Agata Inventio

Great design delivers value to users faster. In my Glaringly Obvious conversation with Thomas Sutton, he made the case that product design teams must clearly define what design quality means, own it, and connect it directly to both user and business value. Without this clarity, design risks being misunderstood, undervalued, and ineffective. Love the conversation, check it out: https://lnkd.in/gVTU5jS5 Thomas’s product design quality framework maps a causal chain: → If design, technology, and support are good, people use the product. → If people use it and it works, you get product outcomes like user benefit, business value, and systemic impact. But here’s where it got me thinking: the speed of that chain matters. → Time to value for users How quickly someone feels the product is usable, useful, and enjoyable. → Time to create value for users   How fast the team can release improvements that increase that value. These two clocks run in parallel. When teams reduce the lag between user benefit and product iteration, design signals become clearer, trust builds faster, and business value compounds sooner. When they drift apart, users wait too long to see progress, and teams stall in endless refinement. In my conversations, here are some of the reasons decisions slow down: 1. Teams wait too long to test ideas, losing momentum. 2. They don’t have fast, clear ways to see what’s working. 3. Design work gets stuck in narrow solutions or tech limitations. 4. Research is incomplete, feedback overlooked, or siloed. 5. Too much refinement, not enough real signals. 6. Confirmation bias clouds decisions. 7.  Leaders struggle to align on user needs vs. business goals. 8. Limited resources stall iteration. That’s where collecting the right signals comes in. In our open framework Glare, we use UX metrics like usability, usefulness, and sentiment to quickly test whether design quality is landing. Helio helps us gather the metrics. They shorten both timelines: showing where users already get value, and where teams must act to deliver more. Building on Thomas’s framework: design quality goes beyond end outcomes. Quality also ensures the path to those outcomes is fast, clear, and measurable. #productdesign #uxmetrics #productdiscovery #uxresearch

101

11 Comments

“Everything is design and design is everything.” - Emily Campbell Today, Kim Lenox, Emily and I had a conversation with a thousand people to discuss Figma’s new study exploring how work is changing for 7 roles involved in product development. The quote above sums it up. Roles are blurring. And, more people than ever see design as an integral part of their work. The full story is longer and even more interesting: - 64% of respondents identified with two or more roles, and over a third said their responsibilities span three or more roles. - 56% of non-designers say design tasks like prototyping are a major part of their work, up 12 percentage points in a year - 19% of time is now spent with AI tools, expecting to increase to 27% in the next 12 months. This time is taken from solo work time rather than work with colleagues. And, 57% say they’re spending more time on work that’s higher value and strategic. - 53% say deep knowledge is still needed to do a task well, less than a quarter believe AI reduces the need for expertise. Matt Walker and team built the study of 1200 respondents and 50 interviews, covering 67 tasks. Alia Fite, Emma Webster, and Alex Praeger created an amazing report from the findings. Chad Bergman and Greg Huntoon answered so many questions in today's discussion. The key here is it’s not just design. It’s not just product development. And, I would guess this trend is actually is bigger than just this field. I think at the heart of these changes are a strong desire to communicate intent from one expertise to another. From marketing to design. From design to development. From PM to development. And, I think we’ll see even more of this blurring moving forward.

90

15 Comments

Finding work in industrial design is hard. Finding work requiring support with a visa is a whole different ball game. You are battling against bias and in many cases dealing with perception rather than reality. The best place to start is to remove any assumptions during an application. Do not assume an employer understands what is required from their perspective with sponsoring. Outline the costs, the forms, the time it takes providing a greater sense of due diligence and care to the process. From there you will give yourself the best possible opportunity for the outcome you are looking for. _ #industrialdesign #designtruth

201

5 Comments

Great design isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters most. When you prioritise right: Products improve faster. Users feel the difference. When you don’t: Time is wasted. Teams feel stuck. And here’s the perfect example. Most people think design progress comes from: Adding more features. Endless visual tweaks. Chasing “cool” ideas. But the truth is… None of that matters if: Usability blockers remain. Core flows stay broken. Business goals aren’t met. Here’s what prioritisation looks like when it works vs when it doesn’t: Clear priorities: - You fix what blocks users. - You design with impact. - Progress compounds daily. Scattered priorities: - You polish the wrong things. - You burn energy on low value. - Nothing meaningful ships. What changed? Not the number of hours. Not the size of the team. Not the tool you used. This is: Design prioritisation that works. Great founders ask: Am I investing in tasks that move the needle? Am I aligning design with business impact? Am I cutting noise instead of adding it? Because clarity in design isn’t about doing everything. It’s about choosing the right things. No wasted effort. No endless tweaks. No “busy work.” So ultimately:  If you want great design, prioritisation is the real superpower. ♻ Repost if you agree.

136

123 Comments

Variable Visualizer's AI is now in public beta 🚀 AI that thinks in Figma variables. It writes/edits collections and modes, does variable aliasing, binds to selected layers, and explains the variable relations. Live, dev-synced. No pipelines. No runtime. Open to all. Access 👉 https://lnkd.in/d36QxwFz #Figma #FigmaPlugins #FigmaVariables #DesignSystems #DesignOps #DesignTokens #AIinDesign #UXEngineering #ProductDesign #FrontendArchitecture #HumanComputerInteraction

338

17 Comments

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: your buttons are telling the wrong story Most tech designers obsess over visual hierarchy, but there's a parallel structure that matters more: interaction hierarchy. This determines what gets a physical button versus a software toggle, what lives on the home screen versus buried in settings. Apple's iPhone is the masterclass. The power button does one thing. Volume buttons do one thing. Everything else requires unlock and navigation. That's a deliberate story about what matters enough to interrupt your life. A phone call can bypass everything. A sale notification cannot. Hardware controls are your main characters - always available, always in the same place. Software features are subplots - flexible, contextual, secondary. When you promote something to a dedicated button, you're saying "this is central to why this product exists." That decision is permanent. Your interaction hierarchy is a bet on what users will care about in three years, not three months. ——— To bold ideas and well-crafted things, —Blair Let’s connect → linkedin.com/in/blairhasty

67

8 Comments

Whether you’re trying to get hired or promoted, we’ve developed an obsession with “showing impact.” I’m guilty of it too. Many talented designers struggle with this. They work in organisations where tracking is incomplete, and they’re forced to choose between showing nothing or making up numbers. But here’s something to keep in mind: Awareness beats access. I’d rather work with someone who doesn’t have data but understands what their work affects. Than someone who has all the data and no idea what to do with it. If you don’t have perfect data, you can still show impact by thinking through these layers: 1. Behaviour --- What are the smallest user actions your design is meant to influence? For example: • Form submissions • Button clicks • Page visits These are leading indicators. You can directly influence them with design. 2. Product --- If hundreds or thousands of users perform that behaviour more often, what product metric would it influence? For example: • Activation rate • Engagement • Discoverability These are team-level outcomes. Your work should support one or more of them. 3. Business --- If that product metric improves, what business impact would it have? For example: • New MRR • Retention • Expansion These are your lagging indicators. They show up later, but they matter most to leadership. Even if you can’t measure these directly, talk about what you believe your work affected. Be honest about the gaps. You can also share what you would have tracked if the data had been available. If you can tell a plausible story using these three layers—behaviour, product, and business—you’re already showing strong strategic awareness. And you’re pointing to the organisational gaps that made measurement difficult. That mindset matters more than a dashboard.

60

12 Comments