Each perspective of the Balance Scorecard includes objectives, measures of those objectives, target values for those measures, and initiatives, as follows:
- objectives—the major objectives a company must achieve—for example, profitable growth
- measures—the observable parameters a company uses to measure its progress toward reaching its objectives. For example, a company might measure its progress toward the objective of profitable growth by growth in net margin.
- targets—the specific target values for the measures—for example, +2% growth in net margin
- initiatives—action programs a company initiates to meet its objectives
For a User Experience Balance Scorecard, the objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives might look like those shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4—Objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives in a User Experience Balance Scorecard
| PERSPECTIVE | OBJECTIVE | MEASURE | TARGET | INITIATIVE |
| FINANCIAL | Profitable growth | Net margin | +2% | Action plan for profitable growth |
| CUSTOMER | Customer satisfaction | Customer satisfaction score | +5% | Customer satisfaction survey |
| PROCESS | Designing easy-to-use solutions | Usability | 70% pass rate | Usability studies |
| EMPLOYEE | Analyzing usability | Usability studies | For each major release | Usability plan |
For each perspective there might be many objectives. Objectives for user experience could include user research, design reviews, and usability evaluation among other user experience activities.
Conclusion
As user experience becomes more established as part of an organization’s overall strategy, a comprehensive Balance Scorecard must include user experience. It would be beneficial for UX leaders within organizations to understand the Balance Scorecard system and how to map their UX groups’ objectives to their organizations’ business strategies.