From Chaos to Clarity: A Framework to Maximize Design Impact

Design teams are packed with smart, creative people driven to make a difference. But too often, their best efforts don’t land the way they should. Work gets stuck in feedback loops, sidelined by shifting priorities, or disconnected from the metrics that matter most.

At the same time, executives are under pressure to show results—to move faster, innovate more, and prove ROI. They want to believe in the power of design, but sometimes they’re left wondering: what are we actually getting from this investment?

I’ve seen this dynamic play out across multiple industries and organizations—from Fortune 500s to scrappy startups. Designers doing meaningful work that isn’t recognized or resourced. Leaders looking for strategic outcomes, but struggling to see the connection. Frustration builds. Trust erodes. Impact suffers.

This isn’t a talent issue. It’s a translation issue. A clarity issue. An alignment issue. And that’s exactly what the Design Impact Assessment is built to fix.

Unlocking the Mystery of Design Impact

What do we mean when we say "impact"? Part of the problem is impact can mean a lot of different things. For example, "impact" might look like revenue growth & conversion optimization for one organization while another organization places a higher value on customer retention & loyalty.

Regardless of how we define impact, the important thing is to make sure that we're all talking about the same thing and thinking about impact in the same way.

How, then, do design teams make the impact they want to make? How do leaders and executives get the impact from their design teams that they hope for? Well, I've learned that a design team's impact is a direct function of the interaction between three key elements. capability, capacity and priority. More specifically, I've identified a precise formula:

Capability × Capacity ÷ Priority = Impact

Let’s break it down:

• Capability: What can the team do? How well can they do it? Do they have the right skills, tools, and expertise to make the desired impact?

• Capacity: Does the team have enough time, energy, and people to actually make the desired impact?

• Priority: Are they focused on the right work? Is their effort aligned with business goals and the most impactful outcomes?

Any issue in one of these areas will lower your design team’s impact and multiple issues compound each other.

The Design Impact Assessment: Turning Insight into Action

So, how do we know where issues exist? How do we uncover misalignment, ambiguity, or scattered focus? After years of building and leading UX, CX, and Product Design teams—and running into the same roadblocks time and time again—I developed the Design Impact Assessment: a five-step process born from real-world experience and refined through work with companies of all shapes and sizes. It’s helped teams get unstuck, align on what really matters, and unlock the kind of impact everyone’s been hoping for.

STEP 1: Define & Align on Impact

Before you can measure or improve impact, you need to agree on what impact actually means. Design teams and leadership must have a shared definition of impact —what it looks like, how it’s measured, and why it matters in the context of your business. It’s also where you identify any misalignments in expectations or language that might be holding your team back.

Step 2: Evaluate Capability

What can the design team do? Do they have the right mix of skills—research, strategy, design, business acumen, leadership? What's the ratio of beginners, independent contributors, or strategic leaders? It's also about tools—not just access, but proficiency. Capability isn’t just about checking boxes; it’s about readiness to deliver high-level, high-value, high-impact work.

Step 3: Analyze Capacity

Capacity goes WAY beyond headcount. It’s also about whether your designers have the time, energy, and focus to deliver their best work. Are they spread across too many initiatives? Is context switching draining productivity? This step surfaces where your design team is overextended or under-leveraged—so you can make smarter, more sustainable staffing and scoping decisions.

Step 4: Assess Priorities:

What are the most important initiatives the design team should support? These should be collaboratively identified and aligned with the organization’s 1, 3, and 5-year goals. We also need to determine which initiatives require which design capabilities (e.g., research-heavy vs. visual-heavy), and what level of capacity each one deserves. No two initiatives are created equal, so capability and capacity must be distributed intentionally.

Step 5: Create a Design Impact Roadmap

With a solid picture of the current level of design impact, envision the ideal level of design impact going forward —with specific, intentional milestones to develop, grow, expand, reshape, or focus your design team's capability and capacity as well as organizational priorities. This roadmap becomes the guide everyone aligns to and rallies around.

Why This Matters More Now Than Ever

Today’s organizations are navigating constant change—technological disruption, shifting markets, rising user expectations. Design has the potential to lead through this complexity, but only if we position it strategically. The Design Impact Assessment gives us a shared language and framework to do exactly that.

In the end, this framework empowers executives, leaders and decision makers to:

• Tap into the power of their design team's ability to impact long-term business goals, support strategic initiatives and uncover new opportunities

• Make informed decisions about where to invest in design capabilities and capacity

• Ensure that the right design skills are applied to the right problems at the right time

• Build stronger partnerships with design leaders by speaking a common language of "impact"

When used well, this framework empowers design teams to:

• Advocate for the resources they need

• Say no to work that doesn’t matter

• Focus on high-impact, high-value initiatives

• Demonstrate value in ways leadership understands

While Design can thrive in ambiguity, its impact should not be ambiguous. The Design Impact Assessment provides critical clarity, and leads to practical action to maximize design impact —so your teams can do the work they love, and your organization can reap the rewards.

Want help making this happen for your team? Reach out, and let’s talk about how to unlock your design team’s full potential.