Design Maturity: A Product Leader’s Guide to Building Better Teams

How to Align UX, Product, and Engineering Without Slowing Teams Down

By Jue Feng I 2025

It is a long article, #bear-with me.

Not long ago, I sat down with a client who was in charge of unifying design across five different SaaS products. Three of those products came through acquisition. One had a well-established design practice. Another had—literally—no designers. The rest fell somewhere in between. We talked about his goals. He wasn’t asking for “pixel-perfect” interfaces. What he wanted was something far more foundational:

“How can I get our teams aligned around design without slowing them down or taking away their autonomy?”

This is the kind of challenge that keeps product leaders up at night. And it’s why I want to talk about design maturity—not as a design-only concern but as a strategic lever for product clarity, speed, and customer success.

The Real-World Problem: Fragmented Product Teams

If you’re managing multiple product teams—especially in a fast-growing company—you’ve probably seen it:

Teams working with different tech stacks and rituals
Some products ship quickly but chaotically
Others are stuck in cycles of refinement without clear value
Inconsistent experiences for users, depending on which product they touch

And everyone has a slightly different definition of what “design” is even supposed to do.

Sound familiar?

This is where many companies get stuck. They want to deliver consistent, user-centred experiences—but don’t know how to align teams without creating bottlenecks or adding unnecessary processes.

This is where design maturity comes in. And why product leaders should care deeply about it.

What Is Design Maturity?

At its core, design maturity reflects how effectively your organisation uses design to solve problems, reduce risk, and deliver value—at scale.

It’s not about how beautiful your interface is. It’s about:

How early design is involved in decision-making
How well do you understand users before building
How consistently design is applied across teams
How deeply design is aligned with business strategy

Most maturity models describe five levels:

Absent – Design is not a function.
Emerging – Design is reactive, often visual-only.
Defined – Roles and systems are in place, but design is still downstream.
Integrated – Design is a strategic partner in product development.
Transformational – Design leads innovation and drives business direction.

Maturity isn’t about being good or bad. It’s about being fit for purpose—and ready to grow.

How Do You Measure It?

Several respected frameworks exist (like those from Nielsen Norman Group, InVision, and McKinsey). While the terminology differs slightly, they all assess similar dimensions:

Team structure – Are designers embedded in product squads?
Process maturity – Is there a consistent, user-informed design process?
Research integration – Are decisions based on evidence, not assumptions?
Design operations – Is there infrastructure to scale design efficiently?
Business alignment – Can design outcomes be linked to KPIs like retention or revenue?

The most insightful results come when you look across teams, especially in organisations with varied histories and ways of working.

What Design Maturity Looks Like in Practice

To help teams visualise where they stand, I often map design maturity through the lens of the product development process. Here are three real-world patterns I’ve encountered again and again:

Level 2: The Visual Polish Afterthought

Team Profile:

A mid-sized SaaS product team. PMs define the roadmap. Designers are brought in late.

How the Product Gets Built:

Roadmap set top-down
Features scoped by PMs and developers
Designers asked to “make it look nice” at the end
Little or no user research
Launch quickly; fix later

Design’s Role:

Minimal and cosmetic. No say in shaping what gets built.

Risks:

Building solutions to the wrong problems
High usability debt
Inconsistent product experience

Level 3: The Consistent Executor

Team Profile:

Designers embedded in squads. A design system is in place. Some research is happening.

How the Product Gets Built:

PMs and designers align on goals after prioritisation
Wireframes and designs are created post-scoping
Shared components ensure consistency
Feedback and testing occur before the release
Analytics reviewed post-launch

Design’s Role:

Tactically strong, but not yet strategic. Input on how, but not what or why.

Strengths:

More polished and usable interfaces
Reliable collaboration between teams
Incremental improvements over time

Gaps:

Design doesn’t shape the roadmap
Research is mostly reactive

Level 4: The Strategic Co-Creator

Team Profile:

A mature trio of product, design, and engineering working in sync. Discovery is ongoing.

How the Product Gets Built:

Problems framed together with data and user insight
Hypotheses tested early through prototypes
Scope informed by what delivers the most value
Dual-track agile allows learning and building in parallel
Outcomes tracked and inform future priorities

Design’s Role:

Strategic. Partners in defining what to build and why.

Outcomes:

Faster iteration with fewer surprises
Greater alignment and clarity across teams
Design impact tied directly to business success

Why This Matters for Product Leaders

As a product leader, you’ve probably asked:

“How do we deliver faster without cutting corners?”
“How can we reduce risk and make better bets?”
“How do I get teams aligned without slowing them down?”

The answer is design maturity.

When maturity is low, product development is chaotic, inefficient, and user-blind.

When it’s high, teams ship with confidence, solve the right problems, and scale smarter—not harder.

And the good news? You don’t have to overhaul everything at once. You just need to start where you are.

What You Can Do Next

If you’re overseeing multiple product teams, here’s how to begin aligning design maturity:

Map each team’s current process – Use the three scenarios above to guide the discussion.
Identify your “lighthouse” team – Learn from the one that’s working well.
Set shared principles, not rigid rules – Values like user-centeredness, feedback loops, and collaboration travel well.
Invest in common infrastructure – A basic design system, shared research tools, or consistent feedback rituals go a long way.
Connect maturity to outcomes – Help your org see how better design leads to better business results.

Final Thoughts

Design maturity is not a design initiative – It’s a product capability— and a business advantage.

It’s how you scale clarity, reduce rework, and create products that matter. And if you’re leading through complexity—multiple products, acquired teams, competing priorities—you’re not alone.

I’ve worked with companies at every stage of this journey. If you’re curious about where your teams stand or how to move toward maturity confidently, I’d love to talk – Contact me.