A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to User-Centric Maturity at Scale
Summary
User-centric design and development mindset and maturity has been low in an enterprise context. UX departments struggle a lot to gain momentum and help organizations create better products in various different ways with RoI of their efforts being low. How might we increase the user-centric maturity and mindset of the enterprise in a more organic way and help as many product teams as possible while having insufficient UX specialists? Vasilieos will present a case study for top-down and bottom-up approach taken at LEGO with practical information, learnings and reflections so far.
Key Insights
-
•
Enterprise UX maturity requires both top-down executive buy-in and bottom-up grassroots training.
-
•
Starting UX without support leads to ‘lipstick on a pig’ outcomes where UX is superficial.
-
•
Treating the UX department as a business with responsibilities increases influence and strategic impact.
-
•
With only seven UX designers for 400 products, focusing on highest ROI products is necessary but causes coverage gaps.
-
•
Embedding a UX partner at leadership level within business streams aligns UX vision with product strategy.
-
•
Using system usability scale (SUS) scores as a KPI standardizes measurement across a large product portfolio.
-
•
Vendor selection criteria incorporating usability prevents long-term failure from poor off-the-shelf solutions.
-
•
The UX academy trains non-designers on practical UX methods, increasing UX capacity organically by upskilling existing staff.
-
•
Securing dedicated time (20%) for UX activities within product teams is crucial for effective bottom-up adoption.
-
•
User-centric mindset spreads more successfully when peer colleagues, not external UX teams, lead the change.
Notable Quotes
"User experience is not like the sauce you put on your steak to make it taste better. It is the actual protein within the steak."
"Before, UX was usually brought in very late and expected to just put lipstick on a pig."
"We cleared three weeks of calendars to detach and look at the big picture — that was our UX reboot."
"We run our UX department as a business, with responsibilities, requirements, and expectations."
"With seven UXters for 400 products, the math doesn’t add up, so we must choose where we focus."
"A UX partner needs to develop a thick skin when engaging senior VPs and directors."
"We set the system usability scale score as a KPI for all products to improve measurement and usability."
"The UX academy gave non-designers 20% of their time to learn and practice user experience methods."
"The colleagues sitting next to you, not outsiders, are the best champions to spread UX mindset."
"One of our UX ambassadors transitioned to a full-time UX designer role after the academy."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Change is the only constant, so designing insight sharing with self-directed learning is critical."
Jerome “Axle” BrownHow to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
March 11, 2021
"We could create a sustainable culture of design and use it as our leading edge weapon of transformation."
Phil GilbertA Consistent Culture of Design
May 14, 2015
"Synthetic users might be okay for finding average behaviors, but they won’t replace unique insights from real users."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"Personas like Nick and Shelley help us understand different user attitudes towards music listening and skipping."
Sohit KarolDesigning Delightful Listening Experiences: Mixed Methods Research in the Age of Machine Learning
March 31, 2020
"Seeing the dots connected so clearly reminded me why I was doing what I was doing."
Christopher Taylor Edwards Valerie RoskeDesign as a Team Practice, A Practical Guide to Cross-functional Collaboration
September 30, 2021
"Incentives influence behavior strongly, and lack of awareness about them leads to decisions misaligned with desired impact."
Sheryl CababaExpanding Your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
February 23, 2023
"Design maturity results from behaviors and structures that enable delivering value to customers, business, ourselves, and society."
Francesca Barrientos, PhDYou Need Your Own Definition of Design Maturity
June 8, 2022
"Mentoring new hires actually reignites the mentor’s own passion for their work."
Allison SandersOperating with Purpose
January 8, 2024
"That's not a prototype."
Saara Kamppari-Miller"Prototype" vs "Prototype"--Breaking Down and Rebuilding Our Understanding of What We Do
October 24, 2019
