It Was the E-Team in the 90's, Now It's Org 2.0

I had the privilege of working at Packard Bell NEC in the late 90's when e-commerce and "going direct" was all the rage. As a traditional PC manufacturing company was coming to grips with how to organize around the new supply chain dynamics of manufacturing and how to fulfill orders online, it was both fascinating and exciting to be a part of it.

Being a marketing communications type and holding a unique position in user experience in an IS department, I was fortunate to be on a somewhat stealth Web Team, which at the right time, had the golden opportunity to make major changes and expand the capacity as owners/operators of the small, but growing online channel with a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional team.

As a result, we merged, melded and formed an E-Team, which was a hand-selected team of people, who excelled in their positions across the enterprise and wanted to work together without divisional boundaries. It was by all accounts a very big success organizationally and it was an amazing time to be a part of the leadership of that new organizational unit.

Now, today, there is an article, Org Chart 2.0: Built for User Experience Systems on CNET conveying much of what we experienced as a result of forming the E-Team, but this time puts User Experience as a core organizational axis of this multi-disciplinary cadre.

The article says, we are about to see "the birth of a new business organization - one that is optimized for complex systems of problems and solutions, rather than based on silos focused on specific functions, and which treats user experience as a core organizational axis rather than a meddlesome add-on."

I'm not sure if this is the "birth" or "re-birth" of this concept, but it is great to know Org 2.0 folds in user experience as a critical and necessary element to the successful output and structure of today's cross-functional teams.

Long live the E-Team!