A chief experience officer (CXO) is an executive responsible for the overall experience of an organization's products and services. As user experience (UX) is quickly becoming a key differentiator in the modern business landscape,[1] the CXO is charged with bringing holistic experience design to the boardroom and making it an intrinsic part of the company's strategy and culture.
A CXO's responsibilities include:
In a piece in UX Magazine, Lis Hubert said the goal of having a CXO is "to have someone responsible for curating and maintaining a holistic user-, business-, and technology-appropriate experience" at the C-level.[2][unreliable source?] Authors Claudia Fisher and Christine Vallaster state that a CXO or chief marketing officer is a good idea when "the brand is seen as a strategic driver of the organization."[3]
Howard Larkin states that in healthcare, the CXO is "responsible for making sure every aspect of a complex delivery system consistently meets basic patient and human needs" and what it calls "operationalizing the patient experience mission."[4]
In 2006 the New York Times discussed the role of the chief experience officer in the context of a number of other "unconventional" and "wacky" titles being created by Madison Avenue firms with the intent to "signal a realization by an advertiser or agency that in a rapidly changing marketing and media landscape, the time for the tried and true has come and gone."[5]
The Wharton Business School has called the proliferation of roles in the C-Suite "Title Inflation",[6] and Herman and Giola warn about the "dangerous side effects" of "job title invention".[7]
In a 2012 publication, it was reported that "chief customer officer" (30%) and "chief client officer" (15%) were more commonly used for the role than "chief experience officer" (10%), with 45% utilizing other variations.[8]