Glossary of Terms

Question 1

affective science

Answer 1

The scientific study of emotions or the affective process

Question 2

brain habituation

Answer 2

A state where the brain becomes adapted to incoming stimuli and begins to disengage. This
adaption is usually because no changes have occurred within the stimuli, thus the brain can predict
correctly what will come.

Question 3

bridging

Answer 3

The process of bringing together experience indicators to create a better foundation for a staged
experience.

Question 4

capability

Answer 4

The state to which an organization is equipped to deliver an experience management project.

Question 5

collective experience measurements

Answer 5

Looking for patterns in feelings that are held by a collective group of people. The common factor
in these groups may be roles or culture. Understanding them enables a more tailored experience
to be designed for the group.

Question 6

commercial value

Answer 6

An economic value that is concerned with the benefits brought by sales and brand.

Question 7

communications strategy

Answer 7

A key part of the XMO, this strategy refers to the need for the XMO leadership team to communicate
across the ecosystem continually throughout the XMO’s missions and activities.

Question 8

customer value

Answer 8

An economic value that refers to how customers understand the value of a product/service.

Question 9

data collection and timings

Answer 9

A part of the XMO, the data collection principle refers to the need for the XMO to continuously
gather data, in a structured manner; i.e. not too often to cause survey fatigue and not too rarely to
cause significant experience gaps.

Question 10

desired experience

Answer 10

The experience that our customers/employees wish to have with their product/service.

Question 11

detractors

Answer 11

Individuals or entities that dismiss experience management.

Question 12

efficiency value

Answer 12

An economic value that aims to deliver the same output for less. This can include less money, time,
or organizational resources.

Question 13

emotional connection

Answer 13

With regard to experience, an emotional connection means putting yourself in your employees’/
customers’ shoes to understand their sentiment and perceptive reality.

Question 14

employee needs

Answer 14

Aspects of experience that are needed for employees to perform their job better; for example,
working technology, consistent availability of services, or faster resolutions.

Question 15

employee wants

Answer 15

Aspects of experience that are desired but not necessarily needed in order for employees to
perform their job better; for example, a completely up-to-date device.

Question 16

experience

Answer 16

Something that happens and the way it makes you feel.

Question 17

experience anticipation

Answer 17

The kind of experience people expect from a product or service, based upon factors including brand
reputation, individual expectation, promises/commitments to experience and personal memories.

Question 18

experience anxiety

Answer 18

The worry individuals feel when they do not know what is going to happen with regard to an
experience they’re having. This is usually caused by humans’ biological tendency to remember
a bad experience more prominently than a good one, as remembering and sharing news of the
negative can protect ourselves and others from experiencing it.

Question 19

experience champion

Answer 19

Individuals we engage with who inform us of experience sentiment within their department/entity.

Question 20

experience data streams

Answer 20

A series of four data streams, two as outputs and two as outcomes, representing the typical
experience indicators that provide a contextual picture of experience.

Operation Data
Technical Data

Experience Data
Behavioural Data

Question 21

experience economy

Answer 21

An economic phase that businesses enter where time spent, or experiences, with the business
becomes the most valued aspect.

Question 22

experience ecosystem

Answer 22

A system or network of interconnecting and interacting entities, brought together to define,
manage, and enhance experience.

Question 23

experience governance

Answer 23

The activities undertaken to evaluate findings on experience management, such as experience
findings and ambition successes, and decide upon next actions if necessary.

Question 24

experience hygiene factors

Answer 24

Core factors relating to experience that is expected from the business; for example, cleanliness in
a hotel visit.

Question 25

experience improvements

Answer 25

The decisions taken after the evaluation stage of experience governance that aim to improve experience and increase the success of experience management, based on data retrieval and analysis taken place before.

Question 26

experience landscape

Answer 26

An overarching view of experience within an organization/department/entity taking into account readiness, capability, technology and experience now.

Question 27

experience level agreement (XLA)

Answer 27

A commitment to creating a defined experience, measured with experience indicators.

Question 28

experience management office (XMO)

Answer 28

A team who, with the appropriate skills, will communicate, implement, and manage XLAs. An XMO has a structure of missions set around different scopes and roles, all to manage the change and actions that come with experience management.

Question 29

experience now

Answer 29

The current picture of experience that your customers and/or employees are having at that moment, generated by the aggregation of various sources of experience data.

Question 30

experience now data categorization

Answer 30

A process that involves categorizing data points into relevant themes for improvement. These themes will go on to influence the experience ambitions.

Question 31

experience relief

Answer 31

A state of calm that comes with the knowledge that an experience is being resolved.

Question 32

experience technology

Answer 32

Technology that assists in the management of experience. This can range from tools to measure T data to tools that make the management of O data, or the gathering of X data, more streamlined

Question 33

experience triangle

Answer 33

A concept expressing the importance of looking at multiple data sources to get a contextual picture of experience as opposed to one source.

Question 34

experience vision

Answer 34

A term that encompasses the scope of the experience project, values, aims and objectives, and return on investment, defined around what the customer/employee will expect from the experience

Question 35

extending

Answer 35

A strategy whereby technology suppliers use sentiment data to increase the value of their core product for customers.

Question 36

future value

Answer 36

An economic value that focuses on delivering experiences that enable protection and improvement of the future value of the product/service.

Question 37

governance

Answer 37

A component that makes up the Embrace phase of the experience optimization framework. Governance asks how well are we doing, and what decisions need to be made?

