A Generalist’s Take: The Divide Between UX Design and Digital Marketing
The problem with Specialist components operating within The System.
I’ve come to accept the fact that I’m a generalist. It’s just my nature. I’ve always wanted to be a specialist, taking jobs with that exact word in the title, but when you look at my resume it screams generalist. I think my desire to know a good amount about one area (the specialist) and my frustration by the loss of vision at that level (the generalist) is what drives this internal conflict.
The further you go into the weeds, the less you see the trees.
Currently, I’m in the process of transitioning my career into UX Design, and I quickly realized how naturally a lot of my digital marketing skills transferred. While there are many examples, the one that stands out in my mind the most is when I was learning about the process a UX Designer takes to validate an idea using techniques like market demand research, competitor analysis, and keyword research.
These techniques are exactly the same for SEOs when they are doing first-round optimizations. They even use the same tools! However, as I’m looking into potential jobs I haven’t come across much overlap. It’s all UX or all Digital Marketing — never the UX/Digital Marketing expert, and from where I sit that seems like a huge missed opportunity.
Same Goal - Different Silo
The goal of the UX designer is the same as the digital marketer — get users to convert. End of story. The way we do it is different, but we can’t do it without each other. Some arguments say that marketers are only focused on conversions and don’t care about users. To that I say, but who is doing the converting? The user. Good marketers know that a good user experience is critical to getting conversions. Consider the example of a Master Builder creating a website. Marketers need UX Designers to design aesthetically pleasing, functional, human-centered sites. Conversely, UX Designers need marketers to get people to the site. If designers build a website and no one is driving people to that site then it’s kind of a waste, especially if that site isn’t optimized for search. The more people that come to a well designed website — the more conversions you’ll have. We need each other, and yet we rarely collaborate.
Data Sharing is User Caring
There are a ton of reasons a smaller business or startup might not have a devoted Digital Marketing Specialist or UX Designer. But even if they did, how much more valuable would it be if those teams were better connected? Imagine the data we could share. I’m sure a Designer would be interested in the event tracking a data-oriented marketer might do. I know marketers would love to see all the user research a Designer would have. Plus, the data is so complimentary. Often times, marketing specialists don’t really get to be in on user testing or know the “why” of users. But they do know how they act when no one is watching, which Designers would undoubtedly find useful. We each have our data that we live and die by, yet we rarely share that data with each other. You wouldn’t want to look at one side of the data without the other because it only tells half the story, yet that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.
So, if marketers and designers have overlapping practices, the same business goal, and complementary data why are we not at least working more closely together?
The Future is Generalist
Don’t get me wrong, we need specialists. It’s extremely important for teams to have members with deep, specialized knowledge. Not to mention the fact that marketers and designers already have enough on their plates. I can’t imagine that anyone is exactly jumping up to do both the design and marketing at their place of work. We need specialist to get work done, but we’ve gone too far. Every department is full of specialists who don’t know enough about what anyone else is doing. Digital Marketers and UX Designers are usually found on different teams and in different parts of the building. We’re ignorant to each other’s workflows and practices, and don’t realize our shared goal. And yet, we are trying to build products and companies that are cohesive. We need to find the balance, and in my opinion that comes in the form of a more generalized specialist.
Interested in working more collaboratively within The System? I’d love to chat!
