XD Capability Self-Assessment

This self-assessment survey will help you assess how optimized your organization is to being an experience-oriented design culture.

Getting Started

For each “Experience Development Scenario” statement below, choose the frequency with which the scenario occurs in your organization.

Scoring is provided at the end of the survey.

Experience Development Scenario
Never Happens
Sometimes Happens (some projects)
Always Happens (most projects)
 
Defining the Product:
1. New features are added on the request of one key client.


2. A new feature is added at the request of an executive.


3. When a project starts, the Business and Senior Management create a project goal with a specific solution in mind. (e.g.: “We need a tool that will address issue A”).


4. We sketch out or prototype the product/service architecture/website early on because we are concrete thinkers.


 
Meeting Expectations:
5. The product that the Business or Product Marketing asked for and the product that was delivered by Development are not in tune with one another.


6.Very early in the project, a prototype was created. The final result is very similar or identical to the initial prototype.


7. Projects overrun in time and budget because of requirements change frequently during the project.


 
Design Process:
  
8. Design reviews are done by consensus: the design solution that gets the most “votes” wins.


9. Design solutions are justified with arguments that start something like this: “...and what if a user wants to do X? We'll need Feature Y if that happens.”


10. Design solutions are justified with arguments that start like this: “...I'm a good example of one of this product's target users, and I might want to do X, so we'll need Feature Y.”


11. Focus group results are used and referred to throughout the project duration (e.g.: “Remember what they said in that focus group session! People don't want X…”).


12. User experience and GUI design is part of the development process.


13. We use three or more different vendors for coding, branding, market research, information architecture, usability, communication, etc.


 
User Needs
14. It is unclear to us how 70% of the product's functionality/content is used by our customers.


15. We talk to customers at the beginning of every project, and the next time we get their feedback is just prior to or just after product launch.


16. The responsibility for user experience falls to our organization's Branding and Communications group.


17. When we test our products /services /websites, we use project team members, vice presidents, and sometimes the CEO as the main testers.


18. Our marketing/sales team provides us with the voice of the end user.


19. The boundaries of the project (project scope) define the parameters in which we think about the experience


 
    Your score:      
 
If you scored…

between 0 and 6 , we can learn from each other. You have some very effective processes in place – we'd love to chat with you!

between 7 and 25, there is room in your processes for optimization. You're on your way, but Akendi can get you further down the path of becoming an experience-oriented organization – please contact us.

between 26 and 38, your organization is at high risk of preventable product and market failures. Akendi can certainly help – please contact us today!

Take the first step >>


Let's Talk!

shaunPlease email Shaun Illingworth, Managing Director, at contact@akendi.com or 1.866.585.1660 x0 for questions and more information about how we help optimize your user experience design, digital product design, physical product design, or wayfinding & signage.

About Us
Akendi is a customer research, user experience design & product strategy firm. We are passionate about the creation of intentional experiences – whether those involve digital products, physical products, mobile, web or bricks-and-mortar interactions. We work shoulder-to-shoulder to improve the experiences you deliver.
Industry leading firm in User Experience Design, Usability consulting for companies: New York, Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, San Francisco, San Jose, California, NYC, Canada.
Contact us for more information:
t: +1.866.585.1660 x1
e: contact@akendi.com
m: Boston, Toronto, Ottawa.
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