3 Free Resources to Boost UX Maturity in Your Team
Achieving great UX design is not just a function or talent of individuals, it is an organizational characteristic — wise words uttered by Chapman and Plewes during the 2014 International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability. But how do organizations get to the point that they become user-centered, and where design is firmly integrated into all aspects of the customer experience?
Without a doubt, improving user experience maturity is a huge challenge that many organizations face. If you’re interested in exploring more, this blog post compares the different UX Maturity Models that are out there. Getting there is by no means a one-person or even a one-team job, but that being said, there are methods out there that you can start incorporating today that can certainly make a dent. Just like people, organizations learn by doing, so let’s start doing.
This past June the SAP AppHaus launched an updated version of the Innovation Toolkit, a collection of free resources with step-by-step guidance on how to kickstart innovation in your organization. Below, I’m sharing a few of my favorite picks from the toolkit that also work wonderfully to boost user experience maturity in your team.
1. The Design Thinking Leporello
We’ve all heard the term design thinking. But what does it really mean to work in a user-centered way? How does it feel to start with a challenge that you do not know the solution to from the beginning? If your team is struggling with these questions, it’s time to break out the Design Thinking Leporello.
The Leporello is a printable, foldable template that enables you to have a hands-on experience with design thinking. You can use it with any even-numbered group. The basic idea is to have two people working together, interviewing each other using the prompts provided in the foldout, and creating solutions for one another. It works great as an icebreaker, as a jumping point into a new topic, and as an introductory design thinking experience to explain your work process. For a digital experience, simply use the slide deck included in the download, available in both English and German.
2. Scenes (+Digital Version!)
Exactly what problem is your UX team trying to solve for users? Storyboards are a powerful way to weed through the lengthy list of product specifications and uncover the real issues the UX should be addressing (i.e. how do I make my user’s workday easier?). Storyboards can also easily show the value of ideas and product visions in their actual context of use. They make messages more memorable and understandable.
Scenes is a tool and method to quickly create storyboards for products and services, collaboratively and iteratively. It empowers business leaders and professionals of all industries to shape their ideas and scenarios in the form of fun, illustrative stories that don’t require you to have refined drawing skills. Check out the add-ons for retail, healthcare, logistics, and more. If you and your team are working virtually, Scenes also provides tips and templates to work and present digitally.
3. Innovation Toolkit for Virtual Collaboration Bundle
Did you know that culture is the biggest hurdle for digital transformation and innovation inside organizations? So what can you do to get your team to open up to new possibilities, especially in the era of remote working? In this downloadable starter pack, you’ll find a bundle of methods to help you and your team get started with a human-centered approach to innovation while working virtually. It combines the most important content out of the toolkit to take your team from exploration all the way to design with step-by-step instructions for every exercise, such as a Stakeholder Analysis, Persona Workshop, User Experience Journey Map, and much more. To enable collaboration and innovation between remote teams, links are provided to the relevant exercise templates in MURAL, an online tool for virtual collaboration.
Take me to the Innovation Culture Bundle >
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Find many more useful methods, exercises, and articles via the SAP AppHaus Innovation Toolkit, and read more about the project via the official blog post Jump Start for Innovation: SAP’s New Innovation Toolkit.
Psst: This blog originally appeared on our main channel on SAP Community.
