX team’s and individual creative professionals’ standing with their stakeholders, in their organizations, agencies or with customers. In a quasi-experimental group comparison setup, we conducted workshops with a total of 40 participants in three study groups. The two study groups A and B consisted of permanent teams within a high-tech company. For the duration of the workshop, these teams were divided into sub-groups by the authors. The participants in study group C were not formed into sub-groups as they participated in the workshop as individuals. The results of the study are based on subjective and objective observations and data, with the latter offering interesting aspects for further research.

The findings indicate that combining and cascading aspects and methods from marketing, group dynamics, creative problem solving/innovation techniques, as well as from personal/work-place coaching creates synergies and benefits in a workshop setting. The participants were guided through the Purpose Quadrant method step-by-step, using a mix of techniques and methods from the abovementioned areas (as opposed to asking them to define a purpose statement straight away). Using this method, they successfully and sustainably branded their teams by means of a purpose statement.

Branding and directing companies with a purpose is widely discussed in literature and in practice. We discussed how the importance and positive effects associated with purpose in the context of a company’s success [13] can be leveraged for UX teams and individual creative professionals.

This paper contributes to the body of work for researchers, scholars, User Experience staff as well as workshop leads and Design Thinking coaches. Emphasizing the many interwoven experiences and strengths of various professional disciplines and discussing their potential when combined, it adds to cross-discipline research. With the Purpose Quadrant method, we have identified and outlined several actionable steps which can be replicated and carried forward in workshops to come.