Experience Management (XM) professionals are excited about the future of the discipline, with nearly 80% of respondents saying they feel optimistic about the value of XM in 2024 and beyond. In this blog post, we explore how XM practitioners perceive many different aspects of their chosen profession based on findings from our recent XM Professionals Study¹. While all participants in this study have some responsibility for their organization’s Experience Management program (including customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), brand experience (BX), and product experience (PX)), they represent a range of company sizes, years of experience, and seniority levels. 

The State of the XM Profession

As part of this research, we asked respondents how they feel about a variety of different aspects of the XM profession². We found that XM practitioners:

• Enjoy their chosen profession. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they are either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with being an XM professional, while just 8% feel dissatisfied.
• Feel satisfied with XM career growth opportunities. Sixty-one percent of XM professionals find their opportunities for career advancement satisfactory. 
• Think their compensation could use a boost. Just over half (54%) of respondents are content with their current level of compensation. More than a quarter of XM professionals feel dissatisfied, and another 19% feel neutral.
• Could use more executive support. Only 41% of respondents believe their organization’s senior leadership team strongly appreciates the value of XM professionals like them.

XM Professionals are a Force for Change

At the end of the day, XM is all about driving change. So it’s no surprise that XM professionals feel most enthusiastic about transforming and maturing their organization’s experience management capabilities. When we asked them about specific aspects of their job, they told us that they: 

• Most enjoy being change-makers. When asked what they most enjoy about being an XM professional, 27% of respondents chose driving change across [their] organization. Meanwhile, implementing and using XM technologies appears to be the least popular aspect of the job, with only 5% saying they enjoy it most.
• Want to become even better at leading that change. Twenty-two percent of respondents said it is most important for them to expand their expertise around leading multi-year transformation (including strategy, governance, and roadmaps), the highest of any area we asked about. The next two most common areas for growth were responding to insights with action (19%) and enlightening the organization with insights (14%). 
• Don’t favor working with XM tech. Just 5% of XM professionals most enjoy implementing and using XM technologies, while only 4% say that expanding their expertise at managing XM technology is the most important aspect for them to focus on. 

Attrition in the XM Profession

While most XM professionals do feel satisfied with their chosen profession, if they aren’t similarly satisfied with their current organization, they have no qualms about looking for new opportunities elsewhere. We asked respondents how likely they are to look for a new XM job outside of their current company in the next six months and found that: 

• Many are searching for new opportunities. Forty-one percent of XM professionals said they are either somewhat likely or extremely likely to look for a new job within the next six months, while just 36% are unlikely to do so. 
• Senior leadership appreciation matters. Compared to those who do feel strongly appreciated, XM professionals who said their leadership team either doesn’t appreciate their value or only moderately appreciates their value are 2.5x more likely to look for a new job in the next six months. 
• Satisfaction with compensation affects attrition. When XM professionals are not satisfied with their compensation levels, they are 1.4x more likely to look for a new job in the coming months compared to their more satisfied peers. 

The bottom line: It’s a good time to be an XM professional! 

Isabelle Zdatny, XMP, CCXP, is the Head of Thought Leadership for XM Institute

Talia Quaadgras is a Research Program Manager with XM Institute