Value of Design P3:

Showing the value and impact of design

The third in a 3 part series where we will look at the steps you can take to help your team and company understand the value of design. In this episode, we will look at how to show the value of design through design reviews, set a different tone through feedback guidelines, and measure the impact through metrics and case studies.

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Welcome back to this three-episode series, where we are talking about the value of design. I am doing this series because over the past few years, the question I have been asked the most is – how do we show the value of design to our company.

In the first episode, we talked about how some people see design as a statement of ownership, design vs. creativity, and design as an output and an outcome. In the second episode, we talked about how how to create the demand for design through different ways of working like using a design methodology, creating a journey map or a vision, and creating behaviors. With those now in the rearview mirror we can move on the last part, actually articulating the value you understand and have created a demand for.

In this episode, we will talk about three ways to articulate the value of design through design reviews, better feedback, and showing off your work an impact through vehicles like case studies.

Showing your work – Design Reviews

Design reviews: Weekly meetings to review work in progress with teams and leadership for feedback and alignment.

To change the perception of design you have to focus on outputs and outcomes.

Design review is a weekly meeting to show work in progress, not decks.

The meeting is to show work, fix misalignments and remove blockers.

Each teams gets 15-20 minutes to present and get feedback.

Leadership from every team and partner has to attend or send a delegate.

Showing your work – Focus on feedback

Focus on feedback: People more easily see the value of design when it is something they are a part of.

Feedback creates inclusion but also creates healthy boundaries.

You will need general feedback guidelines

You need to reach people how to give feedback

Standardize how you capture feedback

Better feedback
• Titles do not make feedback more or less important
• Share your feedback in the meeting ( not afterwards )
• It’s about getting it right, not being right.
• There’s a million ways to say the same thing, they do not all get the same result.
• Everyone is inherently reasonable. If they appear unreasonable, chances are they know something you don’t.

Design methodology

Design methodology: You need a data-informed, human-centered design methodology to get consistent results.

It creates teamwork, empathy, and perspective.
You can’t create value on your own, so you need a methodology that creates teamwork, empathy for the customer, and perspective to find new ideas.

It stops opinion battles.
Your design work has to stop being debatable and has to be based on data and research with your customers as the source of truth.

It’s empowering
Design methodologies empower the entire design team to help lead and guide the creative process with all your partners.

Don’t skip steps or just use the easy parts of the methodology.

It can not exist alone, so work with product and operations teams.

Show Your Impact – Metrics

There are a lot of ways you can show the impact of design

Metrics –
• Views, click-through rate, conversion rate,
• You become more goal-oriented.
• You start to see the system,
• You learn the language of business.
• The process of measuring is more important than the result – stopping opinion wars

Show Your Impact – Case Studies

Case studies: Document your work and show everyone the value and impact of new ways of working.

Regularly tell the stories of your successes and learnings.

Start with something no one cares about.

Final thought

This work is so hard because success only exists in hindsight.