The McKinsey Design Index highlights four key areas of action companies must take to A First Step join the top quartile of design performers. First, at the top of the organization, adopt an analytical approach to design by measuring and leading your company’s Toward Great performance in this area with the same rigor the company devotes to revenues and costs. Second, put the user experience front and center in the company’s culture by softening internal boundaries (between physical Design products, services, and digital interactions, for example) that don’t exist for customers. Third, nurture your top design people and empower them in cross-functional teams that take collective accountability for improving the user experience while e realize that many companies apply This approach showed far better financial results Cross-functional and co-located teams carried retaining the functional connections some of these design practices—a strong than trying to improve design as a theme across out more than two hundred user tests over two of their members. voice in the C-suite, for example, or the whole company—for example, conducting years, from the earliest concepts to the detailed shared design spaces. Our results, however, show trials of cross-functional work in isolation from design of features. In all, more than 110 concepts Finally, iterate, test, and learn rapidly, that excellence across all four dimensions, which is real products or services. and prototypes were created and iterated. The final incorporating user insights from the first required to reach the top quartile, is relatively rare. design’s usability score—a measure of customer idea until long after the final launch. We believe this helps account for the dramatic "One of the most powerful first satisfaction—exceeded 90 percent, compared with range of design performance reflected in the steps is to select an important less than 76 percent for the machines of its two observed companies’ MDI scores, which were main competitors. The ultimate solution combined Companies that tackle these four priorities as low as 43 and as high as 92 Exhibit 5 . upcoming product or service a physical device, a digital data pad that could boost their odds of becoming more creative and make a commitment seamlessly connect with more than 40 third-party organizations that consistently design great The diversity among companies achieving to using it as a pilot." operating-theater devices, and a service contract. products and services. For companies that top-quartile MDI performance shows that make it into the top quartile of MDI scorers, design excellence is within the grasp of every In the past six months, the company’s market the prizes are as rich as doubling their revenue growth and shareholder returns business, whether product, service, or digitally One medical-equipment group we know rallied share has jumped 40 percent, in part as investors oriented. Through interviews and our experience around the design of a new surgical machine understand the upcoming user-centric products over those of their industry counterparts working with companies to transform their as it sought to head off a growing threat from and services that set the company apart from strength in design, we’ve also discovered that competitors. The commitment of the CEO its competition and—even more importantly one of the most powerful first steps is to select and senior executives was intense; executive —that will improve patients’ lives. an important upcoming product or service and bonuses were tied to the product’s usability make a commitment to using it as a pilot for metrics and surgeon-satisfaction scores. getting the four elements right. The Business Value of Design 14