Focus on the i in design
a product marketing leader's lens - creativity + engineering blend ...
Today, I shared my view of design as a product marketing leader with a blend of creativity and engineering with the ProApp X community in a design workshop.
Topics include:
- Fundamentals of design thinking
- Design ideation for users and business
- Communication and design decision making frameworks
- How to wireframe great ideas
- Understand the i in design - customer, user and buyer persona
Fundamentals of design thinking
Let’s start with our lens like in photography. Close up or wide angle …
What do you see in each of these images? In the third image on the right, what did you or did not see from the first two images?
I showed the first one, where we started with hues of blues and pinks and purples, and then the second one, we added a few shades of yellow and greens in there.
And then when we zoomed out and we saw the full picture, it changed the dynamics, right? It gave you the full idea of what we are looking at. When I think about design thinking, I see design thinking in a few aspects.
First is Slow down and build empathy. It's easy for us to be like, oh, I know exactly how does this should be designed or I know where we are headed, but if you slow down and actually take the time to build empathy, whether its empathy for your user, empathy for your customer and for the business that you're building this design for, it will give you a different lens. It'll give you that full picture of the task.
The second is all about experiments. As an engineer in mind and creator at heart, I always like to find different ways to do things. It's easy for us to say, step one, two, three, and go and get it done, but pause and experiment.
Try different things. Don't assume that this is the only way it could be done because that's not true. It could take shape in different angles and ways.
And then, the third is about setting that intention. When we talk about intentions, we're talking about focus. And what we could do, we really need to think intentionally.
Build empathy, experiment and ideate, and think intentionally.
Design ideation for users and business
Every designer brings a different lens, whether it's graphic design UI or UX, the user experience or customer experience.
One key idea that I would like to plant in your mind is: When we are conducting design ideation sessions or workshops, it's important for everyone in the room to really feel comfortable contributing their ideas. No judgment. There are no right or wrong answers. Every idea could add on to other ideas.
We want to create a safe environment Especially when it comes with bringing different teams together in a company. We've done design ideation projects, and workshops, where we have seen that happen.
Sometimes folks will be hesitant to share their ideas, they might be more comfortable sharing their ideas on their own groups but not other groups. And this is one that I would encourage you to keep in mind as you are thinking about a great ideation session, where everybody walks out of that room and feel like in the 90 minutes, 2-3 hours of the workshop was well worth their time.
And they felt like their voice mattered. At the end of the day, if we don't feel like our voice matters or what we have to share is going to have an impact, we may share one or two times. And then we stop as this team or company, doesn't really encourage the opportunity to ask questions, or share. This is a key element of design ideation.
Communication and design decision making frameworks
Communication is important and a core aspect. You need to discover what your signature design eye, and with the letter, i as well. Make your mark in the community - here are three skills that will help create the right decision making framework.
How to wireframe great ideas
Whenever we are creating these ideas and opportunities, we need to be storyboarding as the first step. It all comes back to what is the story you want to tell? And how design connects user and customer with the story?
This was an exercise that I got to do recently where I was helping LiRA with the LipTrain participant experience with storyboarding to read sentences.
Understand the i in design - customer, user and buyer persona
Each persona can be a pattern or could be a role. We need to understand what's the story, what we're working towards before we think about the next steps.
At Pama Hair, we tried to bring persona and feelings into the same equation. How do our wigs make our customers feel - comfy, confident, optimist and trendy. And the best part of this exercise was we were trying to bring visual elements - what does comfy look like? What does confident look like?
You can find creative ways to make your persona feel alive.
Takeaways:
- Sharing the experiences in design from a lens of a product marketing leader, with a blend of creativity and engineering.
- Every designer brings a different lens when it comes to graphic design, UI and user experience.
- Discover your signature design eye(read i) and make your mark in the community.
- Every color, font and brand identity is what makes the company stand out.
- Challenge the status quo and ask why to better understand, think and act like your user and customer.