UX STRAT Interview: Wanja Rinke, PwC

Paul: Thanks for taking time out to talk with me today. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your current job role, your company; maybe a brief biography of what led you to this place.

Wanja: Yes, sure. I’m Wanja Rinke from Germany. I work for PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, as a consultant in the advisory part of the firm, in the “digital transformation” team. Originally I started as a designer and did my Bachelor’s in communication design, focusing on interaction design and digital media. Then I did my Master’s in design and media management, where I had the design and technical but also the economic perspective. And then I did an MBA to deepen my business knowledge.

Today at PwC I work in the interface between design and strategy, focusing on UX design. I also do Design Thinking projects. Our projects vary from developing digital services and products to creating new business models helping mid sized companies to go successfully through the digital transformation. Within digital transformation, services gain importance. It’s not about the physical product as much, it’s more about the digital services around it. So, this is where I can help and advise them. We also offer incubator services to help them to run the whole process themselves. I joined this team over a year ago, and before that I was a freelance designer. So, I know both sides; I know the design side and I also need to have the strategic and business perspective, as well. So, I think that interface is really interesting.

Paul: I would say that’s the whole point of our conference, is to combine business strategy and experience design. So, it sounds like your career is the perfect embodiment of the UX STRAT conference.

PwC is historically a management consulting firm, right?

Wanja: PwC started with auditing. We also have a big tax business within PwC. The advisory part of PwC is quite new, but it’s growing a lot.

Paul: It seems to me that some related companies, like Capgemini, Accenture, etc. are taking the leap into design from their traditional businesses as well. I guess this is due to digital channels becoming more central to business strategy?

Wanja: Yes, I think UX design gets more and more important as digital services become more relevant. And I think people realize that the methods of designers, for example Design Thinking, are good tools for user-centered innovations. A designer wouldn’t design a product or a website without asking about user needs and testing it with users. We advise companies not just to develop a new business model. Instead they should start with user needs, then build and test the idea in an early stage. By doing this they can reduce the risk to develop a new business model in a waterfall process and realize after three years, “Okay, it’s not working and there is no need in the market.” So yes, I think that’s why.

Paul: So, tell us a little bit about your UX STRAT presentation coming up in June.

Wanja: One story behind my talk will be that UX design is becoming more and more important to business. So like I said before, because digital services gain more importance, user experience becomes a success factor. Customers are not as loyal anymore, so a digital service or product has to have a good user experience to keep the customers.

The other story is that user experience is not the only success factor. For a company building up a new service or product, it’s not just the touchpoint between customer and the digital service. It’s also something behind, a “backend process”. After the digital service or product is developed, after the prototype is tested and optimized, they need to have a look at the internal processes and capabilities. The company will probably need new capabilities and new processes behind that new service. That will be my message, to say, “Okay, it’s not just UX design. There’s more behind it. So, a company needs to take care of the internal processes and the capabilities as well when they want to develop a new service or business model and deliver good user experience.”

Paul: Our audience tends to be experienced in business strategy and user experience design. So, some of that will be “preaching to the choir,” as we say in English. But I think the novelty of your talk will be PwC’s d.quarks framework. Can you tell us a little more about that framework?

Wanja: Yes, sure. Our clients often need guidance in digital transformation, and support in developing new capabilities. That is why our team developed the d.quarks framework. The d.quarks framework is a capability framework with 46 d.quarks. Every d.quark is one capability you have to build up to have a successful digital transformation. After the UX Design process and developing a new business model idea, the d.quarks framework can help to guide through the transformation, by identifying relevant capabilities.

Paul: As you look toward the future, how do you see things evolving over the next few years? There are a lot of new technologies emerging, such as machine learning, AI, augmented reality, things like that. Do you see your role changing as a strategist for PwC?

Wanja: I think it will be important to have a broad skill set and an interdisciplinary team. That’s what we try to do in our digital transformation team. We have people with a technology background, who have a deep knowledge in IT architecture and cloud technologies for example. Then we have designers in the team, economists, data scientists, psychologists.... I think that’s the key, and that’s where PwC wants to go. PwC has a new consulting approach called BXT (Business, Experience, Technology). For delivering good services and projects PwC will take into account the technology part, the business part, and the experience part to deliver services in the future. I think it’s important to actually look beyond your own skill set and work together with people from other areas. Digital transformation is so complex, you can’t do it on your own anymore. So, that’s why it’s important to have an interdisciplinary team with technology people, business people and design people.

Paul: Given the auditing history of PwC, and your role in user experience plus business strategy, have they been able to adapt to having you contribute to the direction of the company? Are they pretty open to that, or have you had to have an uphill battle to make that work out?

Wanja: I think change is never easy, and I think it’s a bit of a change within the company. So, they have tried hard because they are, for example, building up experience centers in every big city. Here in Frankfurt we have one whole floor in the tower with open and creative space for design thinking workshops, for example. And there’s a new team of designers, developers and all these new profiles as well. So, I think they’re trying because they see the need.

But yes, of course it’s still sometimes a fight because there are people who are not used to that new way of working and who work completely differently. They’ve worked that way for probably 20 years and don’t want to change. I think it’s a good start, because when you have these creative spaces and people in your company, the other people, who are not used to that approach can go there and get to know it and see the benefits. But I think it will take some more time.

Paul: It sounds like you’ve created a new space for design, and people can come in and learn about the design perspective. But I’m wondering, when salespeople are going out and selling new engagements with clients, are they able to really internalize that and present it to clients?

Wanja: Yes, because nearly every team within PwC does sales as well. Actually, our team wrote a book about the d.quarks framework, and it’s selling quite well. So, a lot of clients actually contact us and say: “I read your book and I want to do a project with you”. In case the client doesn’t understand or trust our approach and the way of working, we offer a one- or two-day workshop to give them the chance to get to know this approach and see the benefits first.

Paul: Is there anything else you want to tell our audience before we sign off?

Wanja: I am looking forward being a speaker and also getting inspired by all the other UX strategy experts at the UX STRAT conference. See you soon!