Are you riding the UX Strategy wave to maturity?

ARE YOU RIDING THE
STRATEGY WAVE TO
MATURITY?
Pradeep Nayar
@designonmymind
August 26, 2015
@ Fuzzy Math

THE  
BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
TODAY…

IT’S A GOOD TIME TO
BE A UX PERSON :-)

WHAT IS UX STRATEGY?
I’m sure you folks know this!

@designonmymind Are you riding the strategy wave to maturity?
TOPICS WE WILL COVER TODAY
• What is your organization’s maturity?
• What is your UX adoption maturity?
• Where do we go from here?
15

WHAT IS YOUR
ORGANIZATION’S MATURITY?

STORY# 1
Why I’m talking here today….

ORGANIZATIONS HAVE
A METABOLIC RATE

ORGANIZATIONS EVOLVE
Just like humans, organizations have evolved.

CORPORATE LIFE CYCLE MODEL
A simple ten-stage corporate life cycle model that helps us understand the
typical life-cycle stages that many organizations go through.
Created by Dr. Ichak Adizes, a renowned business guru and theorist.
21
Reference: http://www.adizes.com/lifecycle/
COURTSHIP
INFANCY
GO-GO
ADOLESCENCE
PRIME
THE FALL
ARISTOCRACY
RECRIMINATION
BUREAUCRACY
DEATH

CORPORATE LIFE CYCLE MODEL (EXPLAINED)
22
COURTSHIP
COURTSHIP
It exists as an idea in
the Founder’s head.
The focus is on dreams
and possibilities.
The primary goal of this
stage is to build the
Founder’s enthusiasm
and commitment to
making this dream a
reality.

22
INFANCY
INFANCY
The Founder quits her
day job and focuses on
moving from ideas to
action.
The time for talking is
over; it is time to get to
work and produce
results (sales and cash.)
There is usually a lack
of attention to
paperwork, process,
systems and sleep!

22
GO-GO
GO-GO
This is a rapid growth
stage with strong sales
and cash ﬂow.
The founder believes
they can do no wrong
and sees everything as
an opportunity.
The company is
organized around
people rather than
functions; capable
employees wear many
hats.

22
ADOLESCENCE
ADOLESCENCE
During this stage the
company is forced to
take a new form.
This second birth is an
emotional time where
the company must find
a life apart from that
provided by its
Founder.
With so many internal
conflicts the company
suffer a temporary loss
of vision.

22
PRIME
PRIME
This is the optimal
position on the
lifecycle, where the
organization ﬁnally
achieves a balance
between control and
ﬂexibility.
There is an enterprise-
wide focus on
customers and earning
their long-term
satisfaction.
Priorities are clear. The
organization knows
what to do, and what
not to do.

22
THE FALL
THE FALL
Companies that are in
the Fall phase have
started to lose their
vitality and are aging.
They are still ﬁnancially
strong, but without the
eagerness of their
earlier stages. They
welcome new ideas but
with less excitement
than they did during
the growing stages.
Companies in the Fall
stage are often cash
rich and have strong
ﬁnancial statements.

22
ARISTOCRACY
ARISTOCRACY
The company
neglected to pursue
long-term
opportunities, the focus
becomes increasingly
short-term.
Companies acquire
businesses rather than
incubate start-ups.
Company leaders rely
on the past to carry
them into the future.

22
RECRIMINATION
RECRIMINATION
The good-old-buddy
days of the Aristocracy
are gone, and the
witch-hunts begin.
Executives ﬁght to
protect their turf,
isolating themselves
from their fellow
executives.
The focus is on who
caused the problems,
rather than on what to
do about it.

22
BUREAUCRACY
BUREAUCRACY
Although it should be
dead, the company in
Bureaucracy is kept
alive by artiﬁcial
ﬁnancial life support.
Procedure manuals
thicken, paper work
abounds, and rules and
policies choke
innovation and
creativity.

22
DEATH
DEATH
Death occurs when no
one remains committed
to sustaining the
organization.
This ﬁnal stage may
creep up over several
years, or it may arrive
suddenly, with one
massive blow.

22
COURTSHIP
INFANCY
GO-GO
ADOLESCENCE
PRIME
THE FALL
ARISTOCRACY
RECRIMINATION
BUREAUCRACY
DEATH

Are you riding the strategy wave to maturity?@designonmymind
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Where is your
organization in this
corporate life cycle
model?
If Prime is the optimal
phase of the life cycle is it
ideal for UX or does it
start before that?
Please note: Unlike the lifecycle
of human beings, organizations
are not required to eventually die
23
COURTSHIP
INFANCY
GO-GO
ADOLESCENCE
PRIME
THE FALL
ARISTOCRACY
RECRIMINATION
BUREAUCRACY
DEATH

FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Where is your
organization in this
corporate life cycle
model?
If Prime is the optimal
phase of the life cycle is it
ideal for UX or does it
start before that?
Please note: Unlike the lifecycle
of human beings, organizations
are not required to eventually die
23
COURTSHIP
INFANCY
GO-GO
ADOLESCENCE
PRIME
THE FALL
ARISTOCRACY
RECRIMINATION
BUREAUCRACY
DEATH
Is this ideal for UX?

