The illusion of Design Value (DV)…

amber krishan
Sep 4, 2018 · 5 min read
Image Source: Fake promise of beautiful UI

This is definitely a point where design is most valued as a discipline in the internet industry. It is accepted that design delivers great value and many organizations have gained great benefits by embracing design. In fact Design led companies are considered better performers than those who are laggards in this area. All in all, it seems like a great time for design and designers.

With the excitement around design hitting the ceiling, executives are very eager to bring designers into their organizations to conjure their magic on their products & services. And they are bringing in designers at very competitive salaries and incentives. User experience design is seeing a serious spike in how designers are compensated during the last 5 years. Which is great to see, as this skill has been seriously undervalued. The challenge being, that majority of these executives may not know what to do or expect from designers. When they expect designers to improve the user experience, they are mostly talking about them creating a better looking UI. Designers coming in are mostly expected to solve design as an execution problem where they are busy churning out UI/screens that satisfy expectations of the ‘product manager’. As designers are compensated & rewarded for specially these skills, design as an execution discipline is reinforced. Where good looking UI is appreciated more than the abilities to create strategies that create true value. As an outcome, most designers strive to develop skills only around visual execution. Most conversations around design across the internet is evidence, to how focussed designers are on ‘Producing’ UI faster and better. Design schools are also to blame as they primarily focus on building aesthetic and execution skills, rather than critical thought or exposure to business centric topics. I feel this wasn't the intention behind what Bauhaus started. Design as a practice was intended to provide an alternate way of building things, where one would rationalize ideas with the end-user at the center and conduct many experiments to build something relevant and meaningful. Design is a thinking ability that brings together customer empathy with business value, to give direction to business as well as envision valuable products/services. Unfortunately there is very less focus on such design work by the industry, design schools and designers.

The ‘product manager’ is another curious position built into the software/services building machinery that provides direction to what should be built and how technical and design teams need to deliver the same. Product managers are placed in position of power and are often in conflict with designers to own the product which leads to play of politics. In this org structure designers can not deliver the value that they can. The reason the ‘product manager’ title is a curious, is because to staff this position most organizations believe in hiring ‘B’ school graduates with no education or vocational understanding on human empathy/aspirations which form the basis of what a product/service should do. This practice continues as MBAs hire more MBAs, in support of their alma mater. So, armed with excel pivot tables and a whole horde of data science, product managers build feature after feature, which are irrelevant to the end user. In fact this becomes the culture for the entire business vertical where there is all too strong a focus on data without wanting to interact with actual people to understand their needs. Poor business direction and ill thought through products becomes the normal. There really isn't much to be gained, sitting in an air conditioned office with a hot cup of coffee, staring at rows of numbers, second guessing what they mean and then feeling very elated on the quality of debate the group held. This practice doesn't seem very far away from crystal ball gazing, only now its with excel sheets and numbers.

The outcome of such a structure of building products and employing designers is that there is more meaningless software junk out there than well crafted experiences that deliver value. Organizations need to come to realize the concept of design value (DV). Design value of an organization is a direct correlation with the quality of innovation output + experiential meaningfulness created for customers + business performance that the organization is achieving. This only starts to happen when their is executive awareness, designers with the right skills are brought in, the org structure is favorable, their is budget behind the promise and design as a culture is embraced. The current organization structure, processes, utilization of designers is flawed and needs serious revamp if companies need to start making DV happen. Here are some notes on how companies can starting getting there.

Design value of an organization is a direct correlation to the quality of innovation output + meaningfulness experiences created for customers + business performance.

Changing Executive Outlook

Executives need to change their outlook towards what design can do and start bringing in designers with skills around strategy and customer experience. They also need to start hiring product owners in a new way and move away from just supporting their alma mater. The practice of hiring MBAs for running any function, agnostic of the actual competencies required, needs to end. This ‘vicious cycle’ is creating issues not only with how products & services are built but ruining the education system with MBA becoming the only aspiration for a large part of the populace in India. It’s about time that executives who really believe in bringing true value to their organization move beyond their Alma mater & affiliates, to bring in competencies around user empathy and CX management. If executives really want to support the MBA schools, then start by influencing the topics covered in the curriculum to build more holistic professionals to create the products of tomorrow.

Schooling in innovation & customer experience

Design and Management schools need to realize the need to build professionals that build the products of tomorrow. They need to create programs which are specifically focussed towards building individuals with skills on business as well as customer empathy, research, design etc. The need for such individuals will only rise in the future with automation and AI round the corner. Being able to innovate and strategize on what to build and for whom, would very key to drive most organizations. In fact it might be very worth it to create specialist schools for innovation & customer experience.

Designers need to change

For starters we need to be clear that there are many kinds of design work needed. There is definitely execution focussed design work. For example many companies have design teams to make their presentation decks more visually appealing before sharing with the client. There is also design which explores art and philosophy. Then there is design which grapples with strategy and science. You as a designer need to make the decision of what type of design you really want to do and then call yourself that. Remember that execution focussed design may be of less value, may be less fulfilling and may dwindle. If you want to start doing innovation & CX, then its time to rebrand and re-skill.

I leave you with this pertinent question…what value does design actually contribute to your organization? Its time…that the true value of design is embraced and evangelized.

amber krishan

Written by

Helping organizations build UX capability, Teaching Innovation, Mentoring Startups, Driving business results through design, VP -UX PayU India

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