Session notes: What Is My Value? Two Takes and Some Mistakes

 

Shahrzad Samadzadeh, VP of Design, at Salesforce answered the question “What is our value as Designers?” through sharing stories from her diverse career. She spoke to her audience directly. Shahrzad prefaced by stating audience members should know she has held a countless number of jobs–many that lacked the word “Design” in the title–but involved responsibility for products and services that create experiences for others.

What’s the value of design?

McKinsey and Harvard Business Review have written on this topic, so we will not cover it today. Instead, this insightful talk delved into YOUR value as an individual designer or design leader–as well as what to bring to your “seat at the table” and how to confidently own it.

“No – you’re naive.”

Shahrzad’s first story took place when a startup hired her consultancy to design an MVP. The clients touted a partnership-oriented perspective that focused on building the best products for their users. It looked like the perfect partnership: complete alignment between business and design. The design team dove into stakeholder interviews and exploration.

Yet, the team ran into challenge after challenge. The clients were unhappy at every checkpoint and deliverable. It soon became apparent that the clients had a clear picture of how they wanted the product to look and feel.
Shahrzad’s team encountered a crossroad: create what their stakeholders wanted or push for what provides the most value to users. What would you do? 
In this story, the design team presumed the clients were naive and opted to balance working with the stakeholders and pushing on strategic ideas, using phrases like “the look and feel you’re describing is out of line with best practices and consumer expectations…”
After the project ended, the design team realized that they were brought on to provide air cover to the startup’s founding team to please their investors. The subtle clue was the number of times the team mentioned “the investors requested.” They were a pawn in the story that investors wanted to hear, when in reality, the investors were calling all the shots and pushing for bad design.
The takeaway: know what game you’re playing. Zoom far out and get a realistic picture of how small your role might be in the grand scheme of things. But own that role. Even a pawn can win a game of chess depending on how it plays.

“Please don’t fire me.”

In the second story, a management team hired Shahrzad’s design consulting firm to teach them about user experience while simultaneously completing a redesign of their procurement services. Again, it looked like a dream project where the stakeholders saw the value of design and the design team’s expertise. Then things began going poorly: contradictory asks, redo requests, and brutal critique sessions.

This project hit critical mass when the stakeholders discussed whether or not to fire the design team…in front of them. Even when embracing their roles as influential pawns–working late night after night, highlighting user quotes, and crafting journey maps to illustrate the positive impact of the design for users–the final readout was canceled. Why? No one accepted the calendar invite. The stakeholders prioritized different values.

The takeaways: ask yourself if there is a clear champion, clarity, and purpose in your projects. If not, the question becomes “is it worth it?” Knowing yourself as a designer is knowing yourself as a person: how much of yourself are you willing to give away only to receive nothing back?

 

“I hate this meeting.”

This story takes place at Shahzad’s first in-house design job at a large enterprising as part of an internal consulting team. It appeared as another amazing opportunity to shape business outcomes, metrics, and value. Yet after two months of pitching projects that were moved to the backlog, the team demanded to work on a high impact project. After all, designers learn best by doing. Near the end, leadership asked the team to stop working on the project…
The takeaway: as designers, we create value by creating artifacts and gaining experience. if we aren’t making, don’t have value. Reconsider your relationship with your company.

“Design enemy #1.”

The last story takes place on an in-house design team working on enterprise projects. Shahzad inherited a team that was deeply understaffed and stretched thin, facing too much work–to the point where even product managers and engineers expressed concern. The team’s focus shifted on cutting back scope where possible on all in-flight work. Most cross-functional peers were great. Except one. This individual didn’t understand what design did and why design matters. This person removed a feature that a designer spent a week working on. A blatant gesture of disregard and disrespect.
From there on, Shahzad showed up to every meeting ready to fight instead of adding value. Sometimes, everyone is supportive except for one exception–but that’s all you can see. In her 360 review, Shahzad received feedback that her team was performing better than ever and has built trust throughout the company, but her behavior at meetings had made some feel uncomfortable.
The takeaways: fighting to prove the value of design is a fool’s errand. There are always people who understand less or more about design. It is not important to prove that design matters–when’s the last time you saw Engineering or Product justify their roles? Instead, add value over time and solve problems. What matters is your value. Using your seat at the table to fight an invisible enemy only diminishes your own impact.

Lessons to take to heart

  1. Know what game you’re playing: understand how small your role is but make the most of it. Remember that even pawns can win games.
  2. Know your value: don’t get into situations without a champion, clarity, and purpose
  3. Make things real: enjoy this special power that few have.
  4. Don’t fight the invisible enemies
  5. Find those who appreciate design AND you as a person: Never forget your value as a designer or design leader