Motivation
It’s always a challenge to introduce UX into a company or to bring it to the next level. There are a number of key factors which play along when it comes to UX. Are you the first UX Designer within the company or is there already a team? Is it a start-up or established corporate? The understanding and attitude of the team, management, and organization shapes the success or failure of UX. Fortunately, there are so-called UX maturity models to determine the current state of your company.
Challenge
Regardless of all the key factors, whether you are alone or an UX team exists, there is a quote from Jared Spool that always applies:
Your organization is perfectly optimized to produce the user experiences it currently delivers. If you want to improve the user experiences, you’ll need to change the optimizations of your organization. This is the core of a UX strategy. – Jared Spool
Know your status quo
UX needs to be continually readjusted and taught as the business expands and new procedures are developed. As a result, it’s possible that UX suddenly starts at a level 1 or level 2 in a new department, or that former employees leave and new ones with less or different experience join the team. It’s a constant cycle of: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing (Tuckman’s stages). Furthermore, communication, exchange, and alignment are crucial given that each departments and people have their own terminology!
Solution
Therefore organize a retro or interview to get a better understanding from your colleagues. Do internal research! In this case, talk to every department that deals directly with the User: Support, Marketing, etc. but especially Product Management and Development. UX is present in all departments.
This typically helps in clarifying common UX misunderstandings and identifying areas where current workflows can be improved. Whether an UX team is present or you are alone, this is an ongoing process.
For the record, there isn’t really a clear distinction between each maturity level; it’s all kind of blurry. For instance, I’m the first UX Designer hired to push a level 2 firm to the next level. Even so, I introduce and present UX as if the company is at level 1. so that we have a common foundation to build on.
My to-do list therefore is:
- Explaining what UX is via a presentation
- Clarifying the benefits for the company and customers
- How to get started with UX work
- Possible internal UX processes
- Creating first Archetypes