McKinsey & Company recently published a report based on data from 3 million designers in more than 100 000 design departments and an in-depth survey of over 250 businesses to identify how design departments can drive the business performance of the company.
The hallmark of successful design departments turned out to be organizational integration. The most successful design departments were ones where designers have been distributed into cross-functional teams and working not only on the design of products or services but also focused on how to improve the company overall. For cross-functional teams to work, efficient communication and collaboration are essential in addition to great tools. Collaborative creative teams where designers’ integration level is high drive much higher business performance in different areas such as environmental impact, social impact and profitability etc.
That said, cross-functional collaboration and efficient communication is hard and particularly challenging for creative work. In our previous issue of Glue Insights, we referred to recent research stating that video calls are killing creativity. This is why you should also invest in the versatility of the tools that you offer for collaboration in this remote-first world. Our recommendation is to spice up the remote design work with VR. The main reasons are:
1. Remote presence. VR makes remote meetings to be as great as face-to-face due to the high level of non-verbal communication of avatars and immersive spaces. It gives an opportunity to express and illustrate any idea as you would do in a physical meeting.
2. Collaboration tools. With the use of collaboration tools such as whiteboards, notes, and freehand 3D drawings, your team can note every idea seamlessly during VR meetings. Moreover, due to persistent spaces in Glue, you can leave your work until the next meeting. No need to export or save it anywhere.
3. Working with 3D content is easy. Import any 3D model into VR space and review it with your colleagues or clients. This practice provides you with a more engaging and life-like experience, you can also make notes on further improvement right away.
Clearly, well-structured design teams do have a significant impact on company success, and with VR-based collaboration tools like Glue, you can create an optimal remote collaboration environment for designers and drive company performance.
Source: Redesigning the design department
