Caribbean State of UX: 2025 Report for Practitioners

We've reached an interesting crossroads in our UX career evolution. There's energy, growth, and clear signs of maturation, but we're still figuring out how to organize ourselves as a professional community.

The Generalist Dilemma

We’re pretty sure this won’t surprise you but here’s what we found: 62% of us wear the "UX Designer" badge, while 23% of identify as Visual/UI Designers. However, UX Research is starting to carve out its own path with 14% of respondent claiming that title — a role that didn't even appear in our 2021 Jamaica report. The emergence of UX Research as a distinct role is a positive indicator of our industry's maturation, even if we don't yet have widespread adoption or enough dedicated researchers to meet demand.

But here’s where it gets interesting...

When we asked UX practitioners about the roles that exist on their teams, we discovered something intriguing about specialization. Nearly half (45%) report having UX researchers on their teams, while 12% mention UX writers and 4% cite UX engineers. This creates a fascinating paradox: teams report having specialized capabilities that seem to outpace the number of people who actually hold those specialized titles. Someone might officially hold the title of a "UX Designer" but spend significant time conducting research, writing UX copy, or working closely with engineers on implementation. The work is happening, but the formal titles don't capture the full scope of what people actually do.

This disconnect points to a broader conversation about professional identity. Our role boundaries are fluid, and the market seems to be lagging behind in recognizing the need for and formally adopting specialist UX roles into their org structure. One UX manager we spoke with captured it perfectly:

I believe that a standard needs to be in place so that we have independent roles - not just a UI/UX designer anymore, but…we focus on what UX designer does vs a UI designer vs what UX researcher does. Those standards would be very helpful - making that investment now will be beneficial to the industry in the long run.

K.S. - UX Lead

How Do we Compare Globally

Interestingly, we find that in other markets where UX is still maturing, the generalists roles (UI/UX, UX Designer) also dominate but there are more signs of specialist roles emerging. For example in Colombia's 2024 report, UX writers show up as a common role and in State of UX Africa 2021, the role of service designer is also featured.

Growing Into Our Potential

44% of our practitioners have 4-6 years of experience

Compared to 18% in our 2021 Jamaica report

73% are in full-time UX roles

The growth of the professional maturity of our field is clear. We have more experienced practitioners in the field than ever but this shift tells a deeper story than individual career progression. It signals that some organizations are moving beyond treating UX as an " add-on" luxury to recognizing it as core infrastructure as indicated by the percentage of dedicated full-time positions. However it is noteworthy, that there are only a handful of practitioners who reported working in freelance or consulting capacity.

Excitingly for practitioners who are employed in 9-5 roles, we are now seeing clear and mostly logical career progression patterns emerging. The most common path being that practitioners with 4-6 years of experience move into Senior positions. Around the 7-10 year mark, two distinct leadership tracks appear: Manager roles (which usually include facets of people management) and Lead roles (usually IC roles).

The good news?

37% of practitioners are in Senior UX roles and another 12% in Lead/Managerial positions. Furthermore, 63% of respondents now see a path to UX leadership in their organization, a shift from 2021 Jamaica where 69% had no such path.

44% of practitioners also say they feel positively about their career growth potential at their current workplace. While we hope for more positive outlook, when we couple the career path possibilities with the predominance of full time roles, this is a strong indicator that organizations are increasingly investing in having dedicated, in-house UX practitioners and creating a future for them.

But there is a ceiling...

Director/Executive remain elusive with only 6% reporting that they see that pathway in their org and no representatives in our sample from 2021 or now saying they occupy positions at that level. And, of course, this level of representation is critical to help drive user-centred practices in organizations. As one UX lead told us:

Until we have designers that are executives who are always thinking about customer experience… always thinking about client research, we will always kind of be limited …. and UX may continue be an afterthought.

K.S. - UX Lead

The Education Puzzle: Formal vs Self-taught

92% hold a Bachelor's or masters degree.

73% of UX practitioners hold UX-related certifications.

Our field attracts brilliant minds from diverse background. While the leading field is computer science at 58%, we also see fine arts (12%), marketing (10%) and even Linguistics and Medicine producing UX practitioners. This diversity in educational background brings valuable perspectives to UX but also highlights the gap in formal UX education available in the region.

Since formal UX education is virtually non-existent, practitioners are getting credentialed through online certifications to help them get in the door and stay sharp. There has been a dramatic shift, since in 2021 only 33% of Jamaican practitioners say they had any form of UX certifications. Primarily, practitioners are utilising online platforms such as IDF - Interaction Design Foundation (the most popular one), Coursera for the Google UX Course and Udemy to build skills in 4 key areas as noted below.

Here's where it gets complicated...

While 73% of us hold UX certifications, industry leaders are calling for something more substantial. They want universities to create formal UX programs, not just introductory courses.

But there's a chicken-and-egg problem: universities need market demand to justify program investment, while businesses need those same programs to produce the better-trained graduates who will drive that demand.

The problem is if there's not a demand in the employment market, the courses are going to be less popular.. And so I think that's one of the challenges for universities [is that] until we get the businesses to value those skills more, it's hard to convince people to take the formal education route.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

So what's a practitioner to do right now?

While entities work on formal programs, keep doing what you’re doing. Focus on sharpening your skills that will deliver the most value, through whatever means available - whether online courses, bootcamps or on the job training.

Most of us say we're most interested in developing our UX Research & Testing skills, possibly signaling practitioners' greater interest in better using customer insights to drive UX decisions. Design Thinking follows closely behind, and then Accessibility and UX Management round out the top 4 areas. We also see emerging topics such as AI and Agile gaining traction. The foundational skills, plus learning the emerging technologies remain valuable regardless of how the formal education landscape evolves.

How Do We Compare Globally

We also see AI picking up steam in other regions. The State of Experience Design in Colombia 2024 shows that AI has become one of the leading learning topics, replacing User Experience, Accessibility and Data Visualization as the predominant focus areas.

Let's Talk MONEY...

because let’s face it, money is mostly why we work… mostly. :D

Regionally, 57% of us earn between $30,000-$50,000 USD annually, only 3% break the $60,000 barrier.

The compensation landscape varies significantly by country across the region. Predictability in salary bands appears to correlate with UX industry's development in each market.

Beyond base salary, 80% of Caribbean UX practitioners also report receiving at least one additional benefit, 42% reported receiving bonuses and 29% receiving performance-based incentives or rewards.

Let's break down the compensation numbers by country.

Jamaica: The Established Market

Jamaica demonstrates the region's most mature UX compensation structure, with logical salary progression from entry-level to management. The most common reported salary range is $5M-$5.9M JMD annually. Entry-level roles cluster around $3M JMD or less, Senior roles cluster in the $5M-$6.9M range, while Managers typically earn $8M+ JMD.

Since 2021, we've witnessed remarkable improvement —salaries under $3M plummeted from 45% to just 19%, signaling both market maturation and growing recognition of UX value.

What sets Jamaica apart?

Comprehensive benefits. Jamaica emerges as the comprehensive benefits leader with 91% health coverage (universal standard), 61% bonus coverage, and 49% performance-based pay, plus additional benefits like clothing allowance, gym access, and pensions.

