To be a unicorn in the Tech industry:no product design,no product
Diversity is a hot topic in the technology industry and there is a lot of “championing” done for gender,race and background.This is a short piece about diversity in skill set -which I feel is an element of diversity often glossed over.
I am a back-end developer but I’ve been delving into the world of front-end dev recently.I’m also venturing into the cool dimension of User Experience and Product management.
As part of this new venture,I went to a UX Crunch meet up this week and learnt about how to design the best products.Some of the talks explored notions of extensively testing products with stakeholders while others focussed on allowing data to influence design making decisions.
A highlight of the evening was definitely a talk by Charlotte Gauthier.
Her presentation highlighted some funny nuances about how different skill sets are perceived in the industry which I found hilarious when presented as an equation.
Front-end developer + Back-end developer = Full stack developer
Business Analyst + Product manager= ‘Data driven product manager’(ha!)
UX + UI=Product designer
UX + UI + Front-end developer = UNICORN
However,
UX + Product Manager=?
(?=huh,pick one).Most people are not used to(read as “do not appreciate”)this skill set combination.
Good design is not only aesthetic -it’s also good economy.Good design is not just cool-it’s bloody serious!
-Olle Eksell
Why should people be forced to choose? Don’t you want a designer who can also do business as well?
This key insight on design drives the age old theory:if you are serious about developing a product that is received well by your users(and drives your product’s key performance indicators) then you have to get the design right!
An individual with a UX and Product Manager skill set cares about the design,the quality of the product and how users receive the product.Why shouldn’t the industry be encouraging people to be both?
Another highlight of the evening was from Jason Grant, a design thinking coach at uxcoach.me who showed how good design can influence products.We had a case-study session with him and he demo’d design concepts via the work he did with ROLI’s BLOCKS.
Watch this video to see what happens when brilliant product design meets hardware and software.
Additional insight on product design was shared by Peter Burjanec, who spoke about how using data can help design a product that your users continuously engage with.
He showed how iterative product testing for Dil Mil(an iOS and android dating app for the South Asian community)used data analytics from users to help make better UX design decisions.We explored how UX design for the on-boarding,navigation,messaging and purchasing app screen views led to the app meeting key performance indicators such as user engagement,subscription uptake,app exploration and high quality referrals.
These different perspectives are confirmation that the Tech industry needs to have access to a diverse set of knowledge,ideas and experiences.At the core of Tech, the goal is to deliver solutions to a diverse selection of consumers by creating the range of products they demand.User experience and Product Management are one of the important skill sets required to meet this goal- therefore we should all be championing the promotion of these skill sets.
