Summary
How do we advance design maturity in the enterprise space, particularly in the B-to-B space where we often struggle to distinguish between the buyer’s and the user’s needs? What doesn't cut it: traditional capability maturity models, created through massive surveys to determine the organizational characteristics that contribute to business success. After more than two years of the collective traumas and personal emergencies caused by a pandemic, a racial reckoning, and other existential crises, designers are deeply tired, worn out, and looking to work in organizations that are "mature", where their contributions are understood and supported. You need to forge your own definition of design maturity, based on understanding and care for the people in your design team, the specifics of your organization, and the state of UX as a profession. With this deep understanding you can start the experiments and gain support for initiatives to increase the impact of design in your organization.
Key Insights
-
•
Existing design maturity models may fail to capture team-specific contexts and emotional realities.
-
•
Creating a custom definition of design maturity makes it easier to set direction and practical actions.
-
•
Design maturity must balance delivering value to customers, business, team members, and society.
-
•
Pandemic and social justice events shifted organizational focus toward care and empathy.
-
•
Internal team conversations reveal feelings of invisibility and exclusion, especially among researchers.
-
•
Design leaders need to use empathy to understand functional partners and demonstrate design’s business value.
-
•
Four pillars—mission/vision/principles, people, processes, and design thinking—structure this team’s design maturity.
-
•
Pausing team-wide design critiques improved psychological safety and sustained feedback via smaller groups.
-
•
A one-size-fits-all designer-to-engineer ratio does not adequately reflect product or organizational needs.
-
•
Team-defined design maturity fosters greater engagement, visibility, and pride among designers.
Notable Quotes
"We realized there was no way to make sense of the conglomeration of sticky notes."
"You need to come up with your own definition of design maturity based on your team’s understanding and context."
"Design maturity results from behaviors and structures that enable delivering value to customers, business, ourselves, and society."
"Researchers feel like second-class citizens when they’re not invited into early conversations."
"It’s not just about doing the craft of design but also figuring out how design fits into the organization."
"Business is just people who may be working with design but don’t quite get how design helps them."
"During the pandemic, we learned to have awkward and uncomfortable conversations about people’s realities."
"Team members told me they felt really seen for the first time during these discussions."
"We had to push back on the idea that we could just use existing models without understanding our team’s needs."
"Use your powers of empathy to see things from your functional partners’ point of view."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We want many voices and perspectives represented in this community and in the book — no contribution is too small."
John Calhoun Rachel PosmanBring your DesignOps Story to Life! The Definitive DesignOps Book Jam
October 3, 2023
"People in some countries are three times more likely to buy a product if it’s localized in their language."
Nancy DouyonWe'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
June 15, 2018
"We used user testing’s built-in panel and that significantly reduced the turnaround time on conducting design studies."
Veevi RosensteinBuilding for Scale: Creating the Zendesk UX Research Practice
January 8, 2024
"Everyone may have different energy levels depending on the time of day, medication can also affect this."
Jessica NorrisADHD: A DesignOps Superpower
September 9, 2022
"Radically adaptive experiences bend to your current wants and needs, creating unique, unpredictable journeys."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"Omni Oppressors try to do everything, resulting in micromanagement and harming organizational culture."
Jason Mesut Martina Hodges-Schell Jose CoronadoUnmasking Design Leadership: Navigating leadership without neglecting ourselves
October 30, 2025
"You have to deliberately quiet that noise in your head and focus on humans in a world of humans."
Steve Portigal Susan Simon-Daniels Tamara Hale Randolph Duke IIWar Stories LIVE! Q&A-Discussion
March 30, 2020
"I don’t come from a design background at all. It’s like my dirty secret."
Meredith Black Elyse HornbacherBuilding Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
December 17, 2020
"Research is a team sport; teams take it more seriously when they do it together."
Matt LeMayYou Don’t “Get” Anyone to Do Anything
December 6, 2022
