High-performance design teams: Your competitive edge in UX

There are plenty of resources on high-performance technology teams and how to build them in companies, but design teams can and should strive to be high-performing as well. A high-performance design team doesn’t just ship aesthetic product designs on time, but also:

• Contributes strategically
• Collaborates cross-functionally
• Influences product direction through research, creativity, and execution
• Defines and tracks KPIs to measure performance

Today’s high-performance teams are affected by tons of factors, including cultural diversity, openness to feedback, refined skills, work and life balance, celebrating triumphs as part of a total unit, and much more. This can make it challenging to define high performance in the context of design and broader company strategy, as well as to build and maintain a high-performance team.

In this article, we’ll talk about what it means to be a high-performance design team, the qualities it should have, and how to build one. I’ll include the lessons I’ve learned from trying to apply these ideas to my own team.

What does it mean to be a high-performance team?

There are many definitions on the Internet, such as this AI-generated one:

Groups of skilled professionals working together to deliver exceptional results. They are adaptable, innovative, and have a shared vision.

In this definition, you can place several examples of a diverse nature, such as sports teams, military teams, and thriving businesses. Still, can this exact definition apply to design teams in tech companies? I’m sure it fits perfectly, but it is a little vague, in my opinion.

Like many other teams, design teams have specific qualities that make them unique (high creativity, curiosity and research, technical knowledge, and business understanding, among others). So, from my perspective, putting them on the same high-performance spectrum as any global tech team might be insufficient.

The value that we can contribute as a design team is broad and far-reaching. I’ll mention a few that I find highly relevant and sometimes undervalued:

• Bringing users’ visions and needs into strategic spaces
• Creating bridges of communication between the product and users
• In-depth knowledge of technology and product trends
• Creating new work dynamics in multidisciplinary teams

5 forces of a high-performance design team

How can you determine if a design team performs at the highest level? Is it because of the proper use of design frameworks? Or is it because of delivering on time and in form?

In my opinion, it is because of the impact that can be generated in the company, and all design projects could potentially explore new solutions, markets, and even work dynamics. What does it mean? Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, one colleague invited me to talk to a new design team he led. Part of his motivation for having this conversation was to help the team see the importance of transcending from a merely operational group to one that generates value beyond its range of influence. Upon learning of this request, I started to wonder whether design teams alone can achieve a high level of performance in companies.

What attributes can change an ordinary design team into a high-performance one? From my experience, the five forces must be articulated to achieve high team performance:

1. The team
2. The control
3. The creativity
4. The mental strength
5. The strategy

After articulating my design talk to this new team, I realized that these five forces are as global as practical and straightforward, so any team could implement them to achieve optimal results.

Team: Start with the right people

Jim Collins developed the concept of “First Who, Then What” to describe building effective teams and organizations. He uses the metaphor of putting the right people on the bus and in the correct seats before figuring out where to drive it.

This metaphor, which drives home the importance of having the proper actors before setting any goals, should be the first milestone to achieve when thinking about a high-performance design team. How can you perform well if you don’t have adequate talent?

Regardless of the nature of the work, high-performing teams are recognized for having the best people in the most critical positions. To fill your design team with talented individuals, here are some tips to consider:

1. Beyond a vast knowledge, identify people who can be protagonists in a problematic situation
2. Select people who show high adaptability and problem-solving skills when required
3. Point people who can transform into bar raisers for the team, pushing quality boundaries constantly
4. Select people who always seek innovation beyond their duties

Why must we focus on this first force before even considering ways to level up performance? The reality is that no matter how far your team goes, having mediocre talent will always drag you down, and you will not achieve significant results if you think of positively impacting the company.

Control: Measure what matters

The second force refers to being aware of measuring what matters in the team. After getting the right people, we may need to consider goals and metrics. Why? Imagine that you hired a remarkable squad, but don’t know how to demonstrate what makes them “good.” How can you claim to be high-performing if you can’t show proof of performance?

To generate that proof, you need to develop a metric system to assess the current team context. From there, you can set an improvement projection to show the results eventually.

In high-performance design teams, all team members hit their targets, whether by achieving product goals, which is required, or by going beyond expectations to demonstrate the impact on the company by creating systems that measure interactions with other teams and determine a certain level of satisfaction in various areas such as communication level, idea proposals, technical knowledge, and delivery times, among others. The results of these aspects will motivate the team to focus on improving and raising its standards.

The control force determines if I am doing things correctly. How do you measure things in a high-performance design team? Like any other team, we may develop a clear vision and set ambitious goals. However, some gray spaces, such as creativity, communication, or users’ background understanding, can be challenging to measure in design teams.

