It’s been a while since we stopped explaining why design plays a major role in product development. From being an afterthought to having its seat at decision tables, the “science” of building products through uncovering human needs and behaviour is having its time. Though its potential is still not fully grasped by all and there still are some who snarkily discuss the ROI of UX, mass adoption of the idea is completed. You now have to try hard to find executives who do not touch a design-related note when expressing their ideas.

Deeply rooted in psychology and behavioural sciences, design is simply what makes tech solutions accessible and usable. Starting from observing human interactions with devices to infusing meaning into cutting-edge technologies, it functions in a way that turns solutions into readable, understandable, and sellable bits. However, knowing what design means or does, or even being design-led does not deliver results naturally. To get results, you need crafters who are mindful of how your solutions would also make your ends meet.

While turning a set of code blocks into something interactable is valuable, unlocking business results through design is next level. From today’s nascent applications of text-based AI agents to the first online forms where you can crudely enter information, the design component of the software products has been the invisible bridge that helped the software layer to move upon the inventions of the hardware world and helped it eat the world. Over time, our decision patterns have shifted towards choosing products with add-on values since the baseline of being good at software became achievable for many organisations. What makes winners has been in correlation with the number of add-on layers that products have like design, marketing, and security. Design has come a long way from being just a basic component with a marginal effect on business results to being the differentiator in users’ decisions when it comes to choosing products as a result of the strides we’ve made in software development.

Design’s increasing role in turning visitors into users, on the other hand, did not mean that products with better screens effortlessly won the market. The ones that won the users’ hearts were those who wielded the power of design thanks to their designers who are adept at truly putting themselves in users’ shoes and creating services worthy of users’ ime. In a way, each digital product offers some sort of transaction-based interaction. Whether it’s a game, a blog or a financial product, users typically put something in -time, money, effort- to get something out of their transactions with your products. Making transactions smoother and easier, or leading users to keep doing what they like, increasing the probability of a decision being made by users, from understanding what spurs decisions to offering pathways based on users’ mental models, is the definition of great design. Because, getting results while providing services goes beyond merely empathising with users and solving their problems, and is achieved with a broader perspective of building things that also propel an organisation financially.

Not sticking to what’s deemed as best, changing focus resolution based on realities, and being fluid in approaching problems: all show skill and a keen understanding of how a business works, manifesting itself in making concessions in particular aspects of product development to hit the goals at hand. Not pursuing the best or perfection when needed is what great designers do often. Being in the game and not isolated from business needs may and should deviate designers from chasing after defining the perfect solutions. But, designers who understand when to hit the gas or brakes, those who show acumen in analysing how things are going and formulate just enough of something that moves the needle forward are the ones in my experience who made the difference.

Resist the temptation of hiring designers based on their portfolios or the solutions they bring to your case studies, and go deeper to understand how altruistic they could be when it comes to building something bigger rather than confining to their specific area of expertise. How open they are to move forward with suboptimal solutions, against their creative urges. Sometimes, what you need is not what your team’s individual best. Your needs are volatile, changing day by day, and therefore you are to build a team of professionals who grasp the idea of not doing the best is sometimes the best thing to do.