Barbados: The Premium Market

Barbados commands the highest median salaries (~$87,000 BBD), with 50% earning $90,000+ BBD. This is not surprising, given Barbados is known as one of the countries to pay above market rate. However, UX salaries are scattered with no noticeable pattern between career level or years of experience and salary.

However, they’re super focused on development: 83% report receiving paid training/education benefits, 50% received life insurance coverage, but fewer additional perks were reported.

Trinidad: The Emerging Market

Trinidad responses shows high variance, lacking standardized salary structures. Compensation ranges from $60,000 to $456,000 TTD with minimal benefits (only 33% health coverage), suggesting a market still finding its footing.

Note: Sample sizes were limited, with 11 respondents from Barbados and Trinidad providing salary data.

How Do We Compare Globally

When comparing salary across other emerging markets, data suggests that the Caribbean's compensation is on par with other countries, relative to cost of living. Data from The State of Experience Design in Colombia 2024 shows that over 50% of Colombian UX pracititioners earn between USD $12,000 and 29,000 annually.

But are UX practitioners satisfied? KINDA?

40% of professionals across all countries experienced salary increases in the last 3 years, but this doesn’t mean they’re satisfied with their compensation. In fact, Only 39% of us are happy with our pay. This suggests that either the increases were not enough or that there other factors beyond salary increases that influence compensation satisfaction.

The satisfaction data reveals some telling patterns:

Mid-level professionals are the most frustrated, wanting 79% salary increases on average. This isn't too surprising as our data shows that the Mid-level category also shows the widest salary distribution. This group likely feels their skills have outpaced their compensation or that mid-level roles are undervalued.

Trinidad shows the biggest gaps (138-233% increase request), reflecting market uncertainty and lack of standardization.

Entry-level UX practitioners in Jamaica may be overly optimistic for their level of experience, with them expecting a 63-145% salary increase which would put them squarely in the salary band of more experienced designers such as Mid-level or Senior.

Barbados practitioners are most realistic (2-56% increase), likely because they already earning premium salaries compared to the rest of the region.

So how much should you ask for in your next salary negotiation? IT DEPENDS! :D

What does this mean for you?

Three strategic questions for your career:

Are you ready to specialize? The disconnect between generalist titles and specialized work suggests opportunities for those willing to champion specific disciplines.

How can you position yourself for leadership? Now is the time to develop both craft skills and business acumen.

Is it time to chart your own course? For experienced practitioners feeling constrained, consider starting your own UX consultancy. Organizations still turn to international firms for this expertise - a gap local practitioners can fill, if well-positioned.

What's your compensation strategy? This salary data is your ammunition. You're not alone in wanting more. Use the numbers in your negotiations or use this as motivation to either advance your skills or negotiate better terms.

We're witnessing a fascinating contradiction in the Caribbean UX market. Companies say they can't find skilled talent. Practitioners say there aren't enough opportunities. How did we get here, and more importantly, where do we go next?

Who's hiring UX Practitioners?

Let's start with who's actually putting money behind UX. Corporate Financial Companies such as banks are leading the charge by a significant margin. The largest banking institutions are building substantial UX teams, with some employing up to 10 designers.

What's driving the Financial Sector dominance?

Competition anxiety. These institutions aren't just watching their traditional rivals anymore. They're eyeing nimble fintech startups that move fast and global financial giants that are circling the Caribbean waters with digital solutions. As one digital experience manager told us:

My team intends to be the first full service online financial institution in the Caribbean...we intend to serve all lines of business fully online, both with E commerce and E service and we will be the first in the market to do so.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

Now, that's the sound of opportunity. This competition sensitivity drives investment not just in dedicated in-house teams but also in outsourcing UX services to external agencies. Another leader of a software development agency explained:

So for us, retail companies customers in the fintech space, have the greatest interest in investing in user experience because that's fairly highly competitive. In sectors where it's not as competitive and not as many any choices, there's just not the same incentive. So I think the very nature of financial services, especially the banking and those types of services is driving more investment than other industries.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

How Do we Compare Globally

In other maturing markets, industries such as Fintech, Technology and Finance also continue to dominate within UX. According to the State of User Research in Africa Report (2021), leading sectors integrating UX include Fintech, Argitech, closely followed by HealthTech and EdTech. Similarly, the State of UX Hiring Report (2024) shows that the Technology industry leads UX hiring at 32%, followed by Finance at 14%.

Beyond these dominant sectors within the market, other industries are also adopting UX. The State of HCD in Africa (2023), highlighted that 65% of the HCD practitioners surveyed work in the health sector. It also notes that design agencies are focusing increasingly on Health, Technology & Innovation sectors.

And they're willing to invest in UX talent

Some organizations, especially larger ones, have proven that they are willing to invest heavily in upskilling UX talent - 56% of us report Paid Training/Education as a benefit. They're willing to send talent to international conferences, pay for certifications, and provide continuous learning options as well as mentorship and shadowing opportunities.

For my entire team, I carved out a budget for continuous learning. So we use Interaction Design foundation, which I believe has great resources for UX training from beginner to advanced.

K.S. - UX Lead

We have in the past, relied on skills transfer to build up our local capabilities. And we send, people to courses abroad to get higher level certifications etc.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

They’re even open to upskilling non-UXers or novices who show UX aptitude:

But I do feel like when you interview some graphic designers, they get it. And when we find somebody who gets it, we'll work with them [and] train them, because if they inherently get where you're trying to go, then it's it a lot easier.“

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

Sometimes we can't get a “just add water” situation, we really have to to build them from scratch and then allow them to grow within the organization. Which is why we have leaders on the team that are mentoring and building up our practitioners. So we'll invest in the talent potential early and hope that the opportunity presents itself to them to grow and benefit themselves and the organization.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

Where are the smaller businesses & agencies in the hiring convo?

On a smaller scale, SAAS entrepreneurs in industries like Edutech and food delivery - where barriers to entry are lower but customer expectations are high - are also dedicating effort to user experience

But here's the catch: this doesn't translate to more local UX jobs. They mostly do as-needed contract hiring, often looking internationally. SaaS entrepreneurs and agency owners tell us there isn't enough demand to justify maintaining full-time designers.

For them UX Work is "bursty" - intensive periods followed by lulls.

Keeping UX staff full time busy is actually tricky from an organizational perspective - The staffing model of user experience for an organization to actually be able to use full time internal staff is difficult unless they have sufficient volume.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

I think our designers are, are good enough and can be great if they are incentivized to continue. I know quite a few people who, who wanted to be primary UX UI designers but don't necessarily want to continue because the market isn’t there for UI/UX services. For me it is about creating that market demand now.

D.S. - Creative Director

I don't have a designer working on my team, full-time. In Covid I did, because we had a lot of work there. I no longer do that. So we outsource this work now.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

And when it comes to investing in training, well, let's just say they have different expectations:

Designers, I shouldn't be training you because you should already come with the design skill set…know how to design. However, we will train in understanding user behavior….how to get feedback from people, how to analyze things like Zoho page sense. That's where we do the training - we don't train the design skills.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

Translation for your career planning: Smaller companies might offer good opportunities to deliver on projects and guide overall UX on a project but are less likely to offer permanent positions with training benefits. Plan accordingly.

