Stop Using UX Maturity Models
NNg's UX maturity model. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/

Stop Using UX Maturity Models

Stop showing people UX maturity models. All of them. Even mine. Even NNg's.

One of the most insulting things you can say to your department or company is, “Here’s how immature we are on a scale of X to Y.” Some models are so fluffy that a company at what we would say is one of the lowest stages will think they are at a higher stage. Of course our UX work is comprehensive, pervasive, universal, and habitual! Fluffy models range from meaningless to misleading.

Your company probably thinks it's pretty good! Getting better! It doesn't want to be judged as immature by anybody's scale. You're also assuming someone cares how "UX mature" we are.

Survey question to measure your maturity. Yes or no: do you focus on building great experiences for your customers AND employees? Who says no?


Can you have conversations about where and how we can be more customer-centric and user-focused without calling it maturity or immaturity? Can you demonstrate the value and ROI of great user and customer experiences without bringing out a scale of UX maturity? Can you show how every customer and user outcome is directly related to UX research, design, and other tasks (done well or poorly)?

Beware the maturity model that dilutes UX

Most UX maturity models show the highest level of maturity where UX practices and teams have autonomy and depth. They do their own work, they are understood and appreciated, and they have strong leadership. They are given time, budget, and headcount to do great work.

There is one maturity model out there that has the highest level of maturity where every other model is at nearly the lowest point. This is where critical thinking is important. Asking questions is important.

I've seen this model masquerade as democratization in disguise. Ideas like, "Your org will be more mature when everybody can do UX work," or, "Everybody is/can be a Designer," or, "You'll be able to do more important work when all of your teammates can do the less important UX tasks."

Critical thinking time...

  • I am unsure what "less important" UX tasks are.
  • I'm not sure why we want Engineers and PMs doing those tasks. If those tasks exist, why wouldn't we give them to UX Juniors, Apprentices, and Interns? Why are we giving them to non-UX staff?
  • I don't know how Engineers and PMs have time to pick up work we've deemed not important enough for us to do.
  • If it's too unimportant for us to do, why would it be important for them to do?
  • I'm concerned about any message we send to the cross-functional team that makes it sound like some of our work is unimportant or can easily be done by anybody.
  • I'm concerned about our standards for how well UX work should be done. It should be done quite well.
  • If we're OK with UX work being done badly, what are we teaching others about our work?


This is partially how we got where we are today.

Misunderstood. Unappreciated. And in too many cases, jobless. It's sadly logical: teach companies that UX is more mature when everybody "does it," and everybody will "do it." And then they might think your job can be cut since the work wasn't that important, and lots of people can do it.

We must stop talking about maturity because it is too easily insulting to the listener. #Empathy! But we must also be careful of the wolf in sheep's clothing... something that claims to be a model increasing UX maturity, but is actually nearly the lowest level of UX maturity by every other model.

Keep thinking critically.


Connect with us or learn more:

Komal Matnani

Design Lead | UX UI Design at EY | Ex-Amazon

1 年

Great thought process Debbie Levitt, MBA I haven’t been too vocal about this but it’s about time we appreciate all the effort the teams had done before dedicated ux existed. It has always been my approach to first appreciate how far they’ve come, I genuinely feel so too. Thinking critically vs criticizing, worlds apart. I’ve come to learn in my journey: communication respectfully yet critically is key to building a solid foundation for all relationships amongst stakeholders, I take the time to put myself in the shoes of others rather than pushing them to fit in mine(ux needs). It has brought good change ?? Again, thank you for sharing this!

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Jason Grant

CEO at Integral - Redesigning Humanity

1 年

I used a maturity model at BT for the first time to highlight to major stakeholders how non-UX driven BT was at the time. It was on 1 almost entirely throughout the entire corporation, with exception of a tiny, isolate central UX team who themselves were at 4 with strong aspirations to be at 6 and expand their size and impact. For this to happen, the rest of the company would at least need to aspire to be 2-3 (for the teams to accept the premise of UX as a leading transformational power in the corporation). I drew the diagram into a funny illustration by hand. It was so liked that it got re-printed around offices. Several months later, BT were running Design Thinking workshops to 1000s of staff across UK offices and Indian offices. Net effect was that UX Design became a lot more impactful, powerful, effective, respected and funded throughout BT. Who needs Maturity Models? Companies that are looking to make a practical transformation for the better. Thanks.

Michael Rodriguez

UX Design/Research Graduate | Backend Technical Support Analyst at ABC Fitness

1 年

Am I wrong for thinking it would be more adequate to call it the stages of UX perceivement? Every stage shown is a user's observation.

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Cindy McKissock

User-Centered, Product-Led Digital Innovation ? Financial Services ? FinTech ? 360-Degree Background in Design, Product, Data, and Engineering

1 年

Debbie Levitt, MBA I feel enlightened! Thank you. ????

Larry Marine

Veteran UX Researcher and Author of Disruptive Research

1 年

Would our respect for a "maturity model" (or any metric for UCD adoption) be improved with different measures? For instance, what if we rated adoption by the observable UX practices followed in a company? I guess one issue would be acknowledging what good practices are and I'm certain there would always be some disagreement, there.

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