Something I have been thinking about more and more is how do we encourage designers to think in terms of the value they drive in solving business objectives?
I feel like there's an opportunity to pivot away from design being thought of as this fluffy, bolt on that is thought of as being superficial.
Design on X is communicated largely from the perspective of technical ability, and whilst fundamentally important, what I'd love to see more of is discussion of process. What users said that influenced the solution, how were UX metrics like TTV considered when validating solutions and what ended up being the quantitative outcome?
Design carried out with a well defined methodology encapsulates everything from understanding users to validating problems and uncovering strategically relevant business opportunities.
Many product designers already think in terms of a human-centric approach, but I don't think they necessarily communicate in a way where stakeholders understand the value.
This was super tangential, but your post made me think about design functions making themselves as indispensable.
I think this is an important discussion to have. I have written a little bit about PDs focus on scaling Figma and technical skills. Whilst it’s a fundamental aspect, the real juice is in the soft skills; communication, managing stakeholders, optimising for business objectives and storytelling.
If the book is available in the UK I’ll pick it up. Good work mate.