Our advice: Go beyond the usual suspects

Look for opportunities in unexpected places. While fintech continues to lead attracting UX talent and investment, there is significant opportunity for growth in emerging sectors. Government digitization, healthcare transformation- these sectors are just beginning their UX journeys. The UK pledged 2,500 tech roles by 2025. NatWest invested $2.3 billion in digital transformation. The healthcare IoT market is projected at $187.6 billion by 2028. These aren't just statistics - they're indicators of where UX demand is heading.

For the Caribbean, this represents untapped potential. We don't need to compete solely in saturated tech markets. We can pioneer UX adoption in tourism, agriculture, education, and governance - sectors where user experience thinking could create genuine competitive advantages and better outcomes for our Caribbean users.

Work Setup and Team Structure

Most of us report that we're in full-time positions working from home. This is quite interesting given the corporate trend toward offering contract opportunities to reduce overhead as well as the global shift away from remote.

*Note that this data was collected at the end of 2024 and work setup might have shifted since the start of the year.

What do teams look like?

33% of practitioners work in UX teams of 6-10 practitioners, with 22% in even larger teams. But the “design teams of one” are still around and they're prevalent even in corporate organizations with resources for larger teams. Compare this to 2021 in Jamaica: only 16% worked in teams of 6–10 and just 2% in teams larger than 10. So we're seeing growth, but unevenly.

Interestingly…

When we asked tech professionals about the UX teams in their orgs, something curious emerged. They see signifcantly smaller teams than we report with 48% saying their organization has UX teams of 2-5. Consider that 80% of tech professional who participated in this survey also work in Corporate Financial institutions - the same organizations where most of us work.

So are we invisible to our own colleagues? Or are we defining 'UX professional' differently?
‍
This perception gap matters. If tech teams don't see the full design organization and can't identify UX vs not UX, how can we build influence?

UX reporting lines and why they matter

Where you sit matters more than you might think. We found UX professionals distributed across three primary reporting structures: Marketing (25%), dedicated UX Design departments (22%), and Product teams (20%).

We also discovered that as UX teams grow, their reporting structures shift significantly. Teams of 2-5 most commonly report to Marketing (45.5%), but once teams reach 6+ members, dedicated UX Design departments become more common. Unsurprisingly, companies willing to build larger teams also invest in specialized departments to house them.

Here's where it gets juicy:

The data suggests that reporting structure correlates with how strategically involved you'll feel. Marketing emerged as the most common home, yet practitioners who sit in Marketing report feeling the lowest strategic integration (2.67/5). Meanwhile, those in dedicated UX departments (3.64/5) and Product teams (3.50/5) consistently say they feel more involved in strategic decisions.

Unfortunately, this could mean that what we’re seeing is "UX theater" - organizations hiring for UX without truly taking the steps needed to integrate it into their organization. They want the appearance of user-centered design without the structural changes needed to make UX an effective function. So if you're a UX'er reporting into the Marketing department, feeling like you're applying lipstick to a pig rather than shaping strategic outcomes, you're not imagining it and you're not along

So what does this mean for you?

Of course, reporting structure isn't destiny. A Marketing-embedded UX designer at a customer acquisition-focused company might wield real influence, while a Product Designer at a "feature factory" feels equally sidelined. Some practitioners build strategic influence through relationships and demonstrated value regardless of where they sit on the org charts. But the patterns are clear enough to guide your choices and help you ask the right questions in the interviews - know what you're walking into.

How Do we Compare Globally

The State of UX Research 2025 paints a similar picture - 33% of UX researchers said they sit within the sales & marketing department, followed by 23% within a dedicated UX department, then 20% within a UX research dept.

The Job Market

60% of us report our careers remained relatively stable over the past year. Additionally, 41% have been in current roles for 1–2 years, while 25% experienced positive growth - changing jobs (8%), earning promotions (8%), or stepping into leadership (9%). Yaay!

While stability sounds reassuring, we should question our assumptions. The limited job movement could suggest "stable" actually means "static"— staying put due to limited options rather than satisfaction or choosing strategic planning over job hopping.

11.5% also experienced layoffs. This suggests that the global tech disruption may be hitting our market but at a smaller scale.

The Job Search Disconnect

Here's where it gets interesting:

73% of us say we did not apply to any Caribbean UX jobs in 2024. ZERO.

‍‍In other words, nearly three-quarters of our community were not actively applying locally. Those who did apply averaged just 1.7 applications per person. So when 78% of us cite "not enough opportunities" as our biggest challenge, a few possible questions arise. Are we not looking because there are genuinely not be enough quality opportunities? Or is it that the roles available don't align with what we expect?

As someone that has still continued to look for UX Jobs, it is still very much nascent and I feel like it's still very much in its embryonic phase here. I think I've seen mainly banks looking for UX designers, and maybe some marketing companies but other than that, there's not much .

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

Nearly 8 out of 10 professionals cite insufficient opportunities as their primary challenge in the job market. However, even when opportunities exist, they're undermined by employers who don't understand UX roles and the compensation disconnect adds another layer since we already shared that 61% of us aren’t thrilled about our pay. This trio creates a perfect storm of an unstable job market.

The Paradox - Businesses say they can’t find good UX talent

While we see a desert of opportunities, employers describe an equally barren talent landscape. Here’s what the tech and business leaders have to say:

Finding good UI talent is kind of like finding a good barber. When you find a good one, you can't afford to lose [them].

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

Hear that? That's not just a funny quote. it reveals how desperately employers want to find and retain talent. Even large financial institutions with healthy recruiting budgets echo this struggle:

Finding UX Talent is expensive and also very difficult. You can find a developer anywhere at the moment but it's hard for us to find a large cadre of UI/UX persons who even have the experience that we want or that we can develop.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

It's very rare to find somebody with strong foundational skills on two sides - UI and UX. If they’re a strong researcher, then the creative side or the UI skill is just not there.

A.B. - Technology Leader

According to one business owner, the talent shortage is compounded by brain drain. We’re losing practitioners to international remote work, plus other Caribbean countries are also recruiting from Jamaica's talent pool:

So we've had a brain drain, especially since COVID and that has gone not just at the practitioner level, but at leadership level. Once you get these UX skills, you can work internationally... There's a global price for people who are really good at this and it's potentially higher than people will pay you here.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

To add a different perspective, we also asked tech practitioners what hiring trends they’ve noticed in their organization and 22% of them say they’ve seen an increase in demand for UX roles.

This clear dissonance in our small market seems to suggest that opportunities may be moving through personal networks before public posting. This could explain why you see no opportunities while employers can't find talent. The jobs may exist in informal channels or you're not looking in the right places.

What businesses do when they can't find local UX talent

They hire internationally

Companies are spending more on international consultants, creating inefficient processes, and diluting the role, at least partially because they can't find local UX talent.

We had to go beyond ourselves. So we hired this guy from Europe who helped us through that journey of designing a brand new user experience and a brand new user interface for our customers.

