What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?
If I'm honest, I'm not sure the agency I was working for were really trying to solve a problem for the client. The thing that had been sold in was really a way of justifying selling more services to the client. But I was asked to make it work, so I did.
But the concept of maturity modelling? Very cool (if you're into that sort of thing, and I am).
The thing that I love about maturity modelling is it’s a great way to show how systems thinking can benefit digital transformation. To do it properly however, you need a set of criteria that could be applied to any company, rather than designing it around the company you're working for. A business needs to be able to compare how they're performing against others.
Maturity modelling is rarely used in the way that it can provide real benefit to a business. By that I mean it’s usually done when the sh*t has hit the fan and you’re trying to work out “how bad is it?” (Babe, if you’re asking, it’s Liz Truss thinking the OBR should be done away with, bad).
In this approach I carried out research with the client's design function in the UK and EU offices. I then designed a set of criteria that the teams were benchmarked against. It illustrated where they were now, and what they needed to do to improve.
Ideally, the criteria should have been designed in advance of the work, as bias was unavoidable in the approach, but I'd been brought in after the work had started.
I've been involved in other maturity modelling since then, and the things I've built into the way I do them now include:
- Not limiting to a single design element like UX. Design changes so rapidly, UX is here(ish) today, but could be gone tomorrow. How can an enterprise entity mature if design functions change rapidly?
- Creating an environment where people being interviewed can be as honest as they need to be without fear of repercussion. Maturity modelling needs to have an element of therapy in it, you cannot grow without accepting the ugliness.
- Have a schedule of reevaluation. Maturity modelling is meant to show how an organisation is growing over time, if you do it once as a sales tool, it's not a maturity model.
What I loved about this
Mainly what I taught myself about how to look at bigger picture understanding of capabilities and how those capabilities need to evolve.
The importance of design maturity inside an organisation and what impact that has on the successful outcome of any transformation work.
The breadth of moving parts when it comes to design maturity. Experience is one part of a much bigger consideration.
Interesting factoid
This was the last permanent job I had.
I'm not being cagy. I resigned from the role, but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been welcome for much longer. I'm too honest for my own good, and when I'm not in the right frame of mind, I will say the things that should not be said out loud. It's not that everyone isn't thinking them, it's just it's not the done thing.
I've learned from this, and many other roles, I'm not cut out for permanent jobs. I can do the role you expect me to do, often way beyond what you expect. But I can't do the politicking and ass kissing. I can't play corporate games. However, it has helped me realise very recently that I'm neurospicy.