Design metrics to track performance

Still, as I mentioned before, design teams are unique, so what should we measure instead? The good news here is that we work for companies, and companies are numbers, so we have a lot to take into account:

Deliverable metrics:

• User error rate (UER)
• Task success rate (TSR)
• User retention rate (URR)
• System usability scale (SUS)
• Time to task completion (TTC)
• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
• Net promoter score (NPS)
• Product adoption and engagement

Team metrics:

• Team workload
• Time to complete tasks
• Communication level
• Innovation approach (pillar no. 3)
• Technical knowledge
• Cultural fit

Control is a mindset to develop; being aware of our actions, measuring them, and seeking improvement will take them to the highest level possible. As Peter F. Drucker once said,

What gets measured gets improved.

Some of this force’s benefits are that the team will operate under a better-controlled scenario with little space for improvisation, rush decisions, or the lack of clear goals.

Creativity: Strive for innovation, not just delivery

This third force comes once you have mastered the control. It is innovation resulting from the mastery of technique.

Let’s picture the most successful athletes in history, such as Michael Jordan, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Novak Djokovic, and Tom Brady (to mention a few). What do they have in common? Well, they know victory for sure, but they also share that they are masters in their sports discipline, which also means they know all the sports fundamentals and can improve or create innovative plays or strategies to take advantage of their opponents when it is crucial (protagonists when it is necessary).

If we apply this idea of ​​having control over the fundamentals to create disruptive solutions to some adversity in the world of UX design, this could be associated with the power of design software or a complete understanding of work dynamics and basic terminology of the discipline (fundamentals). With this information as a base and a little imagination, products that stand out for their authenticity could be created.

A real-world example

A simple example of this case is when a content company I worked for faced a significant loss of viewers for its multimedia specials, and we couldn’t find an immediate solution because the current formats were very long and arduous to put into production. We needed to move more agilely in publishing. In discovery discussions with the editor, we decided to test a formula we knew — multimedia galleries, which were already very easy to feed and had very high user engagement.

By applying a couple of changes to their structure, we created an express version of multimedia specials that could be fed in minutes and ensured users would consume them.

This way, we turned a basic concept into a smart move that brought us many views and repeat visits to the content we wanted. An innovative move from a fundamental foundation.

Why design teams should be innovation ambassadors

In high-performance design teams, creativity is as crucial as having good numbers because, beyond good results, we need to innovate to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Good numbers are good to have, but as designers, we create solutions and should be innovation ambassadors.

Why do I point to creativity as a critical force for a high-performance design team?

When you work in a highly creative environment, new possibilities open up for solving problems, finding opportunities where others don’t see them, and rethinking the realities of products and the company itself. With creativity, you can also impact the company, which gives us the label of high performance.

Strategy: Create designs with impact

So far, we have the numbers attribute allowing us to show and project our team into a controlled, measured vision with solid results. Then, we have the creativity to lead to innovation and make a difference. So what’s next?

The fourth force combines the best talent, good numbers, and groundbreaking ideas into a single vision, the team strategy.

For some reason, strategy is unfamiliar to design teams. We’re great at being creative, and we might even be implementing control (that is, tracking numbers and metrics) well. Still, we rarely stop to think strategically, and that is where we have the most significant gap between being a team that delivers versus. a team that generates an impact on companies.

Why does this happen? It can be a deeper issue in the designer’s mindset that relates everything to a mere visual conversation. Design teams sometimes only focus on delivering what is required instead of thinking about their higher-level impact on companies.

Being a strategist or developing the ability to be a strategist makes you an agent of change.

We can be strategists by using simple things — expressing our conclusions, concerns, or ideas when we may have the opportunity.

For example, user research — something we do regularly. Instead of just delivering, finish the job by expressing everything you learned. Don’t be shy to point out that results are promising or pessimistic; use comparisons and come up with a possible solution. In this way, you might take full ownership of the project, and people will see you from a different angle, this time, as an expert.

How do you run a strategy from a design perspective?

Richard Rumelt defines a strategy like this:

A plan to address a challenge by coordinating actions, policies, and objectives.

He claims a proper strategy is about overcoming challenges rather than setting long-term goals. Beyond this well-articulated definition, I genuinely believe we can create a plan from a simple approach — anticipation.

Anticipating the moves of “an opposite” can generate a competitive advantage that, in the long term, can bring you victories. This is reflected in the military, sports, and business fields. In my experience, this is also key in design teams because it can make the design results evident to larger audiences and key decision-makers in the organization.

Anticipating can reveal opportunities that no one sees, and we can be protagonists or influence the execution of these ideas. Anticipation can also mitigate problems to the extent that it can detect them early and thus think of an execution plan.

Anticipation is a simple strategy that design teams can execute; we do not need to be experts to reach a broader impact in our work.

Using anticipation as a form of design strategy

What does anticipation look like in an authentic experience example?

A few years ago, I was part of a vast international media company with significant goals in Latin America. The product team initially had the mission to support the global operation coming from the U.S. The Digital Director at that time was unsatisfied with that direction, so he used the anticipation to create new opportunities for us. Without anyone expecting it, he assembled a strategic plan to spot possible massive gains in the region if we developed an app for kids and a complete media website.

