Dynamics in UX maturity
Recently, I chaired an influencer's talk on ‘UX Maturity’ in my organization. Based on the discussion following are my observations and understanding.
About UX maturity
As described by the NN group UX Maturity is how an organization evolves in design through various stages.
Each stage includes four factors, which are further divided into sub-factors. All of them play a role in giving momentum to UX activities evolving organizations to higher maturity stages.
My understanding
All organizations are dynamic and differ by age, people, culture, size, methods, objectives, etc. They form and deform by teams, goals, projects, objectives etc. Either by top-down or bottom-up shifts
This constant dynamism runs a synergy which shapes their products, presence and attitude towards overall solving problems. So, it makes UX maturity also dynamic in nature.
Agile Ball
Among the four, the three factors of strategy, culture and process seem to be a part of the entangled wool ball, which represents the complexity of the agile method.
The fourth-factor Outcome is similar to ROI (Return on Investment) and helps in measuring the impact of design on the tangled ball.
I call this as a ‘Design Dividend’ since the term is more design-centric and evaluates outcomes based on design rather than any other parameter, such as money, market share, etc.
A design dividend helps an organization climb up the maturity levels while been effective in measuring design centric changes along with understanding impact of design process across product teams and organizational structure.
Design dividends helps team to measure their project goals, feature capabilities and user journeys based on UX metrics while incubating the design process itself. It untangles the ball by streamlining the strategy, culture, and process alongside climbing up the UX maturity stages.
Building UX maturity
Any organization, irrespective of its age or size, is at some level of UX maturity. All it takes is a design advocate who steps in to make a realization by mapping it.
Initially UX advocate can be anyone from the organization who knows the product and the organization’s functioning and also, he knows the importance of UX design. He is the one who starts and keeps pulling up the agile ball across UX maturity levels. In later stages he is replaced either by external experienced UX advocate or internal experienced UX enabler.
UX advocates role usually starts from simple ‘Designer’ at first stage which later grows to ‘Chief Design Officer’ ‘UX Manager’ ‘Design Manager’ etc.
UX enabler are people with design knowledge. Who know design process and different aspects of design. They may not be master of all but know the different design roles.
UX enabler's role usually starts muddy with ‘Visual Designer’ ‘UI Designer’ ‘UX Designer’ ‘Graphic Designer’ etc. In later stages they get diversified and specialized such as ‘UX design lead’ ‘Visual design lead’ ‘Principal UX designer’ ‘UX writer’ etc.
Together UX advocate and enablers try to stream agile ball on design dividend slope. By building effective teams over period of time to sustain it.
Starting the climb
Most of the time in early stages UX is absent or limited in the organization and lacks in planning, prioritization, UX mindset and willingness to adapt.
So, a UX advocate takes initiative and pulls up the ball by bringing in a UX enabler. The role of the UX enabler here is to push the agile ball by bringing in a design mindset and plan with minimum effort.
The design dividend here may not be related to design completely. It is rather focused on how design can bring in new changes and simplify the agile ball.
On the Slope
In middle stages UX is emergent or structured and an organization could fall into a false trap of UX presence. The trap where they feel having active UX roles and taking UX efforts throughout the product life cycle is more than enough.
UX Advocates here try to pull up the agile ball by bringing in new UX enablers to form diverse teams. His focus is to build a design culture by covering different subjects of UX design. He does that by filling in diverse UX enablers such as UX researchers, UX writers etc. Collective their role here is not only strategies to establish and maintain a design system but also to develop design habits.
Design dividend at these stages is more focused on the UX process as the agile ball is now more simplified. The simplification comes from a structured design system and UX awareness within the organization.
At the peak
In later stages UX is Integrated or user-driven and an organization reaches a peak as a culture thrives from top to bottom extending into UX innovation as well. All teams are enlightened with User-centered design and UX research is part of the strategy and project prioritization.
UX advocate’s major role at these stages is to hold up the agile ball by bringing in a creative set of UX enablers. Together they keep shaping new design culture by experimenting with UX and practicing human-centered design. Teams aim to develop new approaches, languages and forms of design by themselves to become leaders in the field.
The agile ball is completely streamlined at this stage and the design dividend is at its peak. This means user feedback not only flows through the organization but also pushes teams to come up with innovative solutions. Truly fulfilling user needs and enlarging business canvas.
Understanding the complexity,
It is difficult as easy as it sounds because not only an organization but likewise the market is dynamic. There is repeatedly a push-pull relationship between them, which raises challenges in achieving UX maturity levels.
The fall
At first, UX advocate faces challenge to hold up UX enablers against falling design dividends. When the value obtained from the design goes down, the faith in design-related changes too declines. Resulting in lesser interest in UX advocacy within teams and organization.
Further, organization faces challenge to retain designer for longer duration. As market forces constantly try to hire trained and knowledgeable UX enablers and advocates.
The effect of the fall normalizes as UX maturity increases but still it is surely felt. As it affects product releases and other project goals.
The force
Market forces continuously push new challenges into an organization. Especially those who are at peak maturity. Producing new product expectations among users and the market itself. UX advocates and enablers have to have a keen eye on these ongoing shifts around them.
Also, incubating new tech innovation within the organization across teams is like climbing up new UX maturity stages. Though it is at peak maturity with a streamlined agile ball, but it has to climb up a reasonable slope to understand the new design dividend.
The mix
Organizations are a mix of multiple products and platforms. This also makes UX maturity more dynamic because not all product teams are at the same stages. An established design system and rules may help but then different products have different UX issues. Which challenges the product teams to achieve peak and affecting overall UX maturity.
Conclusion
Organizations are dynamic so is the UX maturity. They reflect on each other at every stage with a distinct set of challenges for strategies, culture and processes on a good design dividend.
Therefore, UX advocates and enablers job is not only to work on UX design but also to build a formidable design culture to reach peak UX maturation stages.