Question 38

gravity of average performance

Answer 38

The concept that the performance of something will decay over time as people adapt to it. What this means with regard to experience is that good experience will gradually become the norm and expectations of what a good experience is will rise, making previously good experience now average.

Question 39

individual experience measurements

Answer 39

A concept that follows the thinking of collective experience measurements, but to understand how individuals may react to experience and designing unique experience measures for them. This is often challenging to decipher, as each individual is unique and will react or feel differently in a certain situation. Therefore, attempting to understand the individual experience is something that comes with maturity after establishing the collective.

Question 40

influencers

Answer 40

People who have power to deliver and affect experience success through authority, knowledge, or position.

Question 41

Internal company to outsourcer XLA

Answer 41

This is a type of XLA where the company wishing to improve experience for its employees will design an XLA that it wants to incorporate into the contract between it and its outsourcer. In other words, an XLA designed by a company, carried out by an outsourcer to support the company’s employee/customer experience.

Question 42

internal XLA

Answer 42

Probably the most common type of XLA, internal XLAs are those that an organization will design and implement to manage the experience of its own internal employees.

Question 43

joint commitment

Answer 43

The idea that, in the case of XLAs being put in place between organization and outsourcer, all parties need to commit to delivering the same experience ambitions.

Question 44

Likert scales and scoring

Answer 44

Likert scales are a scoring mechanism where the respondent is invited to answer a question using a number scale, representing a series of attitudes ranging from one extreme attitude to another

Question 45

lime effect/dashboard

Answer 45

A situation where the SLAs and KPIs of a service, and technical measures, are shown as positive (green) and overall sentiment is also positive.

Question 46

moments over time

Answer 46

A collection of transactions that comprise an experience

Question 47

money value of time

Answer 47

A key part of the experience economy, this refers to the value placed on time, affecting the organizations and entities that customers and employees choose to interact with. If the experience with organization isn’t deemed as a valuable expenditure of time, the person may choose another

Question 48

moonshot thinking

Answer 48

Pursuing goals that seem impossible unless by means of a radical solution. When applied to experience, moonshot thinking encourages us to let go of our mental constraints to satisfy unmet needs.

Question 49

operational indicators (O data)

Answer 49

Refers to the SLAs and KPIs of services that can be used to provide context to sentiment. O data is a controllable experience indicator.

Question 50

outsourcing XLAs

Answer 50

XLAs that outsourcers will design. They are based on the services that they can offer to customers as an advantage over other service providers

Question 51

productivity value

Answer 51

An economic value that differs from efficiency by being concerned around doing more with the same resources rather than the same with less.

Question 52

project XLAs

Answer 52

Refers to when experience and experience management become governing factors in organizational projects. A project may measure time, cost, and internal view of quality. Integrating experience into this also encourages the measurement of achieving the business outcome, whether employees are having a better experience, and how the experience was while the project was being carried out

Question 53

psycho-logic

Answer 53

Where psychology is used to manipulate experience anticipation, thereby changing perception to resolve an otherwise unresolvable problem.

Question 54

range of valid experiences

Answer 54

The acceptable range of experiences based on the needs surrounding those experiences; for example, an employee receiving a work laptop that is ‘good enough’ rather than having everything they wanted is a valid experience based on their needs.

Question 55

readiness

Answer 55

The state to which an organization is prepared to commence an experience management project.

Question 56

red pepper effect/dashboard

Answer 56

A situation where the SLAs and KPIs, technical measures, and sentiment are all showing negative (red) sentiment. In other words, all experience indicators point to negative.

Question 57

reverse watermelon effect/dashboard

Answer 57

A situation where the SLAs and KPIs of a service, and technical measures, are showing poor results (red) but the overall sentiment towards the service is positive (green).

Question 58

sentiment indicators (X data)

Answer 58

Refers to the experience (X) data that helps us to understand how people feel. This kind of data is usually gathered and represented as survey responses.

Question 59

sentiment surveys

Answer 59

A survey designed to gather the views held towards something; in our case a service or product, by those interacting with and utilizing it.

Question 60

service level agreement (SLA)

Answer 60

An agreement that defines what the IT service provider and the customer should expect when contracting for a service.

Question 61

service management office (SMO)

Answer 61

The service edition of the XMO, the SMO is the model of reporting SLA and KPI performance.

Question 62

staged experience

Answer 62

An experience that we design to meet customer/employee expectations. We create a staged experience to show what an experience could eventually become and determine whether it is desired or can become a desired experience.

Question 63

stakeholders

Answer 63

Those that strategize, consume, control, reward, and judge experience.

Question 64

statistical science

Answer 64

A science that is focused on the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. With regard to experience, this science assists experience professionals in generating facts from the sentimentbased data they will gather.

Question 65

technical indicators (T data)

Answer 65

Refers to measures from technical tools; for example, those measuring digital employee experience or device health, that can be used to provide context to sentiment. T data is a controllable experience indicator.

Question 66

watermelon effect

Answer 66

A situation where SLA and KPI, and technical measures, show performance as positive (green) but the sentiment towards the experience indicators is negative (red).

Question 67

XLA Stack™

Answer 67

A visual representation of an XLA, displaying the link between an experience ambition, sentiment indicators, and operational and technical indicators.

Question 68

XLA washing

Answer 68

A form of marketing and PR that aims to persuade the buyer that an organization’s products and services enable XLAs. This translates to situations where some ITSM tools claim to also be experience tools but where, in actuality, experience makes up a relatively small part of their product/service