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Summary
This past summer, 763 responded to a series of questions Peter Merholz posted, meant to reveal just how healthy their UX/Design organizations are. The top finding: Individual designers are fulfilled, but their organizations aren't giving them or their teams the support they need to do their best work. Additionally intriguing: there seems to be a sweet spot for org size, certain departments house UX/Design better than others, and the company type that most supports health has been on the decline for 20 years. Join Peter Merholz as we dig into the research, unpack the paradox, and chart a course toward healthier, more effective design teams. If you care about UX organizations not just surviving, but truly thriving, join us for this discussion.
Key Insights
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Designers feel confident and proud about the quality of work they themselves produce despite organizational constraints.
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Most companies lack clear career pathing and career development support for UX and design professionals.
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Insufficient staffing and lack of time to focus on work strongly correlate with high burnout rates among designers.
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Many design teams do not have explicit, robust standards of design quality comparable to engineering or product management standards.
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Reporting lines deeply affect team health: design teams reporting directly to CEOs or digital departments report better organizational health than those under engineering or marketing.
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Professional services and consulting environments yield the happiest and healthiest design teams despite typically lower pay.
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Design organizations sized roughly between 30 and 150 members strike a balance between growth opportunity and avoiding bureaucratic overhead.
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The traditional roles in UX and design are blurring or becoming obsolete, complicating career architectures and growth paths.
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Designers often bring an idealistic mindset that clashes with corporate bureaucracy and pragmatic cultures, which may underpin some dissatisfaction.
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There is a renewed interest in the experience architect role, now often evolving within service design practices, which are distinct yet related to UX design teams.
Notable Quotes
"No s**t designers burnout more than any other function."
"I feel good about the work I do, but my company doesn't ship good work."
"Most organizations don't care that design has an explicit standard of quality."
"Design teams reporting through engineering tend to have the worst quality scores."
"The farther away you are from the CEO or GM, the less happy and healthy your organization tends to be."
"Smaller design orgs rate high on some health indicators but often have no growth path; very large orgs get bogged down by bureaucracy."
"Design as a function is empathetic and human-centered, corporations are calculating and bureaucratic; integrating these value systems takes effort."
"Career growth is mostly about skills development, responsibility, and influence rather than just compensation or titles."
"Many designers don't understand corporate realities and thus have an idealistic view that clashes with organizational constraints."
"Design roles are blurring or dead; super senior individual contributor roles are emerging as a new career path."
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