I think what your UX teams are doing is (or comes across as) the opposite:
1. Come up with a design they think will work
2. Do user testing looking for confirmation that it works.
3. Change things (based on user feedback) in their design until they find confirmation.
I've come across this, and I wouldn't say it's data driven. It's, if anything, data supported, but it is still sounds like the initial design/idea still comes from within and there's a chance that it's down to their taste, interests and convictions. Or worse, a trend. We tend to pitch our ideas along with the data to support them so it's natural to seek confirmation as part of our normal workflows, but that's very different to taking design decisions based on telemetry, user feedback, etc.
Now, it's possible that I'm completely wrong and your UX teams actually does that. For instance:
1. You get support tickets from users about a missing or difficult to use feature.
2. This prompts team to design act. Design decisions are made, user testing happens, feature or changes are released. Once released, you notice from your telemetry data that the feature is rarely used by the wider audience, perhaps some of its UI items are used more than others.
3. UX team goes back to the drawing board to try to improve visibility, and does user testing.
Success rate is usually higher in that situation since you know users actually want that feature or change, and it's just about getting it right.
In Slack's case, I'm left wondering if any users actually wanted this change.
1. Come up with a design they think will work 2. Do user testing looking for confirmation that it works. 3. Change things (based on user feedback) in their design until they find confirmation.
I've come across this, and I wouldn't say it's data driven. It's, if anything, data supported, but it is still sounds like the initial design/idea still comes from within and there's a chance that it's down to their taste, interests and convictions. Or worse, a trend. We tend to pitch our ideas along with the data to support them so it's natural to seek confirmation as part of our normal workflows, but that's very different to taking design decisions based on telemetry, user feedback, etc.
Now, it's possible that I'm completely wrong and your UX teams actually does that. For instance:
1. You get support tickets from users about a missing or difficult to use feature. 2. This prompts team to design act. Design decisions are made, user testing happens, feature or changes are released. Once released, you notice from your telemetry data that the feature is rarely used by the wider audience, perhaps some of its UI items are used more than others. 3. UX team goes back to the drawing board to try to improve visibility, and does user testing.
Success rate is usually higher in that situation since you know users actually want that feature or change, and it's just about getting it right.
In Slack's case, I'm left wondering if any users actually wanted this change.