Financial Metrics for Experience Designers

If there’s one theme that underpins much of what I write and advocate for, it’s the evolution of the design discipline towards something far more integrated and impactful. I’ve been talking about how designers can no longer afford to exist in silos, focused solely on the craft of design. Instead, they must embrace a broader understanding of how businesses operate and how their work contributes to the success of those businesses.

What I’ve come to realise is that the design community isn’t lacking the will to focus on business alignment - it’s the how that often remains unclear. In many of my recent articles, I’ve spoken about the need for designers to rethink their core skillsets, shifting beyond aesthetics and usability to better align with business goals. A designer who understands the language of business - profitability, growth, and efficiency - becomes far more effective at advocating for the value of their work. With this in mind, I wanted to explore a topic that sits at the heart of every business decision: financial performance. Because ultimately, no matter how innovative or user-centric a product is, it has to contribute to the bottom line to truly succeed.

This article explores some of the most important financial metrics that designers need to understand - metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), and Churn Rate. More importantly, it highlights how experience design can directly influence these numbers. By connecting the dots between creativity and commerce, we can help shape the next generation of business-aligned designers - professionals who are not only skilled in design but also fluent in the metrics that drive success.

Financial Metrics that Designers Should Care About

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC Explained: Customer Acquisition Cost measures the total cost of acquiring a new customer. From marketing campaigns to sales efforts, CAC highlights how much a business spends to bring in fresh customers. Lowering CAC means higher efficiency in customer acquisition efforts, making it a crucial metric for growth.

How Experience Design Can Impact CAC

1. Optimising Conversion Funnels: Poorly designed websites or apps with complex user journeys create barriers for potential customers. Experience designers can map these journeys, identify friction points, and design more intuitive flows. For instance, removing unnecessary form fields or clarifying CTAs can boost conversion rates, reducing wasted spend on marketing that drives users to ineffective pages.
2. A/B Testing for Results: Designers play a pivotal role in testing variations of landing pages, visuals, or micro copy to identify what resonates best with users. Even small adjustments - like tweaking button colours or improving headline clarity - can result in significant improvements to conversion rates, directly reducing CAC.
3. Designing Impactful First Impressions: First impressions count. A poorly designed homepage or product demo can turn off potential customers, wasting marketing spend. Designers can create visually compelling and highly functional experiences that engage users immediately, ensuring marketing budgets are maximised.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

CLTV Explained: CLTV measures the total revenue a business expects to earn from a customer over their lifetime. Businesses aim to increase CLTV to maximise profitability and sustain growth.

How Experience Design Can Impact CLTV

1. Enhancing Usability to Drive Loyalty: If users find your product frustrating, they won’t return. Designers can focus on creating experiences that are not only functional but also delightful. For instance, intuitive navigation, faster load times, and seamless interactions all contribute to higher retention and longer customer lifespans.
2. Designing for Personalisation: Tailored experiences, like customised dashboards or product recommendations, create a sense of connection and value for users. Designers who integrate personalisation into digital products increase engagement, boosting the likelihood of repeat purchases and subscription renewals.
3. Proactive Support Systems: Frustrated users are quick to churn. By designing proactive support features, such as chatbots or self-help tools, designers reduce friction and make it easier for customers to resolve issues, extending their loyalty.

Churn Rate

Churn Explained: Churn measures the percentage of customers who stop using a product or service over a specific period. High churn rates erode growth and profitability, making retention a critical focus.

How Experience Design Can Impact Churn

1. Reducing Frustration with Feedback Loops: Designers can implement seamless feedback mechanisms, enabling users to share pain points easily. Acting on this feedback ensures the product evolves with user needs, reducing frustration and churn.
2. Continuous Value Delivery: Regular updates, new features, or surprise-and-delight moments keep customers engaged. Designers can plan these touchpoints strategically to sustain interest and remind users of the product’s value.
3. Building Emotional Loyalty: Beyond functionality, great design creates emotional connections. Subtle animations, delightful micro-interactions, and thoughtful UX touches contribute to a positive experience, making users less likely to leave.

Average Revenue per User (ARPU)

ARPU Explained: ARPU measures the average revenue generated per user. Increasing ARPU means the business is getting more value from its existing customer base.

How Experience Design Can Impact ARPU

1. Upselling through Seamless Design: Designers can integrate upsell opportunities naturally within the user journey. For example, highlighting premium features at the right moment or creating clear pathways for upgrades encourages users to spend more.
2. Making Cross-Selling Easy and Meaningful: Cross-selling relies on relevant product recommendations that feel helpful, not intrusive. Designers can create visually intuitive modules that guide users toward complementary purchases or services.
3. Reducing Purchase Friction: Complex checkout processes lead to abandoned carts. Streamlining payment flows, auto-filling forms, and reducing unnecessary steps all contribute to higher ARPU.

