The UX Maturity Reality Check
Why saying you care about users isn’t enough
What does it really mean when a company says it prioritises the user experience?
Is that commitment reflected in how teams make decisions, allocate resources, and define success? Or is it simply a branding statement — a veneer of empathy covering a system still centred on internal convenience?
This is the central question of UX maturity. It goes beyond hiring a few designers or running isolated usability tests. It’s about deeply embedding user-centred thinking into the DNA of an organisation — through its strategy, its operations, and its culture.
Truly mature organisations operationalise UX as a consistent discipline. That means having leadership that champions the user, cross-functional teams that collaborate seamlessly, and processes that elevate evidence over assumption. It requires a shared belief that UX is not just a feature of product development — it is a core competency that drives sustainable growth.
And most companies aren’t there yet.
What Is UX Maturity (and why does it matter)?
UX maturity refers to the extent to which user experience principles are integrated into an organisation’s structure, processes, and culture. Nielsen Norman Group defines it as an organisation’s “desire and ability to successfully deliver user-centred design.”
It’s not a question of how many designers you have. It’s about how well you integrate user research into decision-making, how frequently you evaluate usability, and how seriously your leadership treats customer insights. A mature UX practice influences upstream strategy, not just downstream visuals.
UX maturity reflects a systemic commitment to design as a driver of innovation, efficiency, and user satisfaction. When UX is mature, teams solve real problems — rooted in research — not assumed ones. Design becomes an enabler of alignment across business goals and customer needs.
Norman Nielsen outlines six stages of UX maturity:
- Stage 1: Absent — UX is ignored or misunderstood.
- Stage 2: Limited — UX work exists but is inconsistent and unsupported.
- Stage 3: Emergent — Some processes and awareness exist, but adoption is uneven.
- Stage 4: Structured — UX is more standardised and supported across departments.
- Stage 5: Integrated — UX is embedded in strategy and cross-functional processes.
- Stage 6: User-Driven — UX leads innovation, and user needs drive strategic decisions.
Companies with higher UX maturity don’t just make better products — they outperform their peers. According to McKinsey, firms with strong design capabilities saw 32% more revenue growth and 56% higher total shareholder returns.
UX maturity is not just about delighting users — it’s a measurable competitive advantage.
Mind the Gap
Despite the widespread acknowledgment that customer experience is a strategic priority, there remains a significant gap between aspiration and reality.
77% of companies say UX is key to their competitiveness. Yet, only 5% have reached high levels of design maturity. In practice, most are stuck in the middle — able to articulate the value of UX, but unable to systematically deliver on it.
According to Norman Nielsen, nearly half of UX professionals rate their company at Stage 3: Emergent. These organisations have some UX roles and processes, but they lack consistency, executive support, and integration into core strategy. Just 4% operate at Stage 5 (Integrated), and fewer than 0.1% achieve the highest stage (User-Driven).
This pattern repeats across industry reports. InVision’s research showed that 41% of organisations were still operating at the lowest maturity levels — doing only basic design work, often without user input.
So, what’s stopping companies from moving up the maturity ladder?
Organisational change is hard. Advancing UX maturity means revisiting how teams are structured, how success is defined, and how decisions are made. It requires resources, sustained effort, and the will to prioritise long-term impact over short-term convenience.
It also requires a shift in mindset — especially at the leadership level.
Executives must learn to see UX not as an aesthetic concern, but as a system of inquiry, iteration, and empathy. Without that shift, design stays stuck in the basement, rather than shaping the boardroom agenda.
Is Your UX Just Window Dressing?
Here are some indicators that your organisation is still operating in the early stages of UX maturity:
- UX is absent from strategic discussions. If there is no Head of UX, no design leadership represented in high-level meetings, and no consistent inquiry into what users need, UX is likely undervalued and underpowered.
- UX resources are underdeveloped. Your company has a single designer supporting multiple products, or none at all. There’s no budget for usability testing, and research efforts are sporadic or nonexistent.
- UX is reactive, not proactive. Designers are looped in after features are built, asked only to adjust the UI. UX becomes cosmetic rather than foundational — solving surface issues instead of shaping product vision.
- Decisions are based on opinion, not evidence. Product choices reflect stakeholder preferences, internal assumptions, or the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), rather than validated user research.
- Design lacks consistency. Different teams produce different experiences. There’s no unified design language, no shared pattern library, and no coordinated efforts to ensure cohesion across platforms.
- There’s UX theatre, but no follow-through. Your company hosts design thinking workshops, creates empathy maps, or references user personas — but those activities are disconnected from the delivery process.
- UX isn’t measured. There are no KPIs related to usability, satisfaction, or task success. Teams don’t know whether user experience is improving or declining, because they aren’t tracking it.
