Kick-starting UX Maturity
I’ve been embedded at a well-known insurance company for the past 5 months (as of June 2018). My core task has been to grow and develop their UX competency. UX is not yet rooted in their culture and as such, it has taken time and effort to align key stakeholders to a shared user-centred vision. This particular company is not alone; in many companies UX is seen as peripheral or a box to be checked, when it should be central to, if not guiding, the digital product development process.
In the country where I work, South Africa (SA), you simply have to search the App Store to understand how peripheral UX is to a company’s digital output. On the App Store, you’ll find that plenty of SA’s top Johannesburg Stock Exchange companies with user ratings as low as one or two, not to mention a string of complaints. This shows that the problem isn’t simply about budgets or access to developers. So, what is the problem then? It’s most likely that these companies are at a low stage of UX maturity. This means the user is not at the centre of the development process and is likely losing out to other management priorities, or to technology decisions made in boardrooms. The cost of peripheralizing the user is often not recognised.
Luckily, the digital management team I’ve worked with at the aforementioned insurance company feels passionately about the user and their experience. This doesn’t mean it’s been an easy road, because the digital team has its own internal convincing to do, with other business units, who have their own priorities and agendas beyond user or customer experience.
So, how do we get a large company to improve user experience over time in a sustainable and integrated way?
Since many companies have been through this process before, we have plenty of case studies and models to work from. These models show time and again the consistency of steps required to turn a company into a user-centred business. The real trick is ‘kick-starting’ the process, not simply having the theory or strategy and the drive to do so. So, when I land at a client, my first step to ‘kick-start UX maturity’ is to talk…or better yet, to listen. I’ve done this before, so I know what I’m likely to face:
- Developers who think UX wastes their time.
- A client that doesn’t have a dedicated UX budget.
- A management team that doesn’t see the value of user research.
So, instead of trying to prove everyone wrong, I listen and empathise. Empathy is the first step in the Design Thinking process and I use this approach when trying to embed UX at a new company:
- What usability issues do the developers have that I can solve?
- How can I assist the client to see ROI in motivating for more UX budget?
- What tough product strategy decisions do management have to take that user research could guide?
If you can add crucial value to the success of a business and how it operates, the resources and funding will take care of itself (with hard-won proof of ROI, of course). So, next time you find yourself trying to embed UX at a company but find resistance, employ UX techniques:
- Research your client’s needs as well as those of others crucial to implementing your strategy.
- Ideate on solutions and test them out – you don’t need to get it right the first time.
- Always put those that you aim to assist or grow at the centre of your work, just as you would in your design.
- Implement your vision and track results, just as you would any new app or piece of software.
- Improve, iterate and grow!
Would love to hear your comments and your questions and if you’ve had similar experiences.
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