The case for design thinking.
Why 80% of firms say they deliver “superior experience” when only 8% of users agree.
The spork is the real hero, here. (Photo by the author)
Even after all these years and everything we’ve learned about design-led business and design-led products, prospective clients still ask, why does design thinking and the design process matter.
This is what I tell ‘em…
80% of firms say they deliver “superior experiences.”
8% of users and customers feel they receive “superior experiences.”*
There’s a gap there…
Because there’s more to design than function.
There are two kinds of design problems:
When a product or idea is new, it’s enough for it to work — and work reliably.
But as users become increasingly familiar with a new product or technology, and as competition increases, they demand more than just an engineering solution.
Usability, not functionality, is the differentiator
Maslow ain’t got nothin’ on us. (Illustration by the author)
This is why there are hundreds of different car bodies but only a handful of different engines. Because human factors — not technology — drive user choice, differentiate the competition, and meet user needs.
This is where the design process comes in: by focusing on user-centered needs, opportunities, and pain points, we can do more than meet user requirements. We can exceed user expectations at every touchpoint and grow your business.
By exploring early and often you prioritize the user and to save dollars later
It may look messy. But wouldn’t you rather make the mess before going to market? (Composition by the author)
The design process emphasizes learning as much as we can — and experimenting as often as we can — early in the lifecycle of a project.
This focus on research and design might seem chaotic but it saves time and money in the long run by identifying, validating, and iterating on solutions before incurring development debt — and minimizing the scale of revisions to the engineered deliverable.
No need to develop a UI that doesn’t work, or invest in a feature your users don’t want, if we’ve focused on learning and testing, early.
User- and customer-experience leaders outperform the market
Cumulative total return. Good design = good money. Source: “Closing the Delivery Gap” study of 362 firms by Bain & Co. (Illustration by the author)
The eight-year stock performance of customer experience leaders and laggards, compared to the S&P 500, shows a delta of 79.9 points difference in their cumulative total return — clearly demonstrating the value of design as a business asset with a significant return on investment.
Or, as Steve Jobs reminds us, “You have to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.”
And what works for consumers works for enterprise
Design is about more than closing the experience gap. Design is an agent to transform business. It can create efficiencies, render the arcane sane, and change the way people work.
And when designing for enterprise solutions, we have to remember that an absence of customers doesn’t equal an absence of users. If anything, enterprise users are more critical to our success. Bernie Marcus put this principle so well when he said: “If we take care of our associates, they’ll take care of our customers, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Design for an enterprise user must:
Keep it familiar
Embrace simplicity
Bridge the gap between work and play
Remember that cleanliness is next to usefulness
Listen to that base (your users!)
TL;DR
Design thinking and the design process aren’t the unique realm of any one business, vertical, or creative discipline. And “design” doesn’t need additional adjectives, either. User-experience, graphic, service, video? A user-centered, research-driven approach is channel and discipline agnostic when it comes to identifying, refining, and delivering creative solutions.
So tell ’em. And get to work.
Start design thinking with Sharpen.
We’re excited to show you how Sharpen’s premier team of creative problem solvers (with their fingers on design thinking, technology, architecture, and more) is the right team to help you. Because we do a lot more than just create beautiful, functional solutions—and that “lot more” informs how we approach every problem.
Contact us for a free remote consultation with our innovation leaders to see how we can help you and your company bring your visions to life and be more innovative than ever.