O.P. - Co - Founder, SaaS startup

They relying on General Designers instead of UX specialists

In terms of design staff, we have designers who are strong in UXUI and we help to develop that but they have to be able to design generally, other things, like branding. But [we don't have] one solely dedicated UX designer.

D.S. - Creative Director

They fragmenting the UX role across Dev and CX departments

We'll kind of short circuit the process because the CX team is the voice of the customer, right? So we trust their ability, that they have taken the customers feedback and they have a strong understanding of what is needed. And when things make sense, then we interact with our Designer.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

So where we're trying to fill the gap now is can we teach developers’ skills to not come up with a full user experience design, but work with something that has been produced by a professional and then iterate on that. So teaching some basic user experience things to our developers.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

Your Next Move

We're caught in a classic market failure - we can't find employers, they can't find us. Companies struggle to write job descriptions for roles they don't understand. We assume nothing exists and stop looking. Both sides retreat, the gap widens.

But here's what the data actually reveals: The market isn't broken, it's evolving. And evolution rewards those who adapt strategically rather than wait passively.

Consider your Options:

While 73% of us wait for perfect job postings, you could be having coffee with those frustrated hiring managers who "can't find good talent".

While others see no opportunities, you could be pitching the role that should exist in industries that don't even know UX exists - backed by data showing why they need it.

While the market debates salary expectations, you could be demonstrating value that justifies international rates.

The data shows companies want to hire you. They just don't know how to find you. Your move, UX’er

When we asked practitioners across the Caribbean what fills their days, we discovered something telling. The work we actually do doesn't align with what we believe UX should be.

UI Work Dominates Our Days

55% of practitioners rank UI design and prototyping in their top three most frequent activities, with 47% putting it at number one.
This isn't just our internal perception - 90% of tech practitioners also say they see UX designers primarily doing interface design work.

Generative research was ranked as the second most frequently performed which includes activities interviews and field studies conducted before design begins. This ranked significantly higher than testing and evaluative activities like usability testing.

Rounding out the top 3 was Business discovery: specifically those activities focused on understanding business needs such as internal stakeholder workshops and stakeholder reviews. Yet only 25% of tech teams observe UX practitioners hosting these internal workshops. This does raise the question about whether we are running workshops without product team members involved.

On the surface, this trio of top activities - (UI, Research, and Business Discovery) should be encouraging as they create a strong foundation for user-centered design.

But then we hit a wall of contradiction...

The Research Gap

We claim research drives our work, yet 71% of us spend less than 25% of our time directly interacting with users.

Think about that contradiction. Research ranks as a top UX activity, yet we're not spending much time connecting with actual users. This raises important questions: Are we conducting research through secondary methods? Relying on stakeholder input instead of direct user contact? Or is it that we are super efficient with our research execution so most of our time is spent on synthesis and analysis that doesn't require direct user interaction?

Unfortunately, in our emerging Caribbean market, where digital transformation is accelerating faster than UX literacy, practitioners face a critical constraint: the scarcity of existing research on local user behaviors eliminates secondary research as a viable option. Without secondary sources to fill knowledge gaps, direct user contact is not just important, it is essential - yet it seems we may not be prioritizing it.

However, this research gap isn't necessarily just a practitioner problem. It also reflects organizational cultures that haven't traditionally centered user understanding in product development decisions and practices.

The Organizational Barrier

49% of us say insufficient time allocated for UX research and design is our biggest workplace challenge.

Only 35% feel their companies actively seek customer feedback or rely on research findings to inform product decisions.

Another 33% are on the fence about whether customer research even matters to their organizations in driving product decisions.

In other words, the organizational environment itself may be the primary barrier to user-centered practice. When we spoke with leaders across different functions, we heard the same story from multiple angles.

Tech leaders see the organizational mismatch clearly:

In many cases, regionally, digital products and services are not designed from the customer perspective. They’re designed from the organization's perspective - based on what makes it easier for an organization to do the work and not considering the people on the outside who are using the product.

A.B. - Technology Leader

Designers feel the constant pressure to skip research in order to move faster:

One of the main challenges is definitely timelines. Doing UX research, design and testing properly takes time and businesses typically want things very quickly. There's not a lot of leeway in terms of how much time we can get to carry this out well...

D.W. - UX Lead

And business leaders acknowledge the resistance to proper process:

When we say that before we really start writing a line of code, we need to listen to our customers and figure out if our ideas are valuable, stakeholders often respond, “let's hurry up and get this thing to the coders...” I think a big part of it is the turnaround time to get a decision. They think it takes too long and interviewing customers etc before developing is still a fairly new concept. People in the Caribbean are not as willing as yet.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

The disconnect between intention and reality suggests something deeper at play. We're trained to be user advocates and research-driven decision makers, but we're working in environments that prioritize speed and delivery over customer driven decisions.

But perhaps the real question isn't what we spend our time on – it's what others expect us to spend our time on. How do colleagues, stakeholders, and business leaders actually define our role?

What You Can Do:

Track your user contact hours and share monthly summaries with your team.

Propose "research sprints" - 2-3 day focused user research bursts for tight timelines.

Schedule 30 minutes weekly specifically for user contact, even if it's reviewing support tickets or customer feedback.

The Perception Challenge

From our survey, 62% of us identify as UX designers - but what does that actually mean to the people we work with and for?

We See Ourselves as Strategic Bridge-Builders

When we define our own role, we position ourselves as translators between two critical worlds: user needs and business requirements, ensuring profit doesn't come at the expense of user experience:

UX is really that gap between user needs and business requirements. UX assists management to make better decisions in terms of what's created and how it's made, providing a good user experience so that in the end you can make money.

D.W. - UX Lead

The role of UX, I strongly believe, is that middle ground between business needs and customer needs. It's being able to understand, truly understand both ends. We know at the core our businesses want to make money, but we can't just give a customer any experience and say, ‘you figure it out.

K.S. - UX Lead

Tech Teams See us as Tactical Contributors

We asked 20+ tech practitioners to describe their understanding of the UX role. While 85% of responses associate UX designers with user-centered solutions and advocacy, only 15% identify our strategic business impact. Our colleagues see us as tactical executors rather than strategic partners.

What resonates: Tech teams appreciate our user-centered approach

Helps ensure products are intuitive and usable by our target market. - Anon. - Developer

"Helps us figure out if technical designs actually make sense for users." - Anon. - QA Engineer

UX designers pave the way for solutions by giving insight into users... executing research into user's needs and feelings. - Anon. - Product Manager

The gap

We're still seen as people who "make things look good" - checking and improving what's been built rather than driving what gets built.

60% of responses focused on visual design work.

Design the user interface and user flows in a way that gives a good user experience. - Anon. - Developer

"Create appealing look & feel to apps." - Anon. - Developer

The rare business-aware responses stand out as exceptions:

Our UX team is instrumental in reframing how we approach product development... by emphasizing problem definition and solution exploration. - Anon. - Product Manager

This perception gap may explain why teams don't understand why we ask for early involvement or why we aren't often included in strategic planning phases.

Business Leaders are Unsure Where we Fit

We're often conflated with graphic designers, UI specialists, or general IT roles.

