With the recent waves of layoffs in tech affecting many designers and researchers, there’s been a lot of debate about why these folks, specifically, are being targeted. Arguments range from blaming the designers and researchers themselves to the ways of working these organizations have adopted to greedy executives doing what they can to look good for Wall Street. Rather than wade into those waters (for now), this blog post is going to cover how organizations that set goals the right way explicitly demand a robust research and design practice. As you consider where to work now or in the future, finding companies that set goals this way increases the likelihood of finding a culture that values design and research. Here’s what those goals look like.
Beyond revenue, what else do we care about?
Every company cares about revenue. Anyone that tells you otherwise is blowing smoke. Revenue is what keeps us in business and able to pay salaries, electric bills and delicious, healthy snacks for the kitchen. But there are two ways to look at revenue as a goal. Some companies see it as the be-all-end-all. It’s the only thing that matters and we will do anything to achieve it. In these organizations, short term goals rule, vision is nowhere to be found and the only thing celebrated is the stock price. The goals in companies like there are not aligned with customer-focused disciplines like design and research.
The other scenario is a company that believes revenue will come if we serve the customer appropriately. They see revenue as an inevitability if the customer is served properly and successful. In these organizations, the leadership team has gone into the depths of their business model to understand what customer behavior drives success for the customers rather than the organization. They know that if they can create customer experiences that drive these behaviors, the company will succeed as well. These leadership teams care about the customer first and foremost. It’s these companies that provide the culture that not only encourages but requires proper research and design work to drive deep customer understanding.
How do customer-centric companies set goals?
Companies that care about customer success set goals as measures of customer behavior. These outcomes are specific, explicit and measurable. They are the leading indicators of revenue. They tell the organization, in advance, if the work the teams are doing is solving real customer problems in a way that is meaningful to the customers. Outcomes are measurable changes in human behavior that deliver business value. Customer-centric companies manage to outcome-based goals.
The interesting part of managing to outcomes is that it explicitly requires a deep, organizational expertise in research, design and iteration. If the goal is to change behavior rather than simply deliver a short-term feature, the team needs to figure out the best combination of code, copy and design that will achieve that behavior change. Without designers and researchers this work is often left out, neglected or poorly executed. These customer-centric companies invest in design and research while working to integrate their work into a cycle of learning that is continuously informing product design and development decisions. Continuous and often short cycles of learning and iteration do not devalue the design and research process. Instead they make it obvious, regular and a first-class citizen of the team’s backlog.
There is a straight line from outcomes to OKRs to great design and research teams
Companies that value their customers focus on outcomes, meaningful changes in their behavior. Those outcomes become the key results portion of their OKRs, their goals. Since OKRs don’t define what will be built, teams are explicitly asked to hypothesize, research and design a continuously improving version of the customer experience. Design and research become an integral part of the “way we work” while still maintaining an agility that can react quickly to market changes. Regardless of what’s causing these latest rounds of layoffs, look for companies that use OKRs as their goals. Those organizations, especially if OKRs are implemented well, will provide the culture your design and research career requires to grow.