Trust the Process
An unoriginal take on what design is
What do you think of when you hear the word design? Maybe you think of something that looks “pretty.” Maybe you think of a product you use regularly. Maybe you have horrible flashbacks to all the terrible things you created in art class. (No? Just me?) Or, maybe it’s a combination of all of those. In fact, I used to think all of these things. It’s actually what made me interested in design as a career (despite my lack of fine art skills). But, what made me fall in love with design was the opportunity to solve problems.
Design is often viewed as the final product (after all, it’s what most people see and have some sort of reaction to, e.g. this). Because of this, designers are frequently only tasked with the creation of something. And, of course, are expected to make it “look great.” It’s likely that other people within the organization have determined the direction and just need someone to bring the idea to life. And this can be a successful approach. A lot of thought can go into these plans and having ideas and solving problems isn’t reserved for people dubbed as “creatives” (thankfully).
More often than not, this can prove to be an unproductive process. Rather than focusing on how you can solve customer problems, you focus on brainstorming ideas and solutions. In other words, you come up with a cool idea, think of the problem it solves, and move forward from there. Having the “next big idea” is always met with excitement and enthusiasm. So, naturally, everyone is looking to strike gold and potentially change the world. But this can lead to products or features being built that ultimately fail because they weren’t solving real problems.
For example, let’s say you make cars for a living. You discover that the antennas on your vehicles keep breaking. (Do cars still have antennas?) You go to the design team and ask them to make the antenna shorter, so as to prevent it from hitting things and breaking. You might be thinking to yourself, what’s wrong with that? The problem has been identified and a solution proposed. And you’re right. But, what if that only makes it happen less often and doesn’t get to the root of the problem?
Wayfair isn’t immune to this type of workflow. In fact, one of the philosophies ingrained in our culture is, “answer first.” This can also be translated to mean “come with solutions.” It’s a smart approach to increase efficiency and get results. After all, the tech industry is all about speed, so it’s tempting to ask why we can’t build our ideas and quickly gather data to see what worked.
However, a designer would approach this type of problem with lots of questions:
- What is the purpose of the antenna?
- Why is the antenna important to the driver?
- Where is the antenna located?
- What other solutions have been tried in the past?
- What is the cost of putting an antenna on the car?
And many more. All of these questions might seem annoying and meaningless, but they serve a purpose. They help us begin our process to get to the root of the problem we are faced with. This is where designing starts.
Creating a great product or feature is not just asking designers to build it. By doing that, you’re limiting design’s true value and missing out on an opportunity to solve real problems. In order for designers to effectively create solutions, we need to fully understand the problem at hand. This usually means asking a lot of questions, doing research, looking at data, etc. The key being to put a focus on the user. We may have some initial ideas, but by starting with a deeper understanding of the problem and the user, we are able to use design and creativity as a tool that will lead to more effective solutions.
Including designers at the beginning of a project can be met with confusion or disagreement — the thought being that designers should only be included when we know what we’re building, and that including designers earlier will slow down the entire process. Asking questions that seem unnecessary. Delaying the production of a feature to gather learnings. Making things more complicated than it needs to be. That can be frustrating, I get it. Fail fast, right?
However, by asking questions, doing research, talking to and observing users, we are designing. Design is a process — a process that can lead to innovation, competitive advantage, and creative solutions and strategies. This is where the opportunity to build better products lies.
Invite designers to participate from start to finish, before an idea or solution has been decided. Spend more time empathizing with users and defining where problems and/or areas of opportunity exist. We can help everyone better understand what the problem is and develop a strategy for moving forward. This is the heart of design.
This is the basis of what’s known as design thinking. What’s that? I’ll let other people who are smarter than me explain what design thinking is:
You’ve probably heard the term thrown around a lot recently, and that’s a good thing. More companies are starting to implement a design thinking approach and have done so with great success (IBM, Airbnb, Capital One, etc.). What makes this strategy so powerful is that it focuses on real user problems and creating solutions to those problems. By using this approach, we design with intent and create products centered around the needs of the user, leading to real differentiation.
This approach isn’t linear, either. We can iterate constantly, making sure that we are solving the problem that was defined or stepping back to reevaluate the direction and gather more learnings. But even when we take steps “back,” we aren’t ever moving backwards. We are always moving forward, learning along the way. We are moving closer and closer to the right outcome at each step. Designers live by this practice, and it’s why it has become a huge differentiator in the world of business.
You might think that the value of a designer lies in their ability to create the output — the final product. But, the true value of a designer is in their process — all of the tools we use to reach that outcome. Creativity and design aren’t magic. A lot of the time, it can seem like designers pull ideas out of hats, but that’s far from the truth. It’s a long, difficult process. Solving problems isn’t easy. Even when we think we’ve got it covered, we learn something that we didn’t know the day before. A new problem arises or a new wrench is thrown. It never stops, but we have all the necessary tools to solve even the most complex business and customer problems if we follow the right approach.
We’ve taken a lot of steps at Wayfair to implement this strategy across our organization. Designers have started to participate more in road map planning. We’ve developed a Consumer Insights team that works in collaboration with the design team to gather valuable customer feedback and conduct user tests. We help Product Managers prioritize their projects and encourage them to utilize the Consumer Insights team to help influence their road maps.
It’s not perfect, and we aren’t done yet. This is where we, as designers, can continue to step up. We’ve been given a seat at the table, but the challenge we face today is proving we belong there. We need to teach anyone that’s unfamiliar with design about what it is, what we do, and how it works. We have to show our value with every project we participate in. It’s not going to be easy and it shouldn’t be.
“There’s no such thing as a creative type… It’s about taking an idea in your head, and transforming that idea into something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work.” — Milton Glaser
Let’s get back to work.
Special thanks goes out to Daniel Lachapelle, Catherine Groux, Spencer Shannon, and Alex Karabasevic for helping me sound smarter.
