How Unorganized Teams and Unclear Goals lead to Bad UX and a Decreased Bottom Line

And my take on how organizations can avoid this destructive trap

Bad design is bad business. Period.

Any system that fails to take into account the needs of its users has the power to bring down an entire organization, especially in a 2022 world where word of mouth spreads like wildfire and the cost of switching services is often quite low. But what causes bad design? Are there other consequences of bad design that we are unaware of, besides a poor experience for users? Finally, how do we avoid bad design, and ultimately do “good” design? First, let me ask you a simple question.

Have you ever had such a poor experience with technology that you felt utterly powerless?

In the last two weeks, I’ve had several particularly unpleasant experiences trying to do things that should’ve been easy. One of them happened while trying to book bus tickets for an upcoming trip to Spain. First, I was greeted with a visually cluttered and unorganized layout, which immediately produced a feeling of uncertainty - not what you want to feel when you're about to make a purchase. But anyway, I had to book the bus, so I went through all the steps, and even entered my credit card and hit "submit payment." Here's what happened next... for nearly 5 minutes!

No warning, no reason, just an evil spinner doing what it's best at. Clearly something was wrong, so I had to abort the mission and exit the website. I later realized that the system didn't accept the credit card I used, but they waited until after I confirmed payment to tell me this. That was an incredibly bad UX. So bad that I'm talking about it several weeks later. When these situations happen, they leave us feeling powerless and without any way out. When there’s nowhere to vent, it’s even worse.

What causes bad design?

As the creators of software, we should all be familiar with these unpleasant feelings triggered by poorly designed products. Bad design is typically caused by a lack of proper research and testing. But let's go deeper than that. Oftentimes what causes a lack of proper research and testing is the absence of a clear vision, roadmap, and milestones for teams to execute on. So it follows that in order to do “good design," organizations as a whole (not just specific individuals within) must value user research and incorporate it into their process, while being crystal clear on deliverables. The truth is, the only way my situation with the bus tickets could’ve been avoided is if the company understood the trouble I was going through - ideally before any of their software was released - simply by conducting user research or usability testing. This would have spared me the agony, and spared them the loss of at least one customer. (I say at least one because it’s 2019 and word-of-mouth spreads quicker than ever). No team should feel confident or ready to build a solution if they don’t understand the following:

1. The core business problem

2. The core user needs

3. The resources available

4. The timeline

The first aim of every project should be ensuring it's as simple as ABC. Only then will team members feel confident to dive in.

The causes and effects of bad design run deeper than the UI

Now we understand that unorganized teams and unclear goals likely leads to bad design, but what are some other consequences that we’re not considering? First, a bad user experience is a recipe for lost dollars in the form of churn. It's no secret that when we have a subpar experience using technology, and the cost of switching that technology is low, we switch on a dime. No one has time for poor design. Yet it still seems to exist everywhere you look. Second, a lack of clarity among teams and organizations will produce uncertainty and unease in employees, leading to lost dollars in the form of decreased productivity and ultimately attrition. If the core business problem, the core user needs, the resources available, and the timeline are not clearly defined and properly understood by all team members, the project will suffer. It’s not enough to just know, “we need to build a tool for people to do X” or “we have to create a customer journey map of Y.” Any individual or team with solely that information is bound to be lost. What entire teams and organizations should be asking is, “What problem are we solving? Why is this a problem? Who are the people experiencing the problem? What are they trying to do? Why are they trying to do that? Are we going to solve it at the root, or do something to patch it up? What timeline are we working with? What’s our budget? How does this problem stack up against all the other work we have? Any individual, team, or organization that isn’t actively asking (and answering) these questions, yet is expected to build something of value to users that will increase the bottom line of a business, is going to have a hard time executing.

“Complexity is the enemy of execution” - Tony Robbins

So how do we avoid bad design and ultimately do “good” design?

Clarity is power. Unity is power. We must incessantly ask the questions listed above and make sure everyone is clear on the answers. Once again, all questions should contribute to defining:

1. The core business problem

2. The core user needs

3. The resources available

4. The timeline

If any one of these things isn’t explicitly defined and understood by every single team member, the chances of success are dramatically lower. Finally, there's one more core ingredient that I believe any successful team needs, and that is passion. A team without passion is just a compilation of individuals who are "sort of" working together 🤔, "maybe" solving a problem 🤷🏻‍♂️, but really just trying to look busy and keep their job 👨‍💻. How do we build passion? Once again, it starts with a clear vision that everyone understands and gets behind. On nearly every team in sports, there's a clear goal, and that is to win the game, and ultimately the championship. It’s binary and there’s no confusion. You don't hear athletes asking their coach "Why are we playing tonight? What's the plan for today's game?" Instead, it's all clarity, zero confusion. That's why great sports teams have the ability to focus fully on executing their vision. Why shouldn't teams in a business have a vision that clear? I recognize business is a never-ending game, whereas sports has a finite ending, but that doesn’t mean the vision and expectations need to be any less clear. Teams in business must harness the power of clarity and passion so-often found on sports teams to create good UX, happier employees, and an increased bottom line.