Stages of UX maturity

UX maturity measures an organization’s desire and ability to deliver user-centered design successfully. As NN Group explains, it encompasses the quality and consistency of research and design processes, resources, tools, leadership involvement, and operations, to support and strengthen UX.?

Though most companies understand the importance of hiring UX professionals and focusing on user-centered design, not all have successfully implemented it.

Why is UX important for a startup?

Far from being a trend, UX is a paradigm shift that occurred naturally in the market, and from there, it shaped the way of designing, producing, selling, and consuming.

The primary objective of any business is, without a doubt, to drive sales and achieve growth. In order to accomplish this, the business strategy strongly emphasizes user-centricity, supported by compelling data analysis that highlights the superior performance and cost-effectiveness of designing products with the user in mind. Neglecting UX Research and Design can lead a startup to encounter substantial challenges in customer acquisition and poor user retention, necessitating significant investments to facilitate sustainable growth.

According to a support statics report by Groove, the probability of selling to an existing happy customer is 14x higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. According to data from Gallup World Poll, fully engaged customers represent a 23% Premium in wallet share, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth over the average customer. On the other hand, according to Statista information: 71% of app users churn within the first 90 days of downloading an app, and 90% of users have stopped using an app due to poor performance.

This way, UX becomes a central element in the business core strategy that helps to achieve better results for the company through facilitating the creation of products or services that are usable, enjoyable, and accessible and provide relevant and meaningful experiences for the users.

The UX maturity model

In 2006, Jakob Nielsen developed one of the earliest UX-maturity models, defining eight stages (that letter evolved to 6) of UX maturity to classify companies depending on the level of maturity of their user experience. This model provides a framework to assess each organization’s UX-related strengths and weaknesses and insights into how an organization can increase its UX maturity.?

The 6 stages of UX maturity

1. Absent: UX is ignored or nonexistent.
2. Limited: UX work is rare, done haphazardly, and lacking importance.
3. Emergent: The UX work is functional and promising but needs to be done more consistently and efficiently.
4. Structured: The organization has a semisystematic UX-related methodology that is widespread but with varying effectiveness and efficiency.
5. Integrated: UX work is comprehensive, effective, and pervasive.
6. User-driven: Dedication to UX at all levels leads to profound insights and exceptional user-centered–design outcomes.

At this point, you may be wondering: is my company placing the user at the center of everything we do?

By conducting a comprehensive assessment, you can understand at what stage the Startup stands. Therefore, improving UX maturity requires growth and evolution across several factors, including strategy, culture, process, and outcomes, simultaneously comprising several sub-factors.

The first step to achieving high levels of UX maturity is to identify the aspects in which your company is strongest and start working on strengthening the others.?

Conclusion

Even if your company is doing an excellent job at the UX level, you can still explore ways to use your user-centric work to help you improve product and service development and teamwork dynamics.

Are you ready to embark on the journey toward UX maturity? ??