Much has been written about the decline of design in the zeitgeist of modern business. I’ve often wondered how much of this “decline” narrative is real, and whether the changes are unique to design (relative to other functions). Real or not, this discourse has triggered useful introspection among design leaders about the health and maturity of our function relative to the businesses in which we operate.
Over the last decade of leading design teams, I’ve helped to establish, scale, and, at times, stabilize design’s impact in a large enterprise. This experience has informed my point of view about the skills, mindsets, and behaviors designers should embrace to maximize impact.
BE INSATIABLY CURIOUS ABOUT THE BUSINESS YOU’RE IN
One thing I love about being in design is the diversity of backgrounds designers tend to have. This diversity of background is powerful, but so is one fact we all have in common: a passion for solving real problems for real people.
To do this problem solving, we use empathy and curiosity. Too often, however, designers forget to apply that curiosity to the business they’re in—especially to those accountable for the P&L. When design is at its worst, we bemoan “non-customer friendly” decisions with—dare I say—lazy sentiments like, “They don’t get it.” Every time we allow ourselves to think like this, we drive a wedge in the team.
I am not suggesting that P&L owners always know best. I am suggesting that the odds of these negative interactions happening are significantly reduced when designers operate with an insatiable curiosity about their business, of which they’re an equal part (not just a supporting player).
I encourage my team—across all specializations and levels—to deeply understand four dimensions of their business:
1. UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS MODEL
As simple as it sounds, this is about knowing how the business makes money. Anyone who has worked in the horizontal function of a business within a large organization knows that it’s all too easy to become detached from the business’s fundamentals. Unless you seek out this understanding, it’s entirely possible that your time can be filled with activities that are unrelated to business performance.
As designers, we need not be MBAs to develop business acumen. We do, however, have an obligation to understand the fundamentals of the businesses with which we partner, such as revenue sources, cost drivers, risk factors, and profitability. Having this understanding is foundational to contributing to business strategy and product or experience decisions, and when presenting designs to business leaders.
While these business dynamics might not be voiced in every meeting, it’s the ambient rhythm of the business context—just like that music playing in the background of the hotel lobby. You don’t realize the music is there but it is setting the tone of the space. The same is true for a business. As a design leader, I want my team to hear the music.
2. KNOW THE BUSINESS MOTIVATION
In large organizations with numerous business lines and countless features serving a variety of customer segments, most designers’ purview is far more narrow than the overall business strategy or end-to-end customer experience. Because of this reality, designers not only need to have a foundational understanding of their business, but they must also understand the role their part of the product or experience plays in the larger strategic goals of the business.
This more nuanced understanding of their business is particularly important when presenting designs. To establish credibility for their design recommendations, designers should frame design presentations in a way that makes this connection explicit. If the goal is to drive more engagement with the product—or is mitigating a core risk, or is helping the company expand into an untapped market—designers need to say that. Generally, designers will ensure the proposed designs are rooted in an understanding of the customer problem, but too often the associated business motivation is left unstated, which can leave the business leader unclear as to why they’re seeing the work and whether it will be impactful.
3. HOW CUSTOMERS ARE SOLVING THIS PROBLEM TODAY
I’ve participated in numerous design reviews that dive into solutions where teams have seemingly overlooked the context in which the product or experience will be used, how customers accomplish the associated outcome with external products, or, in cases of product optimization, how the current product performs. Omitting these foundations from the design process and the presentation of new ideas can cast a dark cloud over the rest of the work
While the design solution might seem reasonable—or even amazing—in isolation, the fear is that this understanding would have pointed to a different solution and the metrics business leaders most care about won’t improve. That uncertainty makes it practically impossible to get support for the work.
Achieving the necessary grounding doesn’t have to be arduous work, but it means seeking some basic information on three dimensions:
- Market: The larger context in which customers use the product
- Competitors: The alternatives customers have in the market
- Company: Behavioral usage patterns of the product
Incorporating these factors into your explorations and explaining your recommendations through the connection to these factors demonstrates the rigor that’s required (but often misunderstood) to produce high-quality design work.
4. THE EXPERIENTIAL LEVERAGE
With this foundation in place, the magic can happen. Infusing an understanding of the customer problem with an understanding of the business puts designers in the position to know which levers will achieve the outcomes all stakeholders seek. Said differently, not all parts of the product or experience are created equally. Being clear on the experiential leverage can be design’s secret weapon.
This level of clarity can provide teams focus for expanding their creative energy. It can serve as a framework for focusing stakeholder feedback and critique of potential designs. And it can gain the credibility of business partners, in large part because it’s familiar to them.
Business decisions are seldom right or wrong, but rather require synthesis of multiple imperfect inputs and an understanding of relative tradeoffs. Perhaps, more importantly, this way of operating maximizes the productivity and fulfillment of the designers on the team. No one wants to spend their time—the scarcest resource—on elements of a design that are relatively immaterial to the problem being solved.
Leaning into these ways of being insatiably curious about your business will not only increase your credibility and enhance your relationship with business leaders, but it will make your design work better.