The demand for evaluation methods concerning small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SME) digital capabilities has led to the emergence of numerous digital maturity models (DMM). Such DMMs, despite being a popular evaluation tool for external service providers working together with SMEs, are less suitable for the inquiry of human-centered stakeholder needs when applying human-centered design methods. In an approach to tackle the problem and enhance digitalization support for SMEs collaborating with external service providers, this paper critically discusses existing approaches and highlights yet unlooked-at implications for the inquiry phase of human-centered design methods within such collaborations. Moreover, this paper proposes four human-centered dimensions to be considered in SME digitalization evaluation methods: situational awareness, utopia, point of view and backtrack. The aim is to provide a foundation for the operationalization of human-centered need dimensions in future evaluation methods for SMEs.

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