Business: UX Maturity

In a perfect world, companies would take a systematic approach to product design from their very first days. But, in reality, early product design efforts can be sporadic for various reasons—for instance, because a product must launch as soon as possible, there’s not enough money at the start, the user base must grow at the fastest rate possible, or the product idea changes constantly in trying to discover an effective business model. Why is this?

Product-growth and market-penetration rates are critical in a company’s early days. In fact, they’re more important than perfect technical solutions or high-quality designs. This is true especially for lean startups that employ the minimum viable product (MVP) concept. A team first needs to validate that they're solving the right problem for the right audience, in the right market. Only after that should they polish their product. At that point, a company understands that good design is important to the product’s success. Read More

Many professionals who focus on User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and innovation describe the maturity of these practices within their organization as elusive muses that are perpetually out of reach. It’s challenging just to build awareness of these practices much less to bring them to maturity—that is, to get them to the point where they’re woven into the fabric of a company’s charter and business objectives.

At Rockwell Automation, we’re forging a path to UX, CX, and innovation maturity by using several tactics. One of the most impactful tactics has been cultivating communities of practice (CoP) throughout the organization. These communities of practice focus on design, innovation, and related best practices. Making our various communities of practice successful requires a concerted effort—a big part of which is establishing strong, dedicated leadership. Therefore, I’ve asked the following CoP leaders from Rockwell to join me in a Q&A-style discussion for this column:

• Krystal Thibault, Innovation Program Manager and Innovation CoP Leader
• Daniel Zinzow, Senior Lead UX Strategist and Design CoP Leader
• Magda Jagielska, Customer Experience (CX) System Manager and CX CoP Leader   Read More

An increasing number of organizations and individuals who develop software products, Web applications, Web sites, or other digital products are gaining a better understanding and appreciation for user experience and UX design and research. Subsequent to the introduction of some magnificent products and services that many executives now own or use—such as smartphones, tablets, Web applications, social media, and video games—they have gained a better understanding of what UX design and research can do to boost the success of a business offering.

That said, it still seems that the majority of product development organizations and the individuals who work for them have not yet fully bought into the benefits of UX design and even less so of UX research. When you encounter these sorts of organizations or individuals, you have a decision to make: fight or flee. To make a good decision, you should start by identifying the maturity of the organization in which you work. It might be helpful to do this by considering the UX research maturity model I’ll describe in this article. Read More