In every kickoff, we talk about what our clients want to achieve through our work together. One client's answer always sticks with me.

He wanted to improve usability and address feature gaps. But in his engineering-centric company, he also thought a better UI would improve team morale.

It's an upside we rarely talk about, but good design matters to our teams. A lot.

Can you think of a time when you weren't confident that your leader had a clear, workable vision? It can make a team feel confused, anxious and uncertain.

Now think of a time where you could really see the leader's vision. It might have been hard to achieve, but you believed that it could work out, and when it did, it'd be a real accomplishment.

You might know the feeling. "This definitely isn't the best solution, but this is what we came up with." Teams may feel like they're faking it, hoping it turns out OK. But they much prefer to feel confident that what they're working on will actually move the needle. Especially when they're working hard!

A good design process applies user insight to paint a compelling picture of the future. It offers certainty on the destination. When the design process is solid, teams can’t wait to show off the outcomes. Our clients are often very eager to take new designs on a roadshow to the CEO, the All Hands meeting, or the board.

For many of you, there's a whole team contributing to your product experience—back-end developers, front-end developers, sales, customer support, you name it. When the product looks great and users rave about how helpful it is, team members feel pride and ownership. As a result, they hold future work to a higher standard.

So my challenge to you is to think about how your team feels about your product's user interface. Does it work well? Does it help people? Does it look good? Are they proud of the product?

If not, consider what improving your design process might do for morale.

And as always, if you need a flexible partner for such a process, don't hesitate to reach out! Our workshops, UX audits, and strategic UI design can turn your team’s vision into reality.