Design has a data ownership problem

Measuring design
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I shared a post on LinkedIn about design measurement, and a few pressure points kept surfacing in my head based on the direct feedback you guys gave me about the challenges of creating design impact.

I believe many of these challenges stem from teams not owning the data, and having a system to influence.

Here are the places where design impact most often breaks based on what 60 of you shared with me.

1. Design impact breaks at the translation layer
Teams lose meaning in work once it leaves Design’s hands. User signals and design decisions are rarely expressed in terms that the business can compare or act on, so stakeholders fall back on opinions and politics.

If design doesn’t translate “better” into shared definitions and numbers, trust erodes and decisions will start to stall.

2. Measurement exists, but it is not shared or comparable
Metrics are collected but they are inconsistent and owned by no one. Different teams measure different things, at different times, with no baselines. Without comparison, improvement is implied instead of proven.

If metrics cannot be compared, progress cannot be shown or defended.

3. Scale turns intuition into a liability
What works in small teams breaks as organizations grow. Intuition and storytelling stop carrying weight when systems, dependencies, and feedback loops multiply. Design leaders end up justifying decisions instead of leading them.

At scale, intuition without evidence creates friction. Let’s be honest, that leads to dead ends and wasted work.

Curious where others here are seeing these breakpoints, especially as teams scale or bring AI into the mix.

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Love this. It’s always interesting to see the “growing pains” of organizations and how they differ from smaller ones.

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Decided to build on this idea and articulate the three big challenges.

Here’s the extended list of challenges you guys shared regarding measuring design impact.

  • No shared metrics between design and business
  • Inconsistent measurement and fragmented data
  • Hard to benchmark or show before-and-after proof
  • Translating design outcomes into business language
  • Over-focus on artifacts instead of outcomes
  • Team scale creates uneven practices
  • Proving ROI or causality of design work
  • Communicating design value clearly
  • Ownership and accountability gaps
  • Legacy systems slowing validation
  • Time spent convincing stakeholders
  • Misaligned decision-making

THat’s a great list, and I believe we can tackle these with Glare.

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Going back to this, as it was stuck in my head, and I had a conversation with @EricZ on it. After nearly 10 years of collecting design data, I’ve come to this conclusion.

Owning your data is how design grows influence.

When design controls its own data allows teams to lead with insight. You can see patterns, test ideas, explain tradeoffs, and show what actually changed for users. In our work, I see this first hand in helping customers.

That shifts conversations from opinion to evidence.

Without ownership, design depends on borrowed metrics, third-party dashboards, or business interpretations of value. That weakens trust and limits how far insights travel. I

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Owning data means:

  • You decide what gets measured and why
  • You control the quality and integrity of the design signal
  • You can connect design choices to outcomes the business cares about
  • You move faster because feedback loops stay close to the work

Data ownership turns design from a service function into a decision-making partner. (this isn’t because the data replaces judgment, but because it gives judgment weight).

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I’m curious your thoughts on this @patrizia_bertini, especially from your experience in design ops.

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Leaned into this idea. Feeling like there’s some edge to this that people can align with and perhaps unlock some of their blockers.

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Definitely a great post here @Bryan! Design does matter, and I think it’ll start to matter even more in the near-term.

A lot of people just don’t realize it yet- it’s something that’s hard to see yet fundamental to finding what works.

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Here’s an interesting point, and one that surfaces where this is headed for design data.

Marina’s calls out that: influence is structural* (not a rhetorical exercise). Pushback fails in many orgs and projects because they intervene after the structure of a decision has already formed.

What’s changing now is that timing itself is becoming a zero-sum game for influencing decisions.

As AI and automation accelerate decision-making, directions form faster, socialize earlier, and harden sooner. Waiting for the “right moment” to give feedback increasingly means missing it altogether. By the time a designer speaks up, momentum has already done the work.

This is the trap.

Marina’s advice is good, and designers should think intervening before emotional and political commitments form. But relying on timing alone does not scale. It assumes designers are always present, always early, and always close enough to the signal.

Designers need to exit this game.

I’ve found that when design owns its own data, influence no longer depends on perfect timing. UX metrics help to change the structure of decisions themselves. Evidence of user intent, comprehension, effort, and confidence travels earlier and farther than opinion ever can.

When design shows up with owned signals:

  • decisions move forward with visible risk attached
  • assumptions get surfaced before they calcify
  • momentum slows just enough to ask better questions

Moving ahead without understanding the customer becomes the risky choice, not the cautious one that the rest of the business wants to take.

Design creates durable influence this way. It shouldn’t be waiting for the right moment, but instead thinking about changing what decisions are made with.

Designers need to own the data.

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Ok, this has turned into a monologue thread… :laughing:

I took the ideas about owning data and rolled them into a post that connects the decision points.

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