These issues are not just frustrating. They result in misaligned products, high support costs, and poor customer retention.
But the good news is that they’re fixable.
From Lip Service to Leadership
Elevating UX maturity is a long-term transformation. It involves coordinated improvements in leadership commitment, team integration, and operational processes.
1. Gain Executive Buy-In
Progress starts at the top. If your leadership team doesn’t understand or value UX, you’ll struggle to build a sustainable practice.
Present UX as a business strategy. Use metrics executives care about — revenue, retention, reduced support costs — to illustrate the return on UX investment. According to Forrester, every dollar invested in UX yields $100 in return.
Run small, high-impact pilot projects. Improve a frustrating user flow. Reduce a support burden. Share the results. These wins provide proof of value and help convert skeptics into champions.
Educate leaders. Explain the processes behind UX work — research, synthesis, iteration — not just the visuals. When executives understand that UX reduces risk and improves outcomes, they are more likely to fund and advocate for it.
2. Integrate UX into Product Teams
Isolated design teams rarely thrive. UX needs to be embedded into the rhythm of product development.
Assign designers and researchers to product squads, not just project queues. Include them in standups, planning sessions, and retrospectives. Make them equal partners in discovery and delivery.
Adopt a shared design system. Standardising components and patterns across teams improves consistency and accelerates delivery. It also creates a shared language between designers, developers, and stakeholders.
Train cross-functional teammates in UX fundamentals. Encourage engineers, PMs, and marketers to participate in research. Build organisational empathy by exposing more people to real user pain points.
Case in point: American Express consolidated its design function into an enterprise team, improving collaboration and consistency. As a result, it saw a 21% increase in net income — demonstrating that UX alignment scales business results.
3. Evolve UX Practices and Infrastructure
UX maturity depends on robust, repeatable processes. That means systematising research, feedback, and iteration.
Build a cadence for research. Conduct regular user interviews, usability tests, and surveys. Embed discovery into your workflow — not just as a one-time event, but as an ongoing input to product development.
Measure what matters. Track task completion rates, error rates, NPS, and CSAT. Share these metrics widely. Use them to drive decisions, not just validate them retroactively.
Create UX documentation. Build playbooks, research repositories, and testing templates. Train new hires in your way of working. This institutional knowledge is a key differentiator in high-maturity teams.
As your organisation grows, consider building a DesignOps function. This team supports UX at scale by maintaining tools, governance, and alignment. Even small improvements — like shared Figma libraries or a Slack channel for user insights — lay the groundwork for future maturity.
Conclusion
UX maturity isn’t just about technique — it’s about mindset, accountability, and evolution.
Most organisations still have work to do. But every mature design practice started with one person raising their hand to ask, “What do our users need?”
That could be you.
Start with one small win. Run a test. Share an insight. Build a champion. Then another. With each step, UX moves from decoration to differentiation. From talk to truth. From theory to habit.
And once that happens, UX stops being a phase in the project plan. It becomes a cornerstone of how your organisation works — and how it wins.
Ask yourself: Where does your organisation stand today?
And more importantly: Where do you want it to be in a year?
Roland Tomlinson is a senior product designer with Falcorp Technologies. He helps teams build products that balance business goals with authentic user needs, by bridging the gap between design, business strategy, and technology.
References
Nielsen Norman Group. (2021). The 6 stages of UX maturity. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-model/
Nielsen Norman Group. (2022). UX maturity: Industry data and insights. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-maturity-industry-data/
Forrester Research. (2021). The business impact of investing in experience design. https://www.forrester.com/report/The-Business-Impact-Of-Investing-In-Experience-Design/RES176193
InVision. (2022). The new design frontier: The InVision design maturity report. https://www.invisionapp.com/design-better/design-maturity-model/
McKinsey & Company. (2018). The business value of design. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design
Temkin, B. (2008). The five levels of customer experience maturity. Forrester Research. https://experiencematters.blog/2008/05/22/the-five-levels-of-customer-experience-maturity/
UX Magazine. (2021). Why UX maturity matters more than ever. https://uxmag.com/articles/why-ux-maturity-matters-more-than-ever
EY (Ernst & Young). (2024). EY Future Consumer Index: Bridging the C-suite and UX divide. https://www.ey.com/en_gl/consumer-products-retail/ey-future-consumer-index-bridging-the-c-suite-and-ux-divide
Reding, M. (2022). The importance of UX champions in enterprise design. UX Collective. https://uxdesign.cc/the-importance-of-ux-champions-in-enterprise-design-123456789abc
Interaction Design Foundation. (2023). UX maturity and your organization: A guide to understanding your UX maturity level. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ux-maturity