FORMING STORMING  
NORMING PERFORMING MODEL
24
FORMING
Learning about each other
STORMING
Challenging each other
NORMING
Working with each other
PERFORMING
Working as one
Performing model of group development
by Bruce Tuckman (1965)

IS THERE…
A MISSION
A VISION
A SHARED PURPOSE
AND A CLEAR STRATEGY TO GET THERE…

WHAT IS YOUR
UX ADOPTION MATURITY?

CORPORATE UX MATURITY MODEL
As every organization evolves in its maturity around user experience, their
understanding and appreciation of the ﬁeld goes through deﬁned phases of maturity.
Created by Jacob Nielsen back in 2006.
29
STAGE 1: Hostility Toward Usability
STAGE 2: Developer-Centered User Experience
STAGE 3: Skunkworks User Experience
STAGE 4: Dedicated UX Budget
STAGE 5: Managed Usability
STAGE 6: Systematic Usability Process
STAGE 7: Integrated User-Centered Design
STAGE 8: User-Driven Corporation
Reference: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-maturity-stages-1-4/
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-maturity-stages-5-8/

CORPORATE UX MATURITY MODEL (EXPLAINED)
30
STAGE 1
Developers simply
don't want to hear
about users or their
needs
Humans are irrelevant.
They’re “told” to use
the system. Usability
issues are user errors.
You can forget about
promoting user
experience!

30
STAGE 2
Design team relies on
its own intuition about
what constitutes good
user experience.
At stage 2, people care
about usability.
You will hear that UX is
important for the
organization but there
is no actually funding
for usability work.

30
STAGE 3
Despite all the barriers,
at this stage, a few
groups within the
company will initiate
small UX eﬀorts.
All UX activities and
user research are ad-
hoc and driven by user
advocates hidden
within the company.

30
STAGE 4
UX activities are
planned for in the same
way as other quality
processes.
UX staﬀ is scattered
around the company
and doesn't have any
systematic processes
in place.

30
STAGE 5
There's an oﬃcial
usability group, led by a
UX manager who has
the charter to "own" UX
and usability.
The UX manager
spends all his time
increasing
organizational maturity
and leveraging existing
UX staﬀ for more
strategic purposes.

30
STAGE 6
The company has
recognized the need
for an actual user-
centered design
process, with multiple
activities and
milestones.
There will be a process
in place for tracking
user experience quality
across projects and
releases.

30
STAGE 7
The company often
tracks quality at stage 7
through quantitative
usability metrics.
Each project has
deﬁned usability goals
that these
measurements must
surpass for the design
to be green lit for
release.

30
STAGE 8
User data doesn’t just
deﬁne individual
projects in stage 8, it
determines what types
of projects the
company should fund.
The concept of total
user experience is
extended beyond the
screen to other forms
of customer.

TIME TO
PROGRESS
Stage 1 
A company can remain
hostile toward usability
for decades.
Stage 2 to 4 
Companies often spend
2 to 3 years in each of
these stages.
Stage 5 to 7 
A company will often
spend 6 to 7 years each
in stages 5 and 6.
Stage 8 
In most cases, it's  
20 years!
31

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
This is where I rant!

DO YOU HAVE A
(C-SUITE) SPONSOR?

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DEFINITION
SEPERATE FROM EXECUTION?
34

HOW DOES  
UX STRATEGY FIT IN THE TEAM?

HOW DOES  
UX STRATEGY FIT IN THE TEAM?
It depends…

Vs
Team of
Generalists
Team of
Specialists

VsSeparate Group Within a group

“IT’S NOT ABOUT DELIVERABLES,
IT’S ABOUT DELIVERY!”
- Andy Budd

UX STRATEGY WILL EVOLVE TO
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY
Let’s ditch the word UX so that we don’t have
anything to do with UX/UI

WE’RE NOT!
Think about technology adoption in organizations
over the last 20 years

WE’RE DEALING WITH
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
But we’re screwed cause we make things look
easy. Everyone can do UX!

WHAT IS YOUR PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT PHILOSOPHY?

WHAT IS YOUR PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT PHILOSOPHY?
Quiet honestly, it doesn’t matter.
You just need the right people.

IN SUMMARY
• Organizations have a metabolic rate. Does your’s match?
• What is overall maturity of your organization?
• What is your stage of UX adoption?
• Do you have a C-suite sponsor?
• Are you talking strategy?
• Do you have the right team structure for it?
• We we really need to own a deliverable?
• We’re going through organizational change management.
• Ultimately, it’s having the right people that matter.
45

THANK YOU.
Questions, comments & feedback
Please contact @designonmymind
Special Thanks to
Amazing Photographers
who put their work in the creative commons
Amazing Illustrators at the Noun Project
Alexander Blagochevsky
Dan Hetteix
Jaime Carrion
Jakob Vogel
Jeremy J Bristol
Juan Pablo Bravo
Krisada
Lil Squid
Marco Hernandez
Melissa Hendricks
Mike Ashley
Gifted Friends
Dan Boysen
Daran Redenbaugh

Are you riding the UX Strategy wave to maturity?

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