The ROI of design collaboration

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the challenges of measuring the return on investment (ROI) of design and how to use variance reporting to quantify the benefits of collaborative design processes.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Measuring the ROI of Design

1. What are the challenges in measuring the ROI of design?

• Measuring the ROI of design is difficult because design is often part of a collaborative process, and it's hard to isolate the impact of design in a "siloed" system.
• The article compares it to "anchoring an air balloon to the ground and then measuring how high it can go" - the system is constrained, so the true potential of design is not captured.

2. How can variance reporting be used to measure the ROI of collaborative design?

• Variance reporting compares the actual results to the standard or forecast, providing a quantitative measure of the difference.
• For design, this can be used to compare the labor hours of a standard project vs. a "No Handoff" collaborative project, which serves as a proxy for ROI.
• The article outlines the simple math behind variance reporting (Actual - Forecast = Variance) and the importance of consistently collecting the necessary data.

3. What are some key considerations when using variance reporting to measure the ROI of collaborative design?

• Collaborative design is front-loaded, so variances may be unfavorable early on, but more favorable later in the project lifecycle.
• It's important to set expectations and not get discouraged by initial unfavorable reports, as the full ROI benefits may take time to realize.
• Variance reporting only measures productivity and efficiency, not other benefits like increased innovation.
• Variance reporting should be used to measure the process, not to judge individual team members.

[02] Measuring the ROI of the Design Function

1. How does the author suggest measuring the ROI of the design function compared to measuring the ROI of design collaboration? The article does not directly compare measuring the ROI of the design function to measuring the ROI of design collaboration. The focus is on using variance reporting to quantify the benefits of a collaborative design process, rather than measuring the ROI of the design function itself.