📺 Watch the full recording on YouTube

We hosted another UX Tree webinar, this time exploring a topic that has been on many designers’ minds lately.

With AI changing the way products are built, companies becoming more cautious with hiring, and budgets under pressure, what does it actually take to become a designer that businesses continue to invest in?

Our AI Product Strategy & Engineering program instructor, Kevin Zamora Saenz, shared his perspective on why the role of UX is evolving and why designers need to become more comfortable talking about business, not just design. The conversation wasn’t about replacing creativity with numbers or turning designers into analysts. Instead, it was about helping designers explain the value of their work in a way that resonates with stakeholders and business leaders.

One of the biggest takeaways from the session was that design should be seen as an investment rather than a cost.
We often talk about improving user journeys, reducing friction, or creating better experiences, but those improvements mean very little if we can’t explain why they matter to the business. Senior leaders are usually thinking about growth, retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue. The more designers can connect their work to those outcomes, the easier it becomes to earn trust, secure investment, and influence decisions.

UX KPI Tree Framework

Kevin introduced a simple but powerful framework called the UX KPI Tree, which helps visualise that connection.

The idea is to:

• start with a user problem,
• identify the behaviour you want to improve,
• measure that behaviour using a leading metric, and then
• connect it to a business outcome.

For example, if users struggle to complete a checkout process, simplifying the experience may increase task completion rates. That improvement doesn’t generate revenue on its own, but it contributes to higher conversions, which eventually supports business growth.
The framework helps designers tell that story with confidence.

We also spent time discussing the difference between leading and lagging metrics, which is something many designers hear about but don’t always feel confident explaining.

• Leading metrics are the early signals that tell you whether your design changes are moving users in the right direction. They might include task success, feature adoption, or completion rates.
• Lagging metrics are the results the business ultimately cares about, such as revenue, retention, or customer lifetime value.

Understanding how these two types of metrics work together allows designers to build much stronger cases for the work they do.

One question from the audience sparked an interesting discussion – What happens if your chosen metric improves but the business result doesn’t?
Kevin’s answer was simple. Treat your UX KPI Tree as a hypothesis rather than a fact. If the outcome isn’t what you expected, go back to your users, revisit your research, and challenge your assumptions. Maybe you solved the wrong problem, or maybe there is another barrier in the experience that needs attention.
UX has always been about learning, and measuring impact is no different.

Although AI naturally came up during the conversation, the message wasn’t that AI is replacing designers.
Instead, Kevin argued that designers who understand business strategy, can work alongside AI, and know how to demonstrate their impact will be in the strongest position. Companies still need people who can understand customers, solve meaningful problems, and make informed decisions.
What is changing is the expectation that designers can also communicate the commercial value of their work.

The session ended with a reminder that being a great designer today is about much more than creating beautiful interfaces.
It’s about understanding people, solving the right problems, and showing how those solutions help the business succeed. As our industry continues to evolve, these are the skills that will make designers more resilient, more influential, and ultimately more valuable.

A huge thank you to Kevin for sharing his experience and practical advice, and to everyone who joined us live and asked such thoughtful questions.

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If you’d like to learn more about UX KPI Tree, connect UX decisions to real business outcomes, and use AI tools to turn your ideas into working prototypes that developers can build from, we’d love to have you join our AI Product Strategy and Engineering course. You’ll learn practical skills that help you collaborate with product, engineering, and business teams while building confidence in the strategic side of UX.
To keep the experience highly interactive, we only accept 5 participants per cohort, giving everyone plenty of time for personalised feedback and mentoring.
If you’re ready to take your UX skills to the next level, we’d love to see you in the next cohort.