5 Critical Experience Capabilities Every Org Needs in 2025

Why Experience Capabilities Should Be on Every CEO’s Radar

Each year, executive teams ask the same question: Where should we invest our resources to deliver the most impact?

For 2025, the answer is clear, invest in Human-centered Design (HCD) capabilities. These are the same skills that transformed technology, customer experience, and now, People Experience (PX). They help organizations pinpoint what matters most to employees and customers, uncover what drives commitment and loyalty, and design solutions that truly work.

If you want to focus your investments on initiatives that move the needle, this is the capability to build.

The Origin of Human-centered Design

Human-centered Design emerged during the tech revolution when developers realized that to stay competitive, they needed to design for users, not systems. As personal computers and mobile devices became mass-market consumer products, tech companies learned that understanding the human experience of a product was the key to growth.

That same methodology now drives User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and increasingly People Experience (PX). Yet most HR and business leaders still underestimate how powerful these tools can be for their own organizations.

The 5 Critical Experience Skills to Build Now

1. Transformation Leadership

You need leaders who have led and created the conditions for change at scale. Whether you’re shifting to a product-based model or embedding design thinking across your team, division, or the entire business, look for transformation leaders who are collaborative, data-driven, and capable of energizing others through change.

2. Field Research & Research Design

To design better experiences, you must understand what drives behavior. That means combining quantitative data (what is happening) with qualitative insights (why it’s happening). Skilled researchers know how to triangulate data using multiple sources and perspectives to avoid bias and reveal what people truly need.

3. Journey Management

People experience work and products as journeys. Mapping those end-to-end experiences helps identify pain points, friction, and “Moments that Matter.” Journey Management allows teams to connect all experience data, from surveys to system analytics, into a single, actionable view.

When done well, it becomes your information system for experience and a living roadmap for prioritizing projects.

4. Analytics

The best analytics teams balance both qualitative and quantitative skills. Quantitative data tells you what’s happening. Qualitative data explains why. Together, they reveal the full story. Analytics should never live in a silo. It should work hand-in-hand with Research and Journey Management to test hypotheses, uncover drivers, and measure the value of design.

5. Working in Agile Product Teams

Experience-led organizations break down silos. They work in cross-functional, agile teams that bring together program, process, design, communication, data, tech, and delivery. These teams iterate quickly, build prototypes, and test with real end users. Leaders should enable more flexible reporting structures that support this agile way of working.

Where to Find These Skills — and Where to Place Them

Our research shows most UX/CX professionals and teams already work this way. But fewer than 10% of People Experience leaders have any formal training in Human-centered Design, Agile, or Analytics.

That’s a problem. Because PX isn’t an HR initiative… it’s an organizational capability.

If you want results from your People Experience function:

• Hire leaders who come from UX, CX, or digital roles.

• Avoid limiting PX to HR sub-functions like Engagement or Learning.

• Place PX within a central function (CIO, COO, or directly under the CPO) where it can connect across HR, IT, Facilities, Communications, and Product/CX.

Leading PX companies like Walmart, IBM, and Expedia Group jump-started their PX capabilities by rotating talent from UX, E-commerce, and Analytics into HR. This cross-pollination drives faster maturity and better outcomes.

Bottom Line

To compete in 2025 and beyond, organizations must treat Experience as a capability — not a campaign.

Build teams with transformation leaders, researchers, designers, and data experts who can work together like a product team.

Because when you understand the experiences that matter most to your people, you know exactly where to invest for the greatest return.