The New Research Landscape: A Research Maturity Model for User-Centric Organizations
The New Research Landscape
Learn how to progress your organization towards higher research maturity and achieve superior business results with data and expert insights from 500+ professionals.
The big picture
A majority of organizations are on their way to becoming research-mature, but only 3% have reached the highest stage of research maturity to achieve superior business results—fueling future possibilities for the research industry.
2%
Limited
17%
Sporadic
45%
Developing
33%
Systematic
3%
Strategic
2%
Limited
Research is only used to monitor and optimize products after they’ve been released
17%
Sporadic
Research is conducted on an ad hoc basis to validate design decisions and improvements to the product
45%
Developing
Research comes into projects earlier to explore the problem space and inform roadmap and scope of decisions
33%
Systematic
Research is conducted continuously throughout the product life cycle to inform product and business decisions
3%
Strategic
Research informs strategic decisions and bets, and helps organizations set long-term goals and priorities
Survey in numbers
526 respondents
Respondents mostly include UX/user researchers (47%), product designers (32%), and product managers (10%) from all levels of seniority.
66 countries
Companies across the world took part in the study—mostly in Europe (40%) and North America (37%)—as well as remote organizations (3%).
Micro
1-10 employeesSmall
11-200 employeesMidsize
201-500 employeesLarge
501+ employees20 industries
All major industries are represented including: tech (44%), financial services (13%), and creative and media (10%).
475 organizations
Companies of all sizes weighed in—mainly small companies with 11-200 employees (42%) and large companies with 500+ employees (36%).
What sets research-mature organizations apart
2.3x
better business outcomes
Research drives business growth, especially reduced time-to-market (4.3x), increased revenue (4.2x), and improved brand perception (3x).
1.8x
more likely to conduct research frequently
Different roles across the organization are empowered to engage in research—and they do so more frequently.
5.1x
more likely to conduct generative research
Research-mature organizations put customers’ needs front and center and are proactive about discovering new opportunities.
1.5x
more likely to invest in research tools
User insights are collected throughout the product life cycle—from early exploratory phases to post-launch evaluations.
Reduced time-to-market
Increased revenue
Improved brand perception
High-maturity orgs
Low-maturity orgs
The Research Maturity Model
The model defines five levels of research maturity across three key dimensions: People, Process, and Impact. Learn more about each maturity level and how to progress towards higher research maturity.
People
The talent conducting research, research representation at a leadership level, and executive buy-in and support for research activities.
Process
The frameworks, tools, and methods research experts and teams adopt to make their research work more efficient.
Impact
The influence of research across the organization, its role in decision-making, and its impact on critical business outcomes.
Level 5
Strategic
3% of organizations surveyed
Research informs strategic decisions and helps organizations set long-term goals and priorities
At the Strategic level, research is represented at the top level of the organization and is leveraged to explore new opportunities and inform strategy, direction, and vision. Organizations have well-established research processes and provide appropriate training and education programs to enable different teams to leverage research and make better, informed decisions.
How to maintain Level 5
While the Strategic stage is the ultimate research maturity goal, maintaining this level requires regular monitoring and constant commitment.
Focus on highlighting the connection between the research outcomes and the business outcomes to grow the influence of research in strategic decision-making
Assess and iterate your research processes on a regular basis to ensure their efficiency and scalability
Provide career development opportunities for researchers to help them stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and develop their skills
Level 1
Limited
2% of organizations surveyed
Research is only used to monitor and optimize products after they’ve been released
Organizations only monitor passive sources of information—such as analytics, customer support insights, and product feedback—to assess how the product is doing and identify opportunities for optimizations. Executives are either unfamiliar with the concept of research or don't understand what it really entails, and the value it can bring. As a result, there's little or no investment in research staff, processes, and tools.
How to elevate your research practices
To level up, organizations need to move beyond only looking at passive data once a product is launched and instead introduce active and systematic data-gathering activities earlier in the design and product development process.
Educate your stakeholders on the fundamentals of user research—what it is and its benefits to the organization and customers
Identify opportunities to start conducting research at your organization
Level 2
Sporadic
17% of organizations surveyed
Research is conducted on an ad hoc basis to validate design decisions and improvements to the product
Organizations at the Sporadic level engage in ad hoc research activities to test new or existing solutions, and collect data to validate design decisions and uncover opportunities for improvement. At this stage, executives understand what research entails but don't necessarily see its value beyond validation. Investing in dedicated research staff and processes isn't a priority for the organization.