How to Access Financial Metrics

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my career as a design leader is getting access to the right data. In many organisations, the metrics that truly matter - like Customer Acquisition Cost or Churn Rate - are tightly held by departments like marketing, sales, or finance. Designers, by contrast, often work in silos, disconnected from these insights. Early in my career, I remember how frustrating it was to advocate for design’s impact when I couldn’t point to the numbers that would validate it.

Over the years, I’ve learned that accessing these metrics requires more than just curiosity - it demands persistence, relationship-building, and a genuine effort to align with the business. Here are few approaches that worked for me, each rooted in the realities of organisational life.

1. Building Bridges with Other Teams

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that in a lot of the organisations that I’ve been involved with, the marketing team was the gatekeeper for most of the metrics I needed. Rather than just asking for access outright, I started by learning their language. I attended their team meetings, asked questions about their campaigns, and framed my requests in terms of mutual benefits. For instance, instead of saying, “I need CAC data,” I would ask, “How can design help you lower acquisition costs?” This subtle shift transformed the conversation into a partnership. Over time, they saw the value of involving me earlier in their projects, and I started receiving regular updates on performance metrics.

2. Requesting Shared Dashboards

One of the simplest, yet most effective, ways to access data is to ask for shared dashboards. At a previous organisation, I discovered the marketing team was using Google Analytics and Salesforce to track key metrics. I approached the data analyst with a specific request: Could they set up a read-only view for me to see the conversion rates and customer acquisition figures? The analyst was initially hesitant, but when I explained how I’d use the data to improve landing page design and boost conversions, they were on board. From that point, I didn’t need to rely on periodic updates, I could explore the data myself and align my work with it.

3. Making the Case for Design’s Role

I’ve often found that some departments don’t naturally think of design as a driver of metrics like churn or LTV. To overcome this, I started tying design decisions directly to outcomes. For example, I once presented a case study where improving the onboarding experience reduced customer drop-offs by 20%. This sparked curiosity in the sales team, and they began to see design as a lever for growth. By repeatedly demonstrating the link between design and measurable results, I was able to position myself and design as a whole, as a strategic partner. This gradually opened up access to more data that helped streamline my design decisioning even more.

4. Bridging User Research with Metrics

As designers, we’re already skilled at gathering qualitative insights through user research. I learned that these insights could be a powerful bridge to quantitative metrics. I remember on a project recently, my team conducted usability testing that revealed why customers were dropping off during the sign-up process. I presented these findings to the product and marketing teams alongside data from heatmaps and analytics, showing how user frustrations aligned with a low conversion rate. This combination of user research and metrics created a compelling narrative, and it ultimately earned us access to broader performance data.

5. Working with Proxies

Sometimes, direct access to metrics just isn’t possible. In those cases, I’ve learned to work with proxies - data that gives a partial view of the problem. For instance, when I couldn’t access churn data at one organisation, I focused on user behaviour analytics instead. By analysing where users were dropping off or spending the most time, I could make informed design decisions that indirectly impacted churn. Once we starting identifying patterns like that it led to more engaged discussions with the data team about deeper collaboration.

6. Advocating for Organisational Change

One of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had was advocating for a more centralised approach to metrics. At a previous organisation, I proposed creating a shared performance dashboard accessible to all relevant teams, including design. It wasn’t an easy sell, it required convincing senior leadership that transparency would benefit everyone. But by highlighting how silos were slowing down decision-making and leading to misaligned priorities, I eventually got buy-in. That dashboard became a cornerstone for cross-functional collaboration and a critical resource for design.

7. The Value of Persistence

What I’ve learned through these experiences is that getting access to metrics isn’t just about asking - it’s about proving that you’ll use the data responsibly and strategically. It requires persistence, but once you’re in, the rewards are immense. Metrics give designers a seat at the table - not by demanding it, but by demonstrating value in terms that businesses understand.

For designers looking to make this shift, the first step is simple: start the conversation. Reach out to the teams that own the data, show genuine interest in their goals, and frame your work as part of the bigger picture. Over time, you’ll find that the walls begin to come down, and design becomes a natural part of the business conversation.

Closing Thoughts

As experience designers, we often talk about the value of empathy and creativity, but the time has come to connect our craft to tangible business outcomes. Understanding financial metrics not only equips us to influence measurable results but also elevates design to a strategic function that drives profitability.

The role of a designer has never been more critical in shaping how businesses grow and products succeed. Understanding and aligning with financial metrics is a fundamental step in becoming a true business-led designer – a valued partner who understands that exceptional experiences aren’t just good for users but great for business too.