He was clever enough to show numbers (control) as a solid argument, a disruptive storytelling (creativity) appealing to the company’s purpose — “power people’s passions,” after several meetings, we not only took control of the generation of new digital experience for multiple audiences but also our budget increased to hire more talented teammates and expand our range of influence.

Because of this strategic movement, we were able to create significant value for the global company.

Mental strength: Build a resilient team culture

This pillar refers to learning and acquiring a healthy team mindset. High performance means more than being competitive and winning consistently. Failure is a significant teacher, especially in the technology industry.

Sometimes, young companies mistakenly adopt a winning attitude above all costs, something like a “mamba mentality,” which may bring more frustration than fulfillment if not carefully led.

I remember being the new design lead of a massive design team in an e-commerce company. Leading this team was a total challenge. I was used to managing junior profiles and instructing them to grow, but this time, my team was super senior, so I needed to adjust my leadership strategy because I was getting a lot of rejections from the team members when they noted my initial approach. So, the first month was frustrating because I could not connect with them in any way.

But here’s the valuable learning of this — in time, I understood that despite the high seniority among the group, none of them was able to have significant conversations with stakeholders beyond an interface. I figured this out by conversing with all team members and letting them know I was there to accompany instead of directing.

When I realized this, my leadership changed into communication coaching to help them grow. As a result, I developed a more considerable team potential, and we eventually became close (team sense).

Is it bad to think of winning consistently? No. Some of the greatest athletes in history share this aspect, like Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and Mohammad Alí, so that’s positive. However, conflict can arise when lessons from the context are not learned, and we do not build on those events to become better.

Creating a culture of belonging and accountability

A few years ago, I had a highly result-oriented boss. Even though that was good for the company, he used to overlook how teammates felt about not solving design challenges.

For obvious reasons, this situation created internal discomfort, and it had consequences in terms of mental strength. After months of dealing with burnout, some designers quit the team. After that event, the human resource team implemented cultural policies on leaders to prevent a hostile environment.

Along with a healthy mindset, it comes to a strong team sense. The feeling of belonging is a protective layer against any external challenge for the team. This team value is evident in high-performance teams from other contexts, such as the military or sports teams.

A proper leader is required within the team to ensure a strong team sense (pillar one); in this way, all the team members will feel backed up if any situation goes wrong, and in the future, they will be encouraged to avoid mistakes, stand for the leader, the team, and elevate the team maturity level through experiential learnings.

Other values to build regarding this pillar are an open feedback culture and team accountability. Developing the ability to express freely in terms of work will bring many benefits, such as effective design comments without any personal negative intention or super-long comments without any disclosure.

Team accountability (metrics and mindset) is the highest demonstration of work maturity in any team. In high-performance teams, not everything can be perfect; embracing positive or negative results will show others how solid you are as a team.

What did I learn from this?

In my opinion, part of the general discomfort from UX designers about not achieving more prominence in tech companies is that we don’t know how to play the strategic game, and sometimes, we don’t have the tools to play it, or even worse, we don’t want to.

Our discipline is so beautiful that it envelops several qualities in a broad range of execution. We can be masters in metrics, innovation geniuses, and magnificent strategists, but for some reason, we feel more comfortable just making interfaces and using fancy words to regular users to look cutting edge, cool dudes.

These reflections are valid only if you believe in the power of the team.

All the references I include in this blog are about how a unit of people can reach excellent results in their context. Starting from basics like measuring everything I do, then building innovation above it, and finally putting it all together into a single unified and strong team vision. Transversally to all these pillars is the mental strength that will cover you against any external/ internal challenge and make you thrive as part of an outstanding team.

I’m trying to apply these ideas to my team, and so far, results have started to show up in the company; at least, people from other areas see how we look different, and our conversations look more ambitious and solid.

The evidence of this is in our latest company talent review sessions. The design area leads to performance satisfaction in the tech area, and there are a lot of comments from other leads and stakeholders that point out how designers provide different values in product building.

Bringing it all together

Some remarks from a back-end leader:

Designers in every squad are protagonists, sometimes more predominantly than a product manager, which is now a beautiful problem to have as a company.

With our signature, that’s the beginning of a change in a high-performance design team.

Imagine the following scenarios:

• Your team is highly effective, but doesn’t have the correct people; there will definitely be a lot of friction among teammates beyond results
• Even though you have the correct people, what are you doing if you don’t know how to ensure and show results? Maybe the team will be targeted for a layoff because the numbers are nonexistent
• With good numbers but no thinking about innovation, you are a software factory (maybe that’s good), but your impact range will be tied to what’s expected
• Not thinking about strategy will drag you down to a mere operational dynamic and not making or participating in all the big company decisions; some teams are OK with this, but to elevate your impact, giving yourself a chance to think strategically will benefit you and your team

Finally, what’s the purpose of being a high-performance design team if you are NOT happy working with your teammates? Maybe this pillar is the most fundamental one, so history has taught me so far that no matter the results, techniques, or roles, the most important thing is to belong to a happy workplace.