Designing for Impact: Metrics That Matter
- Alex Dihel
- Jun 29
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 2
TL;DR
Across four major initiatives, I led operational changes that improved structure, speed, and clarity in our design org. These changes drove measurable results: role clarity up 137%, onboarding time down 51%, QA rework down 83%, stakeholder satisfaction up 44%, and over $14K saved in tooling - all while maintaining full team retention during several organizational restructure processes.
Why Design Needs Metrics - Beyond Aesthetics
In high-performing design orgs, results aren’t just visual - they’re operational.
Design systems, workflows, and leadership decisions should improve not only output quality, but also how teams function day to day. Over the course of four large-scale initiatives, I focused on making impact measurable, so the value of design could be clearly seen, not just felt. The following results demonstrate the impact of my design operations expertise.
Organizational Clarity Drives Retention and Confidence
Team role clarity improved from 40% to 95%
Manager confidence in scope and resourcing rose from 45% to 88%
eNPS (employee satisfaction) improved by 30% following organizational restructuring
Team retention: 100% during a high-stress, multi-month transition
Cross-discipline collaboration rating improved by 43%
Systemized Design, Streamlined QA
Playbook adoption doubled guideline use across teams (46% → 92%)
Onboarding time dropped from 3.5 weeks to 1.7 weeks (–51%)
Visual consistency improved by 49% in audit-based reviews
QA task reopen rate fell from 18% to 3% (–83%)
Brief-to-QA cycle time improved by 57%
Stakeholder satisfaction with QA jumped from 48% to 87%
Operational Efficiency Without Creative Compromise
Brief completeness improved 107% at intake
Task delivery consistency: 68% → 94% on-time
Unplanned scope changes cut by 64% per quarter
Tooling savings: ~$14.5K in 2024
Adobe license costs reduced by 20%
Stakeholder satisfaction improved from 63% to 91%
Bottom Line
Design isn’t just how it looks - it’s how well the system runs behind it.
By tracking and improving what matters most to teams, stakeholders, and customers, we turned operational clarity into creative headroom - and delivered results that scale.
