UX Integration is key to delivering UX of the product! Embeding UX practices enables a more focused and thorough design process while also offering a strategic view of how a product will evolve. This being said, having this integrated view requires a higher level of UX maturity within an organisation and therefore depends on business priorities, resources and processes and how the organisation balances these with UX.

To answer your questions:

• You might have a better chance as a consultant!
• I dont see any value in separating them (if you can)

Great question!

The Value of embedding UX Practices

UX Integration is key to delivering UX of the product! Embeding UX practices enables a more focused and thorough design process while also offering a strategic view of how a product will evolve. 

This being said, having this integrated view requires a higher level of UX maturity within an organisation and therefore depends on business priorities, resources and processes and how the organisation balances these with UX.

UX Maturity and Road-Map

To achieve this level of UX maturity, an assesment needs to be carried out to determine what exactly needs to be done at product level first and what practices, limitations, constraints, technical debt etc are to be removed to reach an agreed target.

So the approach is very much incremental and aligned with the context of each organisation. Thats where a UX roadmap makes a lot of sense! there are number of UX maturity models out there but I found the below model by Stefan Klocek works well!

To answer your questions:

• You might have a better chance as a consultant! It seems to me that its much easier for consultants to push for change with higher likelihood of having buy-in from the people involved.

• I dont see any value in separating them (if you can): You need to assess where you are in terms of UX practices and chart a roadmap to get you where you want to be.

Great question!