Business Thinking for Designers

by Ryan Rumsey

In the spring of 2011, I accepted an opportunity to shape a new organization and lead a team of UX designers, program managers, and front-end developers. It was my dream job and I was highly motivated for the challenge. I expected to excel from day one, but within the first week, I was overwhelmed. At three months, I was really struggling. After six months, I doubted my abilities to fill the role. As a designer, I was confident in my work when I could anticipate what users do, and I had methods and tools to familiarize myself with patterns of user behavior. But when business leaders first began inviting me to meetings, I couldn’t anticipate what they would do. As a result, I was intimidated by the people in the room and their conversations. I assumed it was all very important, complex stuff, and my confidence was shot. Bring a business mind to design, and transform your career and company, with this book by Apple and Electronic Arts design veteran Ryan Rumsey. Inside, he shares the essential vocabulary and strategies to effectively communicate with your business partners, plus tools, tips, and frameworks that you can put right to work. ★ Why you need to know business.
★ Explore business concepts.
★ Develop your business perspective.
★ Create conditions for design maturity.
★Communicate the options.
★ Put it all together.

Genres: Design, Business, Nonfiction, Leadership

157 pages, ebook

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[Jon Daiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that every designer (and design leader) should read. I almost gave it 4 stars, because in my opinion it’s a solid 3.5. If you’re a designer or design leader and you’re frustrated that “no one listens do you” this book explains why and what to do about it with practical examples and approaches. It’s all about learning to speak the language of business so you can convert user-based information into business-leading information.

[Grant Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good visuals, tools, and definitions. These same qualities make it difficult to parse from an audiobook, so read the ebook version (also free). As he says in the introduction, this is a reference book, and I can see it coming in handy throughout the work week.

[Charles-Henri Lison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Highly recommended. I was so impressed that I even enrolled the six weeks course organised by the author.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. Concise and clear, it made it a joy to listen to and jot down notes.

It’s jam-packed full of tips, models, strategies, and additional resources that any designer looking to move beyond pixel pushing should understand.

Well done Mr. Rumsy and Invision

[Arnold Saputra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe it this is free book that really insightful. No commercials or sponsor message inside of it. Straight to the point and very delightful. I recommend this book for all designers and researchers.

[Viktorija · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise handbook and methods on how to adapt/explain design decisions and value for business-minded stakeholders.

Some thoughts I liked:
- "Designers with the most success in the industry are business-aware."
- "As a designer, the strategy your company chooses to gain a competitive advantage is important to your work. Of equal importance is whether your company is focused on growth or profit." (startