UX Maturity – how do you develop the UX
practice in your organisation
Mags HanleyUX Management and Leadership Coach
15 November 2016
Introduction to meI am a UX Management and Leadership Coach.I teach and support UX professionals at all levels to grow in their UX practices.I bring my expertise of over 20 years in the digital to create actionable strategy and concrete plans for delivery of products and services.
Setting the scene
What is strategic impact of UX within an organisation?
State of UX in 2016- Leah BuleyLower Impact Higher Impact
Place in the organisation
Product (low)IT (lower)Marketing (lowest)
Customer experience (highest)
Ratio of developers to designers
1:20 1:4
Leadership roles UX Manager or below UX Director or aboveProcess Basic UX processes –
usability testing, flows and wireframes
Framing the solution, working across channels, service design
Measurement of UX impact
Not measured – not even usability to ensure designs were effective
Quantified baseline against Customer SatisfactionChanges connected to revenuehttp://www.creativebloq.com/features/the-state-of-ux-in-2016
UX Maturity models
What is a UX Maturity model?
A UX Maturity Model is a framework that describes the different stages of UX within organisations. Generally they start with ‘Unorganised’ and end with ‘Leading the
organisation’.
Jared Spool – 1997 - 2007Stage Users want UX focuses on Developers focus
on1 Technology
a.k.a.“Raw Iron”
The basic capability
Getting the technology working = The product works
Technical issues and delivery
2 Features(a.k.a.“Checklist Battles”)
The best set of features
Getting the right features
Adding features and fixing bugs
3 Experience(a.k.a“ProductivityWars”)
To get their work done better and faster
Getting the right experience = Easy to learn, fast, powerful
Performance support, reducing technical support costs
4 IntegrationTransparency
Lowest cost Integration into bigger experiences = The product is invisible
Reducing costs or seeking new markets
https://articles.uie.com/market_maturity/
Adaptive Path
http://adaptivepath.org/uploads/documents/apr-005_businessvalue.pdf
Jacob Nielsen - 2006UX Maturity Stage Featuring Time to next stage1: Hostility Developers simply don’t want to hear
about users or their needsUp to decades
2: Developer - Centred
Design team relies on its own intuition 2‐3 years
3: Skunkworks Guerilla user research or external usability experts
2‐3 years
4: Dedicated Budget Usability is planned for 2‐3 years5: Managed Someone to think about usability across
the organisation6‐7 years
6: Systematic Process
Tracking user experience quality 6‐7 years
7: Integrated User Centred Design
Employing usability data to determine what company should build
~ 20 years
8: User – Driven Corporation
Usability affects corporate strategy and activities beyond interface design
~40 years to get from start
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-maturity-stages-1-4/http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-maturity-stages-5-8/
Jennifer Fraser and Scott Plewes - 2015
http://www.macadamian.com/2015/08/20/indicators-of-user-experience-maturity/
My take
The last model – Frazer and Plewes provides a good model that can be used to measure UX Maturity thereby describing the level of impact UX has in the organisation.
I like this model as it provides three metrics to measure the maturity: Timing of the initial UX Availability of resources Leadership and Culture
Timing of the initial UX
Timing of the UX is about WHEN the UX is performed in the development process. It moves from ‘none’ to ‘being an integral part of the strategy for the organisation’.
To benchmark I consider both: When in the development process the first method of UX is
done Integration of the UX within the whole product lifecycle
Availability of resources
Availability of the resources is focused on WHO does the UX within the organisation. It ranges from ‘no-one’ to ‘a UX team with capabilities across all the UX sub-disciplines’.
The two elements I use to benchmark are: Type and roles of the people in the organisation performing UX UX methods being performed
Leadership and Culture
As a UX manager and Leader, this is the area that you are responsible for.
The three elements to consider are: Influence – Is UX seen as a servant to Product, Development or
Creative; or does it have a seat at the table and is part of the scoping of products and services?
People leadership – Management, coaching and development of people Design leadership – Are you inspiring, reviewing and improving the UX
design of your team; expected to be doing the UX design, or leading using your design thinking to shape the organisation?
Examples
Argus Associates – 1999-2001Maturity Measures GradeTiming of the initial UX
Stage 3: starting IA/UX activities for customers at the beginning of projects
Availability of resources
Stage 3: Strong IA with increasing expertise in Usability
Leadership and Culture
Stage 3: Strong leadership
Stage at start: Stage 3Stage to aim for: Stage 4-5Context I moved to the US to be a Project Manager at Argus Associates – one of the first IA/UX
Consultancies in the world There was a team of 10 IAs, 3 project managers and a usability specialist. The aim was to grow the Consulting business – hiring more people, doing leading edge
work and developing tools that created the cornerstone of the practice.Tactical: Hire staff to do the work we were winningStrategic: Develop processes to be able to replicate methods; enabling leading teams to create world class, leading edge IA.
BBC – Setting up an IA practice - 2002Maturity Measures GradeTiming of the initial UX Stage 2: No IA, limited UXAvailability of resources Stage 2: No IAs, but some visual
designers and usability professionals
Leadership and Culture Stage 2: Emerging UX leadership, no IA leadership
Stage at start: Stage 2Stage to aim for: Stage 3ContextI was hired at the BBC to start an IA practice, in particular to describe and model the content so it could be used in CMS for multi-platform publishing.Tactical: Work on a English Regions CMS implementation to prove value and develop the skills setStrategic: Realised that there would always be multiple CMS, so create a content model that could be used across the organisation. Develop relationships across the organisation to increase influence
WTG – Shore up a UX practice – 2005-2011Maturity Measures GradeTiming of the initial UX Stage 3: Simple UX process in most
projectsAvailability of resources Stage 2: One visual designerLeadership and Culture Stage 1: No UX leadershipStage at start: Stage 2Stage to aim for: Stage 3ContextWTG already had a UX practice with a designer, contract UXers and a front-end coder, but the work and the team were patchy - some good projects, mostly bad.Tactical: Lead by example, develop better proposals for work and win the workStrategic: Hire amazing core team of people who could handle any project; find UX-only projects, lead major projects with UX (like Census 2011) and develop services for the Public Sector
Now over to you…
ActivityAlone using the hand out Mark where your organisation is:
According the maturity model The existing level of impact you have in the organisation
Identify what your end state is in the next 18-24 months Write one tactical action to be completed within the next 6 months Write one strategic action to be completed within 12 months
For each action: How it will achieve your goals Identify people and resources needed to do it Your allies Potential roadblocks
Activity (continued)
In a group Review the hand out Quiz the person on why that particular action Identify one other tactical and strategic action that
could be taken
REMEMBER – this is workshop has a cone of silenceAnything shared in this workshop cannot be talked about outside of the classroom without express permission.
Questions and comments ?
Thank youMags HanleyEmail: [email protected]: @magshanleyLinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/magshanley
Jennifer Fraser and Scott Plewes - 2015
http://www.macadamian.com/2015/08/20/indicators-of-user-experience-maturity/
Measure Current position 18-24 monthsUX Maturity• Timing• Resources• LeadershipStrategic Impact
UX Maturity Scorecard
Questions Current position
What is your tactical action?How it will achieve your goals?Who do you need ( people and resources) to do it?
Who are your allies?
What are the potential roadblocks?
How will you measure success?Other options
Tactical action
Questions Current position
What is your strategic action?How it will achieve your goals?Who do you need ( people and resources) to do it?
Who are your allies?
What are the potential roadblocks?
How will you measure success?Other options
Strategic action