Our UX maturity model consists of six stages.
Many organizations progress through many of these stages
as they grow and develop their UX practice.
But sometimes companies will skip a stage,
stay at the same stage for a long time
or even regressed to earlier stages.
- If you can determine which UX maturity stage
your organization is currently in,
you'll be better equipped to figure out
how to level up to the next one.
- Stage one is what we call the absence stage.
The lowest stage in the maturity model.
A company at this stage is either oblivious to UX
or believes it does not need it.
User-centered thinking is not at all a part of how it works.
The primary obstacle is a lack of education.
People don't understand what UX is,
how it could benefit from the organization and customers
or where to begin.
To move forward, stage one organizations
should focus on building UX awareness.
- Stage two is limited.
At this stage, UX work is being attempted in small ways,
but it's done haphazardly and typically ineffectively.
At this point, UX is still very low on the priority list
and stage two companies most stakeholders still don't see
why they should care about UX.
One highly effective strategy to build buy-in
is to perform a high visibility UX project
that will impact things that the stakeholders value.
Then publicize that big win throughout the organization
as a way to demonstrate the potential benefits
of doing more UX work.
- Stage three is emergent.
At this point, UX is gaining traction.
More UX work is being done,
and some stage three companies
even have official UX budgets.
There are people in UX roles,
but not nearly enough
and not necessarily with the right skills.
There's no widespread systematic UX process in place
and UX still isn't a top priority.
Now, sometimes companies think we do UX now
and get complacent at this level,
but really they need to operationalize
to improve consistency in their work.
To progress from this stage to the next,
focus on improving and streamlining UX in your organization.
Centralize and standardize UX processes and tools
to maximize the effectiveness of the UX work
done across the organization.
- Stage four is structured.
This is when the value of UX is recognized
throughout the organization,
and maybe seen as an important priority.
Design is well understood and user research is conducted
throughout the project life cycle.
This is when organizations start to produce
very high quality UX work,
but there may still be teams struggling with it.
Lots of companies stop at this stage
and never progress any further.
To move up to stage five,
focus on determining why some teams
are still struggling with UX
and then try to fix those problems.
For example, there might be some aspects
of the standardized UX process
that aren't applicable to all teams,
and maybe that process needs to be more flexible.
- Stage five is integrated.
This is a great place to be.
Stage five companies have successful
and sustainable UX practices
that achieve high-quality results consistently.
Unfortunately, most organizations don't reach this level.
There aren't many challenges at stage five
because things are running smoothly and consistently
throughout the organization.
But there's one important difference between stage five
and stage six, which is the highest stage.
While user-centered design is respected
and supported in stage five,
there are factors other than user-centeredness
that are driving the business.
While stage five leadership might take users into account
and its high level of vision,
your user might still be sacrificed for other priorities
in decision-making.
Putting users as the highest priority is a decision
that really needs to originate
in the highest level of the company's leadership,
which is partially why a lot of organizations
never make it to stage six.
- Stage six is user-driven,
the highest stage in the UX maturity model.
In stage six companies,
everyone fully understands
and prioritizes user-centered design above all else.
UX research and design work is the driving force
behind everything that these companies do.
These organizations are extremely rare.
While this stage represents the ultimate maturity goal,
it's difficult to achieve
and difficult to maintain for very long.
The primary challenge that these companies face,
is trying to avoid backsliding to a lower stage.
That can happen if for example,
a new leader comes in with conflicting priorities.
To avoid regressing, focus on continuing to nurture
your user-focused culture in your organization.
Ensure that everyone understands
that users are central in the company's values.
- Advancing your company's UX maturity
can be a slow and difficult process,
but by pinpointing your current stage
and primary challenges,
you'll be better equipped to achieve real change.