Three C's for a Strong Design Culture

One of the main tenets of Design Operations is keeping design teams engaged and content with their work systems and overall culture. Enabling a strong system for collaboration between designers and cross-functionally results in more successful and productive design teams. This can be achieved by considering the three C’s: communication, consistency, and collaboration. Here’s how these three intersect and how they can help build a strong design culture:

Communication

Promoting a sturdy design culture through communication means more than just sharing updates about products and project goals. Design system architects need to take into account everything from communication methods to the overall mission of the company to instill organization and trust within a group of designers. 

Establishing a standard application for everyone to communicate through is essential to ensuring transparency and less dysfunction across teams. Additionally, communication can be solidified by having all members of the design team sharing the same vision or purpose when working towards goals. Fostering a continuous, open dialogue about how their visions align with the company’s overarching mission will create a cohesive culture and set of standards for designers. Without these effective communication practices, design teams will not be able to implement and effectively utilize a new design system.

Consistency

A strong design culture is built on being consistent in all areas of the design process. This includes cultivating consistency in practices and tools as well as encouraging consistent discussions and feedback about the design systems being implemented. Design teams that are consistently engaged in discourse about the state of their systems and overall progress across the board will be more willing to share new ideas and open up throughout the design process. Further, consistency in recognizing the successes of the design team as the DesignOps methods are implemented will reinforce that positive design culture in your organization.

Collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration can involve designers, producers, stakeholders, and marketers to ultimately create a better product and a better employee experience. Taking the perspectives and experiences of people from various teams can help address previously unrecognized problems or areas of improvement. Not only will this increase productivity, but it can drive impact and bring different departments together under a shared goal. Collaboration allows for growth across teams; emphasizing its benefits will help spread a strong design culture to more than just the design team alone.