Thoughts

The Truly XD UX Maturity Model

Five levels, four dimensions and why I built my own maturity model

UX maturity has a seat at the table in every digital project. But, hardly anyone ever mentions it. Even so, tech-native teams usually know exactly what's meant as soon as someone raises the subject – or the problems that come from a lack of maturity. It's just that nobody brought it up before. There's a perfect phrase for this: the elephant in the room. 🐘 If even experienced digital teams ignore the elephant, what's it like in a museum, an association or a social impact start-up where digital runs ‘on the side’? Yep. That's exactly what I developed a UX maturity model and the UX Maturity Snapshot for (or against?).

The Truly XD UX Maturity Model is a lean maturity model that measures a team's UX maturity across four equally weighted dimensions (strategy, process, culture, outcomes) and places it on one of five levels. Unlike conventional models, it isn't designed for long-term strategy but for kicking off a specific digital project.

But why? Am I reinventing the wheel?

Short answer: no. Long answer: I've been working on UX maturity for several years, and in 2022 I even gave a talk on it at a Research plus event hosted by the DGOF, the German Society for Online Research (in German only). There are plenty of UX maturity models out there (some of them are listed in the article ‘What is UX maturity?’), and the world doesn't really need another one. So the Truly XD UX Maturity Model doesn't reinvent the wheel either. For the number of levels, I took my cue from Chapman and Plewes's model, and I borrowed the four dimensions straight from NN/g. What's different is the purpose – more on that in a moment.

The goals of the model, combined with the UX Maturity Snapshot:

  • Easy access: A conventional UX maturity assessment, from NN/g for example, usually takes several weeks and calls for a five-figure investment. That's rather a lot of time and budget for an elephant nobody talks about, so the Snapshot and the model needed to be far easier to access.
  • Easy to understand: The Truly XD UX Maturity Model has five levels, matching the familiar mental model of a star rating (1 to 5 stars). For its purpose, that's detailed enough without getting complicated.
  • Addressing the elephant: The last but most important goal is for UX maturity to move to the centre of digital projects – or at the very least, to get talked about. Because, as plenty of clever researchers have found in numerous studies (some of them are linked below the article), knowing your own UX maturity can have a lasting positive effect on a project's chances of success.

What makes the Truly XD UX Maturity Model different?

The model has exactly one job: showing where a project should start. Instead of offering you the scope the UX textbook prescribes, I suggest the scope that you and your team can actually sustain today. If you're applying user-centred design for the first time, for example, a Product Strategy Workshop and a lean Design System Starter Kit make more sense than a design system with a cornucopia of components. 🎆

I explain in more detail why I work this way in ‘The Truly XD design process’ and ‘Your level-up for product and team’.

All maturity models basically do the same thing: they assess dimensions and translate the result into levels. Most of them, though, are built for a company's long-term strategy. Mine is built for the project kick-off. Small difference, big impact.

Dimensions

Like other UX maturity models, the Truly XD model assesses user-centred thinking and working across several dimensions, all of which affect maturity and influence one another. In the Truly XD model, all four dimensions count equally, at 25% each. Yes, that's a simplification. For starting a project, it's exactly right.

The four UX maturity dimensions

  • Strategy: Is user-centred design one of your organisation's goals, and does leadership back it?
  • Process: Do you work in a user-centred way – not just once, but repeatably?
  • Culture: How does your organisation think about UX, and who works with whom?
  • Outcomes: Do you measure what user-centred work achieves?

Selected people from your team fill in an online questionnaire: scale questions on each dimension, plus a few open questions that reveal where the shoe pinches. The overall score is the average across all dimensions and determines the level.

Each dimension is assessed individually and discussed together with you and your team. That way, you can see where investment pays off.

Levels

As with Chapman and Plewes, there are five levels. (NN/g works with six, incidentally.) My motivation: keep it simple.

What the five levels mean

  • Absent (overall score 1.0 to 1.9): User-centred design plays no role. Design is decoration or happens by chance.
  • Emerging (overall score 2.0 to 2.9): User-centred work happens when a particular person is involved. If that person leaves, it leaves with them.
  • Growing (overall score 3.0 to 3.4): User-centred work happens, but not equally in every team.
  • Established (overall score 3.5 to 4.2): User-centred work is business as usual, and leadership backs it.
  • Strategic (overall score 4.3 to 5.0): User-centred work is firmly embedded, measured and drives the strategy.

Progress tends to be quick at the start; later on, the steps get smaller. That's why the lower levels are wider and the upper ones narrower: the more mature a team, the finer the differences.

Knowing your level, we define milestones and goals that serve your product and your team equally.

What does a UX maturity assessment do for your project?

Now you might be wondering why you should have YOURSELVES assessed first when you and your team are really just looking for someone to deliver a project. Fair enough. But UX maturity isn't about good or bad. Metaphorically speaking, it's about switching on the light in a dimly lit room so you can find what you're looking for. 💡 Granted, the Snapshot is more torch than floodlight – price-wise, too. For kicking off a project, that's almost always enough – let's be real. And even a torch shows you quite a lot:

  • Spot patterns: The Snapshot shows why you keep running into the same questions.
  • Realistic project goals: You know what's doable now and what's better moved further down the roadmap.
  • Save money: In a well-lit room, you don't buy things you don't actually need right now.
  • Clear priorities: You know what comes first – and can justify it to your board, management or funders.

Further reading

Let's switch on the light together!

The UX Maturity Snapshot is the starting point for every collaboration with Truly XD.

I'd be happy to tell you more in a free, no-obligation 30-minute intro call or send me a written request.

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