Hey there, veteran here and wanted to reflect on this because in part, I wholly agree.
Why we sell the process of design
10 years ago we were 10 years into the struggle of getting investment from businesses into designing the right thing to build the right thing (in digital products, far, far longer for physical products).
Nobody was willing to pay for the time required to actually figure out what needed to be created. Before 2005 we called this R&D, Research and Development - and nobody wanted to pay for research, and definately not if it didn't result in a THING at the end.
In 2024 it's the same challenge with a different motivation.
Businesses are broke, trying to operate in a broken global market and nobody wants to pay to design the right thing before building the right thing. They want to pay for a thing they can sell immediately and generate revenue.
Whilst I don't disagree with the sentiment that the end result of the product that's delivered can be deemphasised a lot in particular in digital product design, there is still a need to influence and persuade those people that own budgets that spending time figuring out what needs to be made is still the most cost effective way of ensuring you don't build the wrong thing.
This is ultimately the designers struggle, and will always be that way
Enjoyed reading your short write up 👍🏼.. Nicely said, even though this didn’t happen to all designers, I know good designers who still don’t give a dam about the process and they remain loyal to building great products. But in general I agree with what you said 👍🏼 It aligns with my observation as well. Well written Jenny 👏🏼😊
Thank you for saying this. I sound like a fool in conversation sometimes when people ask what my favorite part of the design process is and I say it’s the R&D process as though it’s not fun to see the product actually built and lived in. I feel like we lie to ourselves just to enjoy the mundane bits at times.
Totally agree! I think that this extends into the product ideation and building process as well. It's about finding the best solution for the problems at hand.
Hey there, veteran here and wanted to reflect on this because in part, I wholly agree.
Why we sell the process of design
10 years ago we were 10 years into the struggle of getting investment from businesses into designing the right thing to build the right thing (in digital products, far, far longer for physical products).
Nobody was willing to pay for the time required to actually figure out what needed to be created. Before 2005 we called this R&D, Research and Development - and nobody wanted to pay for research, and definately not if it didn't result in a THING at the end.
In 2024 it's the same challenge with a different motivation.
Businesses are broke, trying to operate in a broken global market and nobody wants to pay to design the right thing before building the right thing. They want to pay for a thing they can sell immediately and generate revenue.
Whilst I don't disagree with the sentiment that the end result of the product that's delivered can be deemphasised a lot in particular in digital product design, there is still a need to influence and persuade those people that own budgets that spending time figuring out what needs to be made is still the most cost effective way of ensuring you don't build the wrong thing.
This is ultimately the designers struggle, and will always be that way
Enjoyed reading your short write up 👍🏼.. Nicely said, even though this didn’t happen to all designers, I know good designers who still don’t give a dam about the process and they remain loyal to building great products. But in general I agree with what you said 👍🏼 It aligns with my observation as well. Well written Jenny 👏🏼😊
This had to be said.
Great piece! I riffed on it a bit here: https://chsmc.org/2024/08/unfolding
Thank you for saying this. I sound like a fool in conversation sometimes when people ask what my favorite part of the design process is and I say it’s the R&D process as though it’s not fun to see the product actually built and lived in. I feel like we lie to ourselves just to enjoy the mundane bits at times.
Totally agree! I think that this extends into the product ideation and building process as well. It's about finding the best solution for the problems at hand.