UX Maturity: what, why & 8 Ways to Get Started.
Although it can take years to reach UX maturity, just a few steps in the right direction can lead to almost immediate benefits including positive organisational change, increased turnover, customer retention and acquisition, sustainable growth and user-driven products and services.
So why don’t more companies don’t take this approach to business? The answer? It requires time, resources and buy-in from across the organisation. It might not surprise you then that Amazon, Apple, Uber and Disney are just a few of the well known brands to have reached the upper echelons of UX maturity.
UX MATURITY ISN’T JUST FOR THE BIG BOYS
Seeing names such as Apple can be distinctly off-putting - after all they’ve got unlimited resources- but they were no means an overnight success. Starting as a small company in 1976 with an aim of bringing computers into the home, it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that Don Norman set up the Experience Design office at Apple to drive and further embed user-centricity into what was now a rapidly growing company.
But smaller businesses can ‘do UX’ too and you’ll find eight ways to get started at your company below.
THE UX MATURITY MODEL - A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Google UX Maturity and you’ll find that as well as Neilson Norman’s original 8-step model, others (including myself) have since developed their own. The most common and up to date model, however, consists of six steps, from immature where UX is unrecognised to mature where UX is fully embedded.
During a recent talk to a software company I used landing on the moon as an analogy for the time required to reach maturity. Of course, no journey will be the same with some companies finding it easier or quicker than others depending on buy-in, resource and money. And, yes, it is possible to regress too.
Six Stage UX Maturity Model
Stage One: Unrecognised
This stage represents UX IMM-aturity, representing either a lack of awareness of UX or an unwillingness to consider such an approach.
Stage Two: Interested
There are green shoots appearing and some understanding of UX or willingness from individuals to take ownership and bring others onboard for the ride.
Stage Three: Invested
One or two projects now have a a small team ‘having a go’ at UX. This may include early stage user testing, field testing and a high level user-centred design process.
Stage Four: Committed
There is now an organisation-wide approach to UX. It is an officially recognised discipline with a dedicated UX team. Importantly, executives are now involved and have provided a limited budget for user-centric work.
Stage Five: Engaged
UX is a core tenant of the overall organisational strategy. Business critical decisions are now made with data acquired from several sources of quantitative and qualitative data. With cross-departmental buy-in, the UX team is involved in every project from the outset and a substantial budget is available with which to drive further UX driven activity.
Stage Six: Embedded
The key difference between stage six and preceding stages is that UX is no longer discussed as a separate discipline. Instead it is woven into the fabric of the organisation - people, processes, decision-making, data and insights, product ownership and development. At this point, an organisation is considered UX mature.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
I would imagine you might be thinking something along the lines, of, ‘What’s in it for me?’. After all, each of the stages outlined above could take 2-3 years to achieve. Here’s some of the benefits your company might enjoy as a result of UX efforts:
Increased NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Increased customer/user satisfaction
Increased turnover/profit
Increased customer retention/acquisition
Decreased customer service calls/emails
Improved customer relations
However, the road to maturity is not free of obstacles. As pointed out by Neilson Norman, the move from level three to four is the most challenging because the organisation is moving from a project/team to a organisation-wide strategic approach at around this point. Understandably, leadership will want to see a return on investment in efforts to date before agreeing to what is most likely to require a significantly higher budget and extra resource.
GETTING STARTED
Now you’ve seen the model and understand some of the benefits of reaching UX maturity, here are eight ways you can start the journey.
Take ownership of UX
If no-one else has (or even if they have!) and you’re bought in to the concept of UX why not take the initiative and lead the way? You might be on your own for a while but that’s ok. Take a project that you’re working on and try one or two UX activities such as guerrilla testing an application or wire framing an assumed user journey, testing and validating it.
Recruit Champions
Stage two of the model represents the move from individual ownership to a team approach to UX. Get others involved, even if it’s others within your own team at the start before approaching potential advocates from across the business to help spread the word.
Educate them
Despite your best efforts, not everyone is going to ‘get it’. That’s when you may need to bring in external expertise to help educate your colleagues on the what, why and how of UX and how it fits in with the wider customer experience. Hold a series of engaging, interactive workshops illustrating examples of how other organisations have embedded UX, enjoyed sustainable growth and improved customer and user feedback.
Get buy-in
Getting buy-in from leadership is one of the most common challenges for those trying to drive UX as a new or early stage discipline. Talk about the benefits of UX in their language; ROI, potential savings and cost to serve and how UX is inextricably linked to the company’s strategic roadmap for growth.
Remember to report back regularly, illustrate impact quickly and set expectations from the outset. You’ll get buy-in quicker by taking a consistent approach.
State your purpose
Get your team together and pen a UX Statement and principles document. What does UX mean to the organisation? The statement is your goal and principles, the stepping stones to that goal. If you’re struggling take a look at the GDS principles for some ideas. Whatever you do, don’t write this and put it in a drawer. Take the principles, make them into posters, print them on corporate mugs, lanyards or use them to form a value proposition. Ensure that colleagues in all departments and levels understand and get excited about your message.
Take measurements
It’s essential you have data to back up your successes. Depending on your organisation, product or service and what you already collect this might include:
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
CES (Customer Effort Score)
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
SUS (System Usability Scale)
Qualitative user feedback from interviews, reviews and social media
Turnover/Profit
Product-specific user data
Customer service data
Work horizontally and vertically
It’s incredibly important to bring together advocates from across departments but don’t ignore the vertical. Involve colleagues who may not normally be involved at a strategic level such as administrators, customer service staff and new employees. I promise you, they’ll bring insights about the customer/user journey that you didn’t know anything about.
Take a space
Create a space for design sprints, user research and team activities. If it has big walls or windows for post-it notes, even better. Keep it comfortable, inviting and flexible. Remember this is just the beginning of your journey so it’ll need to grow as the UX team and efforts do.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY
Whether your organisation is starting from scratch or you’re picking up further down the road, the journey to UX maturity may seem almost as insurmountable as landing on the moon right now. Take it one step at time, bring others with you and spread the word as you do. Measure impact, present findings to leadership and aim to make UX a silent but inextricably linked arrow to your bow.
Remember it’s easier to regress than progress so keep it simple, an eye on the prize and enjoy the journey towards UX maturity.
I promise your company will thank you for it.