I had a sit-down and chat with Thomas Sutton to talk about what design quality really means and why teams must own it if they want their work to create impact. Without clear definitions, design risks being misunderstood, undervalued, or dismissed.
Thomas outlined six dimensions that shape user value in his Product Design Quality framework He shows how these connect in a causal chain: if the design, technology, and support are good, people will use the product; if people use it and it works, it will lead to user benefits, business success, and even societal impact.
As he put it:
“When I got out of that bubble and went into my first in-house design leadership role, I found myself kind of hooking past each other with some of my counterparts when I tried to position what I or my team were trying to achieve with design.”
Clarity around design goals doesn’t just elevate the design team, it strengthens the whole product process by making the connection between craft, user value, and business results explicit.
Here are a few big takeaways from our conversation:
- Define design quality for your team → Create explicit criteria tailored to your context to build trust and guide decisions.
- Quality is more than business success → User value dimensions reveal a fuller picture than just outcomes like revenue or growth.
- Connect quality to impact → Use a causal chain so discipline-specific goals tie directly to product success and business results.
- Embed quality in major initiatives → Bring quality criteria into new product efforts and cross-product initiatives from the start.
This way of framing design is a reminder that design quality isn’t just about making things “look good” — it’s about making product design visible, measurable, and accountable.
Discussion:
When your team defines “design quality,” what criteria do you use to make sure it connects to both user value and business impact?