I think what happens is that most people when you say UX is everybody hears UI, right. And they assume that it’s just building an interface based on a standard brand style guide...getting a style sheet and putting it in place. I don't think they appreciate other UX components and what end-to-end UX means.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

They often have outdated views of graphic design being equivalent [to UX] or see it as something that software developers should be able to do. There's really a lack of appreciation for UX as separate discipline.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

Even when leaders value user-centered thinking, they may bypass us in favor of other roles they perceive as more directly connected to customer insights:

We short circuit the process. Our CX team is the voice of the customer, so we trust their understanding of what's needed. They take the feedback of not just one customer, but the overall picture and once we have that figured out, then we interact with our designer.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

What You Can Do:

Lead with insights, not visuals - Start meetings by sharing user research findings before showing designs.

Use business language - Frame findings in terms of "conversion," "retention," and "revenue impact".

Ask strategic questions in planning sessions: "What assumptions are we making about users?" and "How will we measure success?"

The Cost of This Disconnect

41% of us feel our companies have poor understanding of our role and value. 33% are unsure.

29% cite lack of leadership support as a top workplace challenge.

But the deeper issue is that the UX role itself may resist easy definition. The very flexibility that makes us valuable also makes us difficult to categorize and support:

Sometimes I feel like our ambiguity, while it makes it great in terms of our ability to adapt to different situations, it's also the thing that might make it difficult for persons to understand us. It's much more abstract and there's so much conflation with other roles in tech. I usually just end up saying to people that we make things user friendly. But then, doesn't a software engineer also do that? It's not just a science, it's an art. And I think that's what makes it so hard for people to grasp. If I can't grasp it, then how am I gonna support it?

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

When successful solutions are delivered, credit often goes to developers whose roles are more familiar. We're invisible in our own success stories.

For a lot of people in our company, if [our experience] gets updated, they think the developers made these changes. People aren't really familiar with the role or [recognize] that there's a UX designer and UX researchers and UX writers behind a lot of the updates that they see.

D.W. - UX Lead

Perception Limits Our Influence

The ambiguity and misperceptions around UX have real impact on our level of influence, especially on when and how we're brought into product development.

~40% of us feel disconnected from strategic decision-making that takes place early in the product development lifecycle, even though the decisions made at this stage ultimately shape the user experience.

Another 22% are neutral, suggesting inconsistent or insufficient involvement.

Yet 80% of tech practitioners report seeing UX teams involved in initial strategy discussions and 55% see us included in feature/roadmap planning.

This data raises a critical question: if we're present in strategy meetings, why do so many UX practitioners still feel disconnected from strategic decision-making?

It seems presence does NOT equal influence. While this perception gap requires further investigation to fully understand, it suggests we may be in the room for initial conversations but absent when concrete decisions get made, only to be brought back to execute on design after features are defined.

Without meaningful input into what gets built, it means we are more reactive and in damage control mode instead of proactive. This could be a recipe for more rework and less user-centric outcomes.

When you bring them [your UX team] in towards the end of the product life cycle, some of the bad habits and patterns are hard to break. They're not impossible, but they're hard to break. And it may be too late for the UX designer to fix the issues and deliver value.

T.B. - Senior UX Designer

What I find is that companies sometimes don't necessarily think about user adoption and experience until further down the process, when they're ready to basically release to the public. People aren't calling us at the beginning, they're saying to call us at the end... And it's difficult for businesses to accept that they need to make major changes after they've already invested all this time, money, energy into a solution.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

But we're fighting an uphill battle to prove our value at the strategic level:

We're trying as best as possible to increase how UX spans across the organization. So right now, if there's a new project being started, we're thinking about how we can get UX on that project early. Even if it's not a designer, at least a UX researcher to validate some of the assumptions and learn more about the target customers just to help the business make better decisions.

D.W. - UX Lead

When we're perceived as decorators rather than strategists, we're relegated to the margins where our impact is inevitably limited. The question becomes: how do we break this cycle?

Breaking the Cycle through Advocacy

We're in meetings but not making decisions. We're present but not influential. This stems from a fundamental UX literacy gap among business leaders who view UX as expense, not strategic investment.

There are definitely challenges with [support] and it has a lot to do with the businesses not having a true appreciation of the purpose of these UX roles?

K.S. - UX Lead

Sometimes, UX is just seen as an additional people expense... Leaders don't necessarily understand [UX] and the benefits that can be derived from [UX practices].

A.B. - Technology Leader

This pattern extends beyond internal teams. Agencies report similar struggles securing UX contracts, with companies interested but unwilling to budget for UX work.

I don't know if the powers that be ready to make the investment into [UX].

D.S. - Creative Director

We don't often get the opportunity to do UX and user research. I’ve had companies that were interested in it but they weren't willing to put budget dollars behind it.

G.W. - President & C.E.O.

The path forward requires us to actively advocate for UX understanding within our organizations. Good design is invisible design. When things work smoothly, our contributions disappear.

So it's in UX's nature to be taking a backseat. Because your job is to make things go well or make things feel smooth or delightful. So it's not likely that people will really acknowledge or appreciate UX’s contribution until something goes wrong in an experience.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

So we must become educators within our own organizations, using techniques such as workshops build UX literacy:

But UX in a bank is new and therefore requires us to educate our peers within the organization and how we can benefit the organization by the processes and practices that we're doing. We’re putting on a roadshow that touches leaders and groups outside of the product development space.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

As a UX team, we're working on ways to kind of increase our visibility to show management that our insights are valuable to business decisions. I would like to see more sensitization initiatives around UX. It shouldn't be a case where you have to explain what UX is. As soon as we can get a lot of persons to be familiarized with what UX is, I think that would already bring us halfway there in terms of showing its importance, what it is and what it's for.

D.W. - UX Lead

Breaking this cycle requires shifting from presence to influence. We must actively demonstrate how UX insights drive business decisions and build organizational literacy around strategic UX value.

But positioning ourselves strategically is only half the battle. The relationships we build with other roles ultimately determine whether user-centered solutions see the light of day. How well are we collaborating across functions?

What You Can Do:

Document your strategic contributions - Keep a record of decisions influenced by your research and insights.

Request agenda time in strategy meetings to present user insights before features are defined. Partner with product managers and leaders to co-present research findings that inform roadmap decisions.

Actively seek out and create opportunities to educate and engage others about what UX is and does. Use channels that exist in your organization and have a consistent and clear value message.

30% of us struggle to collaborate effectively with other departments. But what do our cross-functional partners actually think about working with us?

We gathered perspectives from developers (38%), QA engineers (17%), Product Managers (15%), and Business Analysts (15%) - professionals who've been working alongside UX practitioners for over 3 years, with half interacting with UX teams weekly. Their responses paint a picture that's both validating and challenging.

Who’s involved in UX?

Not all collaboration looks the same across our product teams. While 72% of tech professionals feel involved in UX discussions to some degree, the distribution reveals significant gaps in how we engage different roles.

Product Managers and Business Analysts consistently report high involvement. They're in the room when decisions happen. Developers show mixed experiences, some deeply integrated while others remain on the periphery.

