Many IT support organizations have adopted a “shift left” approach for providing support to consumers. “Shift left” is viewed as a way to not only empower consumers to resolve their own technology and service-related issues, but also to reduce the costs associated with IT support. It seems like a mutually beneficial approach for the consumer and the IT support organization. But despite these good intentions, many of these efforts resulted in the consumer being dehumanized.
What is “shift left”?
The concept of "shift left" originated from an article written by Larry Smith in 2001. Smith argued that integrating testing and quality control earlier in the software development lifecycle would result in better quality software and reduced development costs.
Soon after, many IT support organizations adapted the “shift left” model in response to growing demand from consumers for support and the increasing complexity of IT environments. “Shift left” was and continues to be viewed as a way to meet the support demand while not increasing costs associated with supporting consumers of IT products and services.
How is this done? By shifting consumer support to the consumers themselves.
This shift is not necessarily a bad thing. In many cases, “shift left” is the best model for providing support to IT consumers. Consumers need support for issues like password resets; fulfillment of requests for digital delivery of software and applications; and getting answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). These types of support demands all are model use cases for “shift left.”
How has “shift left” dehumanized the consumer?
The intention is good – enable the consumer to solve her own issues.
But the fundamental flaw in most organizations approach is that “shift left” is an IT initiative, not a consumer-focused initiative. The primary focus of the “shift left” initiative is on reducing or avoiding IT costs. Avoiding the cost of hiring more support agents. Reducing the costs incurred by IT in providing frontline support. Leveraging existing technologies and capabilities to provide support to IT consumers.
For most organizations, this “shift left” consumer support model takes the form of a self-service portal (SSP). A SSP is nothing new – it is usually a feature of a service management tool. But as I discussed in a previous blog, technology (like the SSP) is typically configured from an IT perspective, with little to no involvement of the consumers that will be using it.
Exasperating the situation is the often-poor consumer experience with using the SSP, with issues ranging from a confusing user interface, stale content the use of “techno-speak” and a lack of personalization. Ironically, the poor consumer experience with the SSP usually results in frustrated consumers contacting the service desk, contrary to the goals of “shift left.”
Human-centered design can rehumanize the consumer as part of “shift left”
Human Centered Design (HCD) is an approach for problem solving that starts with understanding what consumers need and arrives at a place where innovative solutions meet those needs. Adopting an HCD approach is a great way to rehumanize the consumer as part of a shift left initiative. Here are my suggestions for where to begin:
- Ask: Ask consumers what support activities they need or are willing to take on.
- Empathize: Understand the challenges that consumers are facing not only with the use of self-service solutions, but also how those challenges impact their daily work.
- Include: Include consumers in the development of solutions for accomplishing those support activities.
- Listen: Regularly solicit and listen to consumer feedback regarding self-service solutions.
- Iterate: Use the data collected during continuous feedback as input, and work with consumers to prototype solutions to meet new or revised self-service needs.
The demand for anytime, anywhere consumer support will only continue to expand in the modern digital economy. The “shift left” approach can be a good way to meet that demand. Incorporating HCD will ensure that “shift left” efforts humanize the consumer and result in a win-win for both the consumer and the IT support organization.