Successful designers must influence product direction and strategy
I recently debated a friend on the role of design in strategy.
Great product design and the delivery of great user experiences are (or should be) an important part of any product company’s strategy. However, the decision of how important design is to a particular company, and how much to invest in design, is not really up to the designers.
I encounter many junior and senior designers that want a decision in product strategy. They want authority over where a product is going rather than simply being told “we have decided to add feature X so start designing!” But no one is going to give designers authority over those decisions, nor should they. Strategy is set by the corporate strategists — marketing, business development, product, and executive leaders. If designers want to affect those decisions they must learn to look at the world from strategy executives’ perspectives just as they look at the world from their users’ perspectives when designing products for them. They must find the intersections between design goals and business goals and use these intersections to influence product direction.
Great designers rely on unrelenting evangelizing, politics, friends in key roles, and educating others about the importance of design. Even though they don’t make the decisions, they influence the decisions, and their effectiveness will be measured by their success as influencers. The acceptance of this will lead to better products because designers will put more effort into learning how to influence good design choices. To us, design is obviously important. Perfect is standard. But this is not how others necessarily think.
To be a truly successful designer, you must learn how to influence product direction and strategy.
I believe that a good designer better understand business strategy, if not they are falling into the ‘Fine Artist’ category. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I learned early on at Art Center, in a class called ‘Brand Strategy and Design’, that if your designs don’t reflect and enhance the message and then assist in the branding message as a coherent campaign you are of little use to a company hiring you.
Similarly a ‘Production Artist’ needs to be a ‘Designer’ in the art sense, in that they need to take a conceptual, scratched out on a napkin and produce a workable piece of art that can be implemented into the proper media.
It is a collaborative team effort with the mutual understanding and respect of the skills of the team.
Just one gal’s opinion.
Some comments from the IxDA (ixda.org) list that I’m pasting here for subscribers to this blog:
—————
Have you read Bill Buxton’s views on the role of design in executive leadership? (found in his book “Sketching User Experiences” ) If not I’d recommend it. It makes points very closely related to those in your article.
Both designers and executive teams need to take action that will bring about strategic design at a company. Designers need the skills to think & act strategically, but the CEO and others on the executive team equally need to fully understand the value & role of design.
Mike Myles
mmyles2001 at yahoo dot com
—————————————
“If designers want to affect those decisions they must learn to look at the world from strategy executives’ perspectives just as they look at the world from their users’ perspectives when designing products for them.”
Your dead on with this concept, however I would love to hear more about how designers can gain executive perspectives.
Often exec’s are not openly discussing their priorities, projections or their vision to designers.
What are some action items that designers can take to solve this problem?
Sara Summers
User Experience Evangelist
Platform and Developer Tools
ssummers at microsoft.com
http://twitter.com/ssummers
http://uxarray.com
—————————————
Influence is ideal, if the designer has mastery of the subject area and market. Failing that — or in addition to it — insight into the reasons behind the strategy is almost as important.
If I’m simply told to design Feature X, I’ll do the best I can with it, given what I know about its context and users. But if I know that the real goal is to use Feature X to gain traction in a given industry, or to appeal to a specific user type, I can help the execs meet this goal more effectively and I may be able to propose high-value alternatives that I wouldn’t have known were relevant without the insight.
It’s not just true of designers, of course. Comparing the two companies I’ve been at most recently (who fall on opposite ends of the spectrum), an organization that communicates not just orders but information has happier, more creative workers who can solve problems more effectively.
Sarah Kampman
skampman at planview dot com
—————————————
On Feb 23, 2009, at 12:15 PM, Sara Summers wrote:
“If designers want to affect those decisions they must learn to look at the world from strategy executives’ perspectives just as they look at the world from their users’ perspectives when designing products for them.” Your dead on with this concept, however I would love to hear more about how designers can gain executive perspectives.
In a word: Money.
Learn to look at your company’s business in pure financial terms and it will go a long way towards your understanding of how to work with your executives. If you open your companies yearly financial reports and don’t “get” them, well, there’s your first place to start to digging in.
– Andrei Herasimchuk
Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. andrei at involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422
—————————————
Andrei,
Right on. More specifically: If you can’t describe how money gets into the ‘Cash from Operations’ – revenue – then you’re working with a severe handicap as far as your understanding of the business is concerned.
For Russell:
But I’m curious: at a time when even the Harvard Business Review is calling for a fundamental re-evaluation of the role of management and management practice, why for God’s sake should you be satisfied to influence other people? Now is the best opportunity ever for design to take a more direct role in the setting of corporate strategy. The business world is reeling in the face of turbulence and uncertainty and here we are talking about ‘influencing’ the people who led you there? Why not kick the chair out from under them and show them the door?
Regards
Steve
Steve Baty
stevebaty at gmail dot com
—————————————
@Andrei: true, money is the ultimate goal. But that’s the equivalent of non-designers saying “just make it simple.” To influence, designers need to understand how the financial and marketing executives think, and gain insight into more complex interim strategic goals that aren’t as straightforward as “make more money.”
@Steve: “why be satisfied to influence”… this is such a huge topic – I wish I had a few hours to type… it’s not about being satisfied — I think as designers we see the world as revolving around us (just like everyone else), and I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking we can fix it all. Are designers financial experts? Are designers marketing experts? Are designers strategy experts? Shouldn’t a designer’s purest goal be to deliver the best design possible? But in business the best design does not always win. So how does a designer reconcile that? Sure many of us wear different hats and some are more broad (t-shaped) than others, but if we focus on how we can influence the right decisions rather than assume we know how to make all the right decisions, I think better products will be created. It’s really more about mindset. And it’s not about “giving in”.
Russell
@Sara:
“Often exec’s are not openly discussing their priorities, projections or their vision to designers. What are some action items that designers can take to solve this problem?”
That’s a huge question, broadening the issue greatly. To answer such a question I think you’d have to step away from a focus on the position of design within product development, and begin considering the culture within a corporation, and whether effective and open communication between all elements in the company exists.
@Russell
“Are designers financial experts? Are designers marketing experts? Are designers strategy experts? Shouldn’t a designer’s purest goal be to deliver the best design possible?”
While I accept your point – that experts in an area should be the ones making the critical decisions – I am concerned that you seem to be suggesting there is no overlap between the various groups responsible for releasing a product. Many employees expect their voices to be heard and valued, and companies need to strike a balance between involving all employees (not just designers) in the act of setting product direction and development.
I’m down with your main points, Russ. I said as much myself in my last talk in front of a group of marketers. Slides are here: http://www.usabilityblog.com/index.php/2009/02/09/latest-preso-usability-for-strategic-user-experience/