How to elevate your research practices
Organizations wishing to reach the next level of maturity should focus on incorporating more research into product development and championing cross-functional research practices. This requires partnership with product management, design, and engineering.
Expose and involve stakeholders to any research you’re doing to show them how user-centered decision-making drives business impact
Educate them on the different research methods, when to use them, and their benefits
Work together to identify opportunities where research will help them make better decisions
Level 3
Developing
45% of organizations surveyed
Research comes into projects earlier to explore the problem space and inform roadmap and scope of decisions
Product teams at the Developing level conduct research from the early stages of product development to understand user needs and problems, and build the best solutions to solve those problems. However, organizations might still lack established processes for running research continuously across different teams and projects, or they are at the beginning stages of establishing these processes.
How to elevate your research practices
Organizations that conduct more research and begin to see the results of their efforts will need to strengthen their research processes to build the habit of continuous product discovery.
Start standardizing the workflows you've been using to conduct research
Develop a clear research strategy to guide your research activities and emphasize the value of research across the organization
Involve internal stakeholders and business leaders in the conversation to tie your strategy to business goals and get your executive team to buy in
Level 4
Systematic
33% of organizations surveyed
Research is conducted continuously throughout the product life cycle to inform product and business decisions
At the Systematic stage, organizations have made strides to elevate research maturity. This translates into an environment with organization-wide buy-in and support for research. A dedicated research team starts to form, allowing researchers to focus on more strategic requests and develop better processes and frameworks for conducting studies and sharing findings across the organization.
How to elevate your research practices
To reach the next stage, organizations need to scale the impact of research across the entire organization, and make research a key part of business strategy.
Empower different teams to engage in research and get access to the insights they need to make informed decisions
Introduce a ResearchOps practice to optimize your research efforts and amplify the value of research at scale
Educate researchers to speak the language of the business, becoming part of strategic decisions and building executive buy-in and support
Level 5
Strategic
3% of organizations surveyed
Research informs strategic decisions and helps organizations set long-term goals and priorities
At the Strategic level, research is represented at the top level of the organization and is leveraged to explore new opportunities and inform strategy, direction, and vision. Organizations have well-established research processes and provide appropriate training and education programs to enable different teams to leverage research and make better, informed decisions.
How to maintain Level 5
While the Strategic stage is the ultimate research maturity goal, maintaining this level requires regular monitoring and constant commitment.
Focus on highlighting the connection between the research outcomes and the business outcomes to grow the influence of research in strategic decision-making
Assess and iterate your research processes on a regular basis to ensure their efficiency and scalability
Provide career development opportunities for researchers to help them stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and develop their skills
Level 1
Limited
2% of organizations surveyed
Research is only used to monitor and optimize products after they’ve been released
Organizations only monitor passive sources of information—such as analytics, customer support insights, and product feedback—to assess how the product is doing and identify opportunities for optimizations. Executives are either unfamiliar with the concept of research or don't understand what it really entails, and the value it can bring. As a result, there's little or no investment in research staff, processes, and tools.
How to elevate your research practices
To level up, organizations need to move beyond only looking at passive data once a product is launched and instead introduce active and systematic data-gathering activities earlier in the design and product development process.
Educate your stakeholders on the fundamentals of user research—what it is and its benefits to the organization and customers
Identify opportunities to start conducting research at your organization
Methodology and audience insights
Background research
We worked closely with industry experts to review existing UX and research maturity models and identify the key themes and categories that influence research maturity. Based on this research, we developed a survey to test and define a new framework for measuring an organization's research maturity.
The online survey
In April 2023, we surveyed over 500 design, research, and product professionals across organizations of all sizes, industries, and regions. The survey included self-assessment questions to calculate an organization’s research maturity score and multiple-choice questions to validate some of our hypotheses and explore the link between research maturity and business performance.
The Research Maturity Model
Following the survey results, we designed a theoretical model and framework for describing the journey towards research maturity. Our new Maze's Research Maturity Model sets out five levels of research maturity, with Level 1 being the lowest and Level 5 the highest.
Which of the following best matches your job function?
Which of the following most accurately describes your title?
How large is your organization?
In which region is your company’s headquarters located?
In which industry does your organization operate?
About Maze
Maze is the user research platform that makes products work for people by making user insights available at the speed of product development. Built for ease of use, Maze allows designers, product managers, and researchers to collect and share user insights when needed most, putting them at the center of every decision.
2023 Research Maturity Model Report: Taking Research Practices to the Next Level