What This Means
Design teams that can't quantify their impact lose budget, headcount, and strategic influence. I build measurement frameworks that connect design activity to business performance, replacing subjective quality claims with data that stakeholders act on.
How I Approach It
- Define design-specific KPIs that connect to broader business metrics: conversion, retention, NPS, revenue, cost reduction
- Build OKR frameworks that align design objectives with product and company goals at every level
- Establish baselines and benchmarks so improvement is measurable, not assumed
- Implement tracking mechanisms that surface design impact without creating reporting overhead for the team
- Train design leaders to communicate impact in the language stakeholders use: revenue, efficiency, risk reduction, user satisfaction
- Build reporting cadences that keep measurement visible without turning it into a bureaucratic exercise
Common Challenges
- Design teams report on outputs (screens shipped, components built) rather than outcomes (conversion lift, task completion, support ticket reduction)
- No baseline data exists, making it impossible to demonstrate improvement without first instrumenting the current state
- Metrics feel imposed rather than owned, leading to compliance-driven reporting instead of insight-driven decision-making
- Attribution is contested because design's contribution is entangled with product, engineering, and marketing efforts
- Leadership expects immediate proof of ROI from a team that has never been measured before, creating unrealistic timelines for framework maturity
- Qualitative design value (brand coherence, usability, trust) resists simple quantification, requiring proxy metrics and triangulation
When You Need This
- Design is seen as a cost centre rather than a value driver
- You struggle to justify design headcount or budget increases
- Leadership asks for the ROI of design and you don't have a data-backed answer
- Your team ships high-quality work but can't demonstrate its business impact
- You need to shift from output-focused reporting to outcome-based measurement
Expected Outcomes
- KPI frameworks that connect design work directly to business metrics
- OKRs that align design objectives with company goals, ensuring strategic relevance
- Data-backed narratives that demonstrate design's contribution to revenue, retention, and satisfaction
- Improved stakeholder confidence in design investment through measurable outcomes
- A sustainable measurement practice that matures with your organisation
What I Bring To This
At Johnson Controls, I built and implemented KPI and OKR frameworks that tracked design impact and ROI across a 39-person global team. These frameworks achieved year-on-year targets and were instrumental in securing design's recognition as a strategic partner embedded in product roadmap planning. The measurement infrastructure I established linked design output directly to user satisfaction improvements of 90% and operational cost reductions of 85%.
At SwissRe, I defined UX strategy through KPI and OKR frameworks that connected design output to product performance metrics in a regulated financial services environment. This secured leadership buy-in for a measurement-driven culture and provided the data foundation for justifying team investment, including the development of 4 direct reports into senior roles with clear, metrics-backed progression criteria.
I founded DesignOps Aligned specifically to help design teams establish these measurement frameworks. This is the core of what I do: making design's value visible, defensible, and actionable at the leadership level.