The most concerning pattern? QA professionals report the lowest involvement scores, often learning about UX decisions after they've been made. This creates a downstream effect where quality and testing concerns surface late in the development process.

The Trust Equation

Trust and understanding need to flow both ways in our collaborations.

This suggests we are communicating the "why" mostly effectively. However, the picture changes when we ask tech practitioners to evaluate how much they think we understand about the technical limitations, business constraints, and operational realities they navigate daily.

While 80% agree we have some understanding, ~50% give neutral ratings, suggesting significant room for deeper comprehension.

This isn't about blame; it's about opportunity. The more we understand their constraints, the more effective our collaboration becomes.

What We’re Getting Right

Universally, tech professionals recognize our impact.‍‍

100% say UX decisions significantly affect their work.

100% agree we improve the final product

65% strongly agree

But universal appreciation doesn't mean universal needs. Each role values different aspects of our work:

Design & Prototyping leads across all roles (53% mention this), but the nuances matter:

For Developers

Efficiency drives everything. They want implementable designs and clear specifications, but also appreciate the research insights that eliminate guesswork:

I don't have to worry about testing out which designs work myself via code. - Anon. - Developer

For QA Teams

Process clarity is paramount. 50% of responses emphasize user flows and journey mapping - they need to understand the complete experience to test it effectively:

Adding flows we didn't think about...I enjoy having a clear prototype or mock up to understand the end to end journey. - Anon. - QA Specialist

For Product Managers

Strategic alignment across three dimensions matters most - process optimization, customer insights, and vision alignment. They're balancing user needs, business goals, and technical realities

Richer understanding of the customer...Align product vision with user needs. - Anon. - Product Manager

Where we see Friction

Three primary friction points emerge from our cross-functional partners:

Communication breakdowns affect every role, with QA professionals experiencing this universally (100%). This aligns with their low involvement in UX discussions - they're often the last to know about changes that directly impact their work.

Technical feasibility concerns rank second, suggesting our design processes may not adequately account for implementation realities. Current workflows likely involve developers after design decisions are finalized rather than during ideation.

Timeline tensions create the third major challenge. 55% of tech professionals believe UX work sometimes delays projects, with the largest group (30%) rate this as moderate impact. This suggests that we sometimes impact timelines but this isn't seen as a consistent problem. Importantly, no one completely disagrees, meaning everyone has experienced some timeline impact.

There's palpable frustration sometimes coming from the technology team when we describe the upfront work to be done, because they feel like this is taking too long and [they want to] get on with coding.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

What makes timeline issues particularly challenging?

We face the same pressure from our side. 49% of UX practitioners cite insufficient time allocation as our biggest workplace obstacle.

It typically takes a lot of time to understand what persons want to acheive. It also takes time to connect with people that have the answers that you need. Especially in a large organization where things move a little bit slow in some instances….it's always a battle of justifying why we need to do something. So if it takes two weeks to test something, management is like “Do we not have enough information to go forward?

D.W. - UX Lead

How Each Role Wants to Work With Us

When we asked what would improve our working relationships, each role provided specific guidance around the main problems and suggests on to address them. Here's what they told us and how to act on it:

Working Better with Developers

What they told us:

Understand the technical domain a bit more... know enough about the common technical constraints specific to the company software/product...The UX team could flesh out ideas with the development team... Likewise the UX designers aren't always aware of the technical capabilities that can help bring their ideas to life. - Anon. - Developer

Actionable steps:

Invite developers to initial design ideation sessions, not just handoff meetings.

Ask: "What technical capabilities could enhance this design idea?"

Provide interactive, high-fidelity prototypes that clarify flows and interactions

Maintain a robust, accessible design system with reusable components

Working Better with QA Professionals

What they told us:

Work with QAs to design usability/user experience test cases and scenarios. Review developed products before they are released to production...Provide more documentation on the impact of introducing new features... Work with POs/BAs to ensure that the requirements communicated to the team clearly captures what was designed. - Anon. - QA Specialist

Actionable steps:

Collaborate on usability test cases and quality scenarios during design.

Include at least one QA professional in your design reviews when flows are 70% complete.

Clearly document the impact of new features on existing user journeys, including edge cases.

Establish designer review checkpoints before production releases.

Working Better with Product Managers and Business Analysts

What they told us:

Explain the why behind design decisions. Document design decisions and standards...Monitor user behavior...Provide alternative designs if they believe a presented interface is problematic design wise. Some UX designers make bad designs workable instead of suggesting alternative designs. - Anon. - PM/BA

Actionable steps:

Document and share the reasoning behind each major design decision.

Involve them in user research sessions when possible and share insights regularly.

Collaborate on requirement definition, not just requirement fulfillment.

Anticipate business process impacts during design and consider 1-2 alternative solutions when designing.

Our Collaboration Infrastructure

UX Practice Maturity

An interesting pattern emerges in how tech professionals observe UX maturity within their organizations.

64% see established design standards and systems

32% notice defined research methods

Only 20% see regular UX metrics tracking.

This suggests that while we've made progress in establishing design systems and standards, other aspects of UX process maturity may be lagging behind. The gap between strong design infrastructure and weaker process documentation could explain some of the communication and timeline challenges we've discussed.

According to Tech professionals, the biggest barriers to the incorporation or adoption of UX practices in organizations are lack of understanding of UX tops the list (78%), closely followed by budget constraints (72%). They also identify resistance to change (56%) and lack of skilled UX professionals as a significant hurdle (44%).

These factors help explain why organizations might successfully implement visible deliverables like design systems, yet struggle with comprehensive UX processes, research methodologies, or metrics tracking systems.

Designing Better Collaboration

The data reveals that collaboration challenges stem from process and communication gaps rather than individual shortcomings or lack of appreciation for UX value. We have strong foundational support. Our work is valued and our impact is recognized. The opportunity lies in restructuring how we engage with our cross-functional partners throughout the product development lifecycle, moving beyond delivering designs to co-creating solutions with our teams.

The global conversation about UX's future feels incomplete from our Caribbean perspective. We face the same pressures - AI disruption, job market shifts - but our challenge is different: building UX literacy and demand in a region poised for digital transformation.

The Global Context: A Community Divided

The international UX community is split between two narratives about our industry’s future. Some say we are in “late-stage UX” - a term that's gained traction as practitioners watch their field become commoditized. They point to sobering statistics: 73% decrease in UX research roles, 71% drop in design positions from 2022-2023. Many experienced practitioners are "job hunting for months with no luck," according to Nielsen Norman Group.

But there's another story being told. Optimists see transformation rather than decline. They point to Government sectors are hiring (UK: 2,500 tech roles by 2025). Financial services are investing billions (NatWest: $2.3B). Healthcare IoT is projected at $187.6 billion by 2028. They see AI not as a threat, but as an opportunity to move into more strategic roles. Which lens should we adopt as we look at our own Caribbean context?

Driving Impact - Where do we go from here?

1. Measure What Matters

Most say their UX teams use multiple measurement approaches. Qualitative feedback dominates (65%), suggesting that talking to users remains central to UX practice. Nearly half use analytics (49%) and surveys (49%). Business metrics appear in 43% of our work, while 14% of us admit we're not actively tracking impact at all.

Tech professionals observe a different reality, they see analytics-heavy measurement approaches being prioritized (64% observe website analytics), while we report working primarily with qualitative methods. This isn't necessarily a contradiction; it's perspective. Tech professionals see the formal measurement infrastructure organizations have in place, while we focus on methods we can directly access and control.

But here's what those percentages don't capture: we may not be choosing our measurement methods as much as we're adapting to what's actually possible.

Even though we don't have the data we need

The gap between what we want to measure and what we can measure is painfully real. As one tech leader put it:

You don't always have the availability or the quality of the data that you require to do this kind of measurement. So then it is figuring out the process of how to gather this data through various means. And it's not something that happens overnight, of course.

A.B. - Technology Leader

Even when data exists, it's often not in a form we can use.

So there is a disconnect because when things are launched and we want to understand how it has been performing compared to what we intended, the data isn't usually readily available or it's not collected in a way that we can access or process it. We're working on more automated ways to get feedback after launching because right now it's mostly a manual process.

D.W. - Lead UX Designer

This explains why qualitative feedback leads our measurement approaches - not because it's always the best method, but because it's often the most accessible. We get resourceful:

I didn't even have the time to necessarily measure UX impact quantitatively so we just compared how people operated with the old interface when they initially got trained vs the newer interface.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

Also, proving UX causation remains complex. Tech leaders acknowledge this sophisticated reality:

What are those factors which have led to adoption and use? Because it might not just be the UX part of it, there must be some other things, right? So we're trying to disaggregate that in a very scientific way... But we're not there yet.

A.B. - Technology Leader

Measurement is Advocacy

In organizations where UX literacy is low, measurement becomes advocacy. The most effective practitioners have learned to speak the language of business impact through before-and-after comparisons.

It is as we connect the dots and show the results that will inform what becomes a competitive standard in your region. And again, it comes from them seeing the difference between what is built with us and what is built without us.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

This approach proves particularly powerful when showing leadership the direct contrast between experiences built with and without UX involvement. Even without formal measurement systems, we find ways to demonstrate value:

I was able to give a comparison of how the average person interacted with the old experience versus how the average person interactions with the new experience. And that's worked because [stakeholders] saw it work and people were telling us that it's working for them.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

How SaaS Companies Measure Differently

While larger corporate organizations struggle with systematic measurement, product companies and startups are taking a fundamentally different approach. They've moved beyond accepting growth at face value to understanding root causes.

One of the things that we really focus on measuring is just how changes affect performance of our product. As we see the number of orders go up, there's a distinct effort in trying to find out what's the main cause of this growth. So it's not enough for us to just see the number of orders grow.

O.P. - Co-Founder, SaaS Startup

These teams prioritize observing actual user behavior over asking what users think.

So there are two ways we get insights from spoken word and analysis of behavior and these largely impact our design. But for me, I have to see the behavior of our customers because your behavior is usually more credible than what you say or what you put on a piece of paper. And so no matter how big a company is, no matter how small, you must be able to monitor your specific user behavior, their user experience.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

This systematic approach stems from hard-earned lessons. These leaders discovered the cost of building without user input and now treat customer research as essential infrastructure. They've created dedicated customer outreach roles, implemented rapid prototyping cycles, and developed frameworks to separate UX improvements from other growth factors.

Bridging the Measurement Gap

The question isn't whether you're measuring enough - it's whether your measurement approach actually advances UX influence within your specific constraints. The opportunity is clear: align what we measure with what actually drives business impact. This means moving beyond vanity metrics toward indicators that genuinely reflect user satisfaction and business success.

Successful teams combine quantitative analytics with systematic qualitative feedback collection. They've invested in customer research infrastructure, created systematic feedback loops, and learned to separate correlation from causation in their success metrics.

So far we're moving away from the ivory tower approach to more of we in the weeds. We're on the dance floor with the customer so we understand them better.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

What You Can Do:

Start with what's accessible - Use qualitative feedback and direct user observation when formal analytics aren't available.

Create before-and-after narratives - Document user experiences with and without UX involvement to show clear contrast.

Focus on behavior over opinions - Prioritize observing what users actually do rather than what they say they'll do.

Connect UX changes to existing business metrics - Show how design improvements correlate with metrics leadership already cares about.

2. Change the Guard & Build Allies

We cannot discount how critical having customer-focused leadership is to driving meaningful change in the way companies build digital products and experiences. And therefore a critical factor in UX adoption.

One leader spoke to how having user-driven leadership or stakeholders significantly reduced the resistance to implementing UX practices. While practitioners commented on the difficult with getting their job done when there are no stakeholders to help champion UX in the orgnaization.

We don't have a lot of resistance in getting UX adoption and support. Senior level executives have already bought into the principles and the benefits of UX so it's not a difficult sell to get anything done in that regard.

A.B. - Technology Leader

it's really super important to have stakeholders that believe in the importance of UX for the project. If you don't have the stakeholders to back you and champion the changes that are needed through research and design, it’s very difficult to get anything done.

T.B. - Senior UX Designer

Customer-driven leaders who prioritise customer-centricity are able to invest heavily in embedding this mindset and commitment among their teams/staff and within company culture. This is where real change happens.

One of the biggest goals and challenges for me is to connect the person who is doing the coding to the end user and their needs. And I've sought to collapse that by way of immersing them into the user and seeing what the users are doing so they can think about the people they’re building for.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

That culture and that practice duplicates with other people. They start becoming a lot more cognizant of just how an experience affects a customer and what was needed to carry that experience.

O.P. - Co-Founder, SaaS Startup

Without leadership buy-in, UX teams struggle to secure resources, influence decisions, or demonstrate value effectively. But even if customer-driven leadership is a challenge, finding allies can be super useful. Product team members as well as other department such as Marketing, CX/Customer Support could be great allies.

Marketing teams have been highlighted as great research partners for getting buy-in for analytics tool as well as in finding research participants.

Customer Experience/CX and customer support teams, while there is some confusion about who owns what responsibilities, are also great partners for understanding customers' overall sentiments and experience in larger companies. In smaller organizations, they also take on the role of collecting and analysing feedback from customers.

Marketing can usually inject a bit of the need for that user experience. But if the project is moving further away from the marketing team that you're generally not going to see as much interest in research.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

The marketing team was actually really, really helpful in getting me connected to specific subsegments of users for research. In order to convince the stakeholders that we needed to pay for the analytics software, Hotjar, to integrate into the site, it was a lot easier to sell it as not only being of value to ux, but also to the marketing team, which is why I think we really got it approved

T.B. - Senior UX Designer

3. Tell the Story of UX Impact

The strongest Caribbean UX practitioners aren't just great designers, they're compelling storytellers who translate user insights into business language that stakeholders actually act on.

So it was essentially now my job to create the story that I wanted people to see and the experience I wanted them to have and protect them from any pitfalls that they could fall into.

H.H. - Clinical UX Designer

Here's what works with Caribbean stakeholders: digestible insights backed by real data, even if it's not primary research.

Always present [user] data. Even if it's not something you're able to collect yourself, do some case studies or find research on other people who have had similar issues and present the findings. I've noticed insights are usually effective.

D.W. - UX Lead

Critical: Skip the academic language. Business leaders tune out lengthy research reports.

.. if research is done, the research is to be shared in a digestible form, right? A non academic presentation, because if you present it in academic language, it's harder to digest. Present it in a form that has meaning to the various stakeholder groups.

A.B. - Technology Leader

Three narratives that work

1. UX as a strategic advantage

When stakeholders ask "How do we beat the competition?" position UX as your competitive intelligence. Frame user research as the secret weapon that turns product development from guesswork into strategic advantage.

UX has saved me many times from releasing products that probably don't meet customer needs due to bad assumptions and the inability to validate them properly. UI/UX has given us the opportunity to meet with customers early, understand their desires, and get fast feedback. One of the big benefits is less design rework and quicker feedback. It also helps us know when to pull the trigger on something, or when it just doesn't add up.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

If you want to move product adoption from being an art to a science, something that's repeatable, you need to know why people choose to use it or why they don't. You don't want to be guessing, and that's what good UX facilitates

A.B. - Technology Leader

An investment up front in the user experience and thinking through how your customers are going to interact with these systems, including your internal stakeholders, is going to have a better rate of return than investing more heavily into the technical side of things at the start.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

2. UX as a cost - saver

When budgets are tight, lead with prevention. Don't sell UX as an expense, sell it as insurance against million-dollar mistakes. Focus on the cost of NOT doing user research.

We failed the first 2 years because we were building features that nobody wanted. We wasted millions. I don't want to waste money again, like I did 10 years ago. [ UX practices] allows us to build a prototype and we throw that out to our users and get that feedback. And then that's kind of when we invest and build.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

So..investing in UX helps to make sure that after you spent, $2 million and two years developing something, it's something that's actually going to be used by your customers and used with pleasure, not frustration.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

3. UX as a de-risker

When stakeholders worry about project failure, position UX as essential due diligence. Just like you wouldn't build without permits, you shouldn't build without user validation.

No matter how good the product is, if the experience is terrible, you initially might grab people's attention, but then it's going to drop off. There's a reason they're not adopting it. They don't find anything useful and they don't find it easy to use.

A.B. - Technology Leader

For our platform's first design, we thought 'I'm a customer, I know what my customers would like.' A few years in, we realized the experience didn't quite hit the way we thought. Some people found parts difficult to use. The second rebuild, taking perspectives from all different types of users, we developed something more inclusive and when we started seeing the feedback in the app stores and just how users overall were reacting to it, realized that we were onto something. "

O.P. - Co-Founder, SaaS Startup

AI: Partner or Replacement?

When we asked Caribbean practitioners about AI's impact, we discovered a community far more optimistic than fearful. And we're not just talking about AI; we're actively integrating it into our workflows.

65% say they feel positively about AI's impact on UX future.

We heard something else in our conversations - a recognition that AI might actually strengthen UX's position. One leader pointed out how critical the fundamental principles of UX are in the era of AI:

What becomes critical is human-centered design because so far the AI cannot do that. At the end of the day we have to be interacting and understanding our customers and understanding what they need.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

The introduction of AI is going to shift the allocation of time or budget [in product development]. It's going to free up time that was traditionally spent in the technical realm, into things that are far more at the business layer where user experience really has its maximum impact.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

This perspective challenges the global narrative of AI displacement. After all, someone needs to ensure AI solutions actually serve human needs. But let's acknowledge the concerning trend. Some business leaders are already exploring AI replacements:

We want to use AI agents to help us do design...even making focus groups AI driven with limited human interaction.

R.A. - C.E.O, EdTech

The Caribbean Data Gap

While global practitioners debate AI bias abstractly, we face a concrete problem that could define our professional future: the dearth of Caribbean user data. As one Caribbean leader described:

We need large language models that are trained on our data sets... we as a Caribbean are not really that large. We need to find ways of pooling our data in the region so that we have that robust, reliable result.

C.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

Without regional data, we risk building AI solutions that miss the mark for Caribbean users.

Think about this: Every AI system trained primarily on North American or European data carries embedded assumptions about user behavior, cultural preferences, and interaction patterns. When we deploy these systems in our markets, are we serving our users or forcing them to adapt to foreign paradigms?

We have to fix our UX literacy problem

Two of the most critical factors affecting the growth of UX in the region is that UX literacy among business leaders is low and that we don’t have enough pracitising and skilled ux practitioners.

The number of UX designers available in the Caribbean is very small. As soon as we can get more people involved and upskill them within the industry, we can have better quality apps going out.

D.W. - UX Lead

I'd love to see more visibility around the practice in the Caribbean and the fact that there is a working group of people here with a network that we can tap into for that type of talent.

J.S. - Technology & Client Experience Leader

This isn't just about having more designers - it's about creating demand. Business leaders can't value what they don't understand. We need what one agency leader called "widespread leadership and business education about UX.

How do we tackle this? Several immediate actions emerged from our conversations:

Education - Developing curricula that produce UX professionals who can demonstrate immediate impact.

Evangilism - Business leader education about UX value and integration.

Community - Creating visible networks that decision-makers can tap into.

The Hidden Opportunity

Perhaps most intriguingly, we heard calls for UX to move beyond user advocacy into executive decision-making. This aligns with global trends toward strategic UX leadership. As AI handles more tactical execution, the space opens for UX professionals to influence business strategy, product vision, and organizational culture.

What makes this even more compelling for our region: organizations are struggling with fundamental business strategy, not just UX execution. Multiple leaders report that clients, both private companies and government organizations, have a hard time defining clear business requirements or connecting technology decisions to business and customer outcome

In Jamaica, clients come in with poorly defined business and process understanding, so UX essentially takes on two roles—helping to figure out the underlying processes of the business and then figuring out how that should reflect in the tech being built. Sometimes using a mockup tool as a way to extract the original business requirements that they didn't actually have. One of the things I'm curious about is combining business analysis and user experience into a single role.

G.W. - C.E.O, Development Agency

You realize that some customers don't understand that it's more than just building a website or app, you need to know what you're looking to achieve and how your customers will benefit... sometimes entrepreneurs don't know what the value proposition of this thing is.

O.P. - Co-Founder, SaaS Startup

This creates a massive upstream opportunity and UXers are uniquely positioned to fill this gap but we must start thinking beyond the traditional UX roles and responsibilities. We can create entirely new value by becoming the bridge between confused business strategy and user needs. This positions us earlier in project pipelines and at higher strategic levels.

Our Parting Words: Turn Opportunity Into Action

Caribbean innovation has always punched above its weight. Now it's UX's turn.

While Silicon Valley debates survival, we're writing the playbook for UX in markets that actually need us. While global markets saturate, we're creating demand. While others fear AI, we're defining how it serves our users. Our size isn't our limitation; it's our superpower. We can move faster, connect deeper, and shape industries before they become battlegrounds.

Don't just practice UX. Pioneer it. The choice is yours: Lead the transformation or watch it happen to you.