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Building a strong UX team culture starts with your people defining the values themselves. Not the boss. Not a consultant. The whole team. At Drawbackwards, we approached our own culture the same way we approach client work: by drawing backwards from the outcome we wanted. The result was eight core values that our team actually lives by, every single day.
What Does It Take to Build a Strong UX Team Culture?
Good companies are run by smart and driven individuals. Great companies are run by teams unified by purpose, mission, and values. As a product leader, the question is: how do you build a culture that delights your team so they can create meaningful experiences for end users?
At Drawbackwards, we recognized that culture is a differentiator. So we built ours with the same intentionality we bring to client work.
How Did Drawbackwards Develop Its Core Values?
The backstory
Almost two decades ago, Drawbackwards was a small group with multiple contractors. As the owner and executive producer, I essentially played point guard, passing projects to the team. We hit some home runs, which led to more work. But we knew that if we wanted to reach the next level, we'd have to truly embrace the skillset of each member of our team. I couldn't run the show alone.
We approached the buildout of our team very deliberately. We wanted to build the business from the inside out, instead of being molded by outside forces or from the top down. We needed guiding principles, a set of core values to be the foundation of the daily decisions that would build an enduring business.
The process
We looked inward and approached our business just like we would approach a client's. We took a full day of team time, stepped back, and looked at the outcomes we all wanted. We built out affinity maps of our purpose and values, synthesizing a wide variety of personal values into eight core ideas.
This exercise was illuminating, revealing that we all had a shared purpose: creating successful, meaningful products and services for our clients.
Together, we discovered what we were and what we weren't. The values didn't come from me as the "boss," because a leader/owner can't decree downward what the culture is. The culture is what it is; the people are who they are. Trying to fight that can only end badly. That's why it was important to us that the entire team build the values.
What Are the Eight Core Values of a High-Performing UX Team?
We create the future
Our first value orients us to understand a current state and then collaborate with our partners to design a future state that's better. Drawbackwards isn't a team you come to for production work. We create the future. We elevate the present.
We are optimists
If you're with our team, you can just feel it. You aren't going to see Drawbackwards shrink or cower or say, "Oh, we can't do anything about this." Drawbackwards is going to say, "Well, here are five different ways you can do it; let's test them." We're optimists. And the bigger the challenge, the better we are at it.
We love the details
Our work proves it. When we deliver a user interface, you'll see the initial design...plus three other ways the user could experience it. We go above and beyond, in a way that focuses on the intricacies of the client's business objectives, employee goals, and user needs.
We believe in the speed of trust
We work with a lot of high-growth companies and fast-moving teams. Even our Fortune 100 clients move quickly with us; they know we're built for that and they trust us to deliver. Internally, our tasks are managed the same way. We trust each other to deliver on time and at the level we require. The speed of trust is a real differentiator for us. We hire, fire, and train to this level of performance. As a remote team, it's essential.
We deliver value every day
Simple to say, difficult to do...unless you have the right team-oriented mindset. Everyone holds everyone else accountable for their daily delivery. We use an activity called Weekly Tetris which allows everyone to know what everyone else is focused on every day that week. Things can change, but by setting up strategic blocks of time upfront, we empower our team to deliver maximum value across multiple projects and initiatives.
We design to delight
This is a byproduct of the first five values. As a business, if we do a good job in values 1-5, we're able to create more surprise, delight, joy, and thoughtfulness in the work that we do, resulting in five-star app store reviews and high NPS scores. When critiquing our own work, we actively look for ways to "plus" the work and create true delight.
We are proactive
The next level of designing to delight is to proactively identify ways to add value, internally and externally. As a team, we constantly look for ways to add that value. When we see a challenge, we also see a solution to offer and bring balance to the effort.
We are always learning
Experimentation is part of the design and development process. If we always have the mindset that we're learning (not "failing"), we'll rarely run into roadblocks that completely stop us. In fact, we can avoid that particular block in the future because we learn from it. We move beyond it with a better process, tighter execution, and a higher level of experience. This fosters an open, loving culture that embraces innovation. What will we learn next? Where do we go next?
How Do You Keep Team Values Alive After You Define Them?
We're proud of our core values and purpose, but ultimately these would be empty words if we didn't live them on a daily basis. Here's how to keep purpose and values alive in your organization:
Post the values somewhere visible. Don't underestimate this. Our purpose statement is a giant floor-to-ceiling vinyl print on a sliding door in our office. We read it and see it every day.
As a leader, embody every value all the way through. Remember: the quiet things matter as much as the public recognition.
Make values fun and public at the same time. We have designated specific emojis on our Slack channel for each of the values, and we send an emoji out when someone exhibits that value. It's fun.
Give public, formal praise regularly. At our quarterly planning meetings, each team member shares how another member exhibited a core value. Do it regularly, so that it becomes part of the team ethos and mindset.
Don't be afraid to bring experts in. Culture from the outside can look very different than culture from the inside. Recently, we brought in a third party who asked some great questions about our process, our culture, and how we measure employee engagement. Don't be afraid to invest time and energy to get another perspective.
Use an affinity map to get started. Just ask your team, "What matters in the work we do?" Group the responses on the wall with post-its, and sort them into 3-5 groups of shared principles. You might be surprised what you learn.
FAQ
How do you build a UX team culture that actually sticks? Start by having your whole team define the values together, not just leadership. Culture that comes from the top down rarely takes root. When the entire team builds the values, they own them.
Why shouldn't a founder or CEO define company values alone? Because a leader can't decree what culture is. The culture is what it is; the people are who they are. Trying to override that only creates friction. Values need to reflect the team, not just the person at the top.
What is an affinity map and how does it help define team values? An affinity map is a simple exercise where team members write down what matters to them in their work, then group those responses into shared themes. It's a great way to surface collective values that already exist in a team, often ones you didn't expect.
How do you keep company values from becoming just words on a wall? Live them visibly, celebrate them publicly, and revisit them regularly. At Drawbackwards that means Slack emojis for each value, quarterly callouts in team meetings, and a purpose statement printed floor-to-ceiling in the office.
What is Weekly Tetris and how does it support team accountability? Weekly Tetris is a Drawbackwards practice where each team member maps out strategic blocks of time at the start of the week. It gives everyone visibility into what everyone else is working on, and empowers the team to deliver maximum value across multiple projects without dropping the ball.
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