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Returning back to design for software this week.
Over the next month, paid members will receive a new mini-course on design for independent software businesses. In it, we’ll cover the biggest blunders we typically see – and what you’ll do to overcome them.
Most design problems are a function of:
- Functionality, since the technical details are of outsize consequence in most situations
- Persuasion, since that’s how you handle critique
- Diplomacy, since that’s how design ships
- Politics, since that’s how you understand how to ship
- Measurement, since that’s how you keep having a job
In short, nothing that actually has to do with design.
Is there any other profession of knowledge work where the expertise of it is so far removed from its application? The design itself is never the point. What matters is the way in which it is sold into an organization, the way in which it is received, the way in which others gain a stake in it, and the ways in which its impact is measured.
I’d love to live in a world where this was not the case, but I’ve been doing this for 21 years and, despite that including a decade-ish where design was extremely cool, as of this writing we have only backslid in terms of acceptance. You can take two potential routes towards addressing this:
- Ask how design can become more accepted.
- Ask how we can get better at everything I just listed.
I think the latter is the right option for us. I think it allows us to grow as leaders in our industry while also getting work shipped. And – this is crucial – it allows us to have jobs right now. You might disagree, in which case blessings, you can read something else now. But if you do agree, then we have work to do.
Designers don’t learn enough about how work ships, and most people figure out workplace politics the hard way. As a result, design training should minimize the actual hard skills of design in favor of how to ship work that has a clear impact.
Designers (correctly!) respond by feeling denigrated or diminished when their work doesn’t ship. Knowing about the common gulf between expertise & execution would be useful to have before someone takes their first job. Other team members should be aware of this dynamic, too, when taking feedback & next steps into account.
When designers get impact, they’re handed power. When we’re handed power, we’re able to shift how our work is received. This is long, slow work, but it’s also necessary if we’re going to continue having an industry. I’m excited to be a small part of it.
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