You had UX talent – why did UX fail at your organization?

You don’t teach someone multivariate calculus before they learn to add. There’s no point in using sophisticated UX tools and techniques in your organization until it has mastered some basics. It would help if you stepped through the adoption of UX in maturity stages so your organization can make the most of it as an organizational change activity. It’s not just about hiring UXers. If UX fails at your company despite hiring several talented UXers, this might be one of the reasons.

Other things to know about adopting UX in your organization:

• People might be trying to adopt/push many other (design) processes in the organization. You must understand UX’s unique value and/or how it can work with other changes.
• One of the easiest things to adopt is usability testing. It tends not to be seen as slowing down existing processes, is easily understood, and can produce immediate insights and results.
• One of the most challenging things to introduce is upfront user research. Therefore, it is helpful to present it as field research after a release (because it is now upfront research for the next release).
• There are many good UX maturity models out there. Find one that resonates and use it to help assess where you are and what the most pragmatic next step might be for increasing your organization’s UX sophistication.
• Don’t expect massive change all at once. Find some willing product management people and introduce UX process change via pilot projects. Then showcase them to others.