Design as a discipline deserves a seat at the strategic level. We as designers are probably the biggest barrier preventing that. As presented at UXcamp Europe '17, how to ramp up the design profession.

1. Ramping up the design profession
Pedro Hernández
@work4tacos

2. Product • Design

3. Product • Design
Is there really a battle?
Yes

4. Product • Design
Is the battle really worth it?
Yes

5. Product • Design
Who’s winning?
Design

6. Product • Design
Who’s going to win in the end?
Product… well, actually both

7. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels
like. Design is how it works.”
-Steve Jobs
“Your most unhappy customers are your
greatest source of learning.”
– Bill Gates
“Design is a solution to a problem.
Art is a question to a problem.”
-John Maeda
“The value is in what gets used,
not in what gets built.”
– Kris Gale
“No matter how good the team… if we’re not
solving the right problem, the project fails.”
-Woody Williams
“My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a
lack of data override my intuition on what’s best
for our customers.”
– Andrew Mason
“The essence of strategy
is choosing what not to do.”
– Michael Porterer
“There is no design without discipline.
There is no discipline without intelligence.”
-Massimo Vignelli

8. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels
like. Design is how it works.”
-Steve Jobs
“There is no design without discipline.
There is no discipline without intelligence.”
-Massimo Vignelli
“Your most unhappy customers are your
greatest source of learning.”
– Bill Gates
“Design is a solution to a problem.
Art is a question to a problem.”
-John Maeda
“The value is in what gets used,
not in what gets built.”
– Kris Gale
“My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a
lack of data override my intuition on what’s
best for our customers.”
– Andrew Mason
“The essence of strategy
is choosing what not to do.”
– Michael Porterer
“No matter how good the team… if we’re not
solving the right problem, the project fails.”
-Woody Williams
Design Product

9. Product designers Product owners
Solve problems ✓ ✓
Use visual aids to imagine solutions
to a problem ✓ ✓
Use an iterative approach
to solve problems ✓ ✓
Rely (or should) on user feedback
and data to build solutions ✓ ✓
Think Steve Jobs is a demi-god ✓ ✓
Have ownership of design ✓ ✕
Have ownership of product ✕ ✓

10. –Bertrand Jelensperger
“Be an owner”

11. ownership
/ˈəʊnəʃɪp/
noun
the act, state, or right of possessing something.

12. own
/əʊn/
verb
take or acknowledge full responsibility for
(something).

13. Product Owner

14. Design Owner

15. Building a (good) design ownership

16. –Vinh Giang Vovan
“Build the machine”

17. Repeatable processes
• Inputs & outputs
• Templates
• Toolkit
• MVP-able

18. Repeatable cycles
• Daily
• Weekly
• Sprintly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Quarter or die

19. Durable relationships
• Office politics
• Team politics
• Communication & sharing

20. Teamwork
• Clear responsibilities
• Stable assignments

21. –Vincent Roussilhon
“If it is difficult to explain,
it is difficult to understand”

22. Lean processes
• Transparent
• Simple to implement
• Simple to explain
• Simple to understand

23. Design without data is destined to be
an exchange of opinions

24. Regular data flow
• Ideal configuration:
• Continuous
• Multi-source
• Qualitative and Quantitative

25. Big innovation
require big insights
–Brian Crofts

26. As long as we keep doing
design based on common sense,
anybody will feel they can do it.

27. “I am the person who notices”, she writes

28. Common sense,
is not
Collective intelligence
Past experiences

29. Common sense,
is
Wild guesses
Uneducated deductions

30. Accountable data
• What is its (statistical) value?
• Show your method and agree on it
• Make your data unquestionable

31. “Debriefing is key”
–Brian Crofts

32. –Emmanuel Puig
“You are the sunshine of my day”

33. profession
/prəˈfɛʃ(ə)n/
noun
a paid occupation performed by a professional,
especially one that involves continuous training
and a formal qualification.

34. profession
/prəˈfɛʃ(ə)n/
noun
a paid occupation performed by a professional,
especially one that involves continuous training
and a formal qualification.

35. professionalism
/prəˈfɛʃ(ə)n(ə)lɪz(ə)m/
noun
the competence or skill expected of a professional.

36. Let’s stop playing to be designers
vs
Start being professional designers

37. Ramping up the design profession
Pedro Hernández
@work4tacos