UX/Design Org Health Assessment

When we think of tools and frameworks that enable UX/Design organizations to consistently deliver high quality work, we typically think of design systems, experience principles, heuristic guidelines. All of them are valuable, but they also focus on only part of the equation.

The factor that most contributes to the quality of a team's output is the mindset of the people doing the work. How is their morale? What are their levels of engagement and motivation? If these are high, then much of the rest takes care of itself, as these folks won't be satisfied with delivering sub-par work. If these are low, though, then people will give just the bare minimum necessary to get by.

Organizational health is a way to understand that collective mindset. Many companies conduct some form of internal engagement survey (sometimes called a Pulse survey, as in 'taking the pulse' of the organization), but, as with so many HR tools that are meant to serve an entire company, these surveys lack the necessary specificity to make them truly applicable to understanding a Design organization.

So, I've created my own survey. The idea is to probe design team member morale, engagement, motivation, and belonging across a range of factors, some of which may not be evident in day-to-day interactions. The collective response will identify where team leadership should focus its efforts to realize the greatest positive impact.

The survey took as a starting point Chapter 3 in Org Design for Design Orgs, The 12 Qualities of Effective Design Organizations. I then added questions that provided a fuller picture of how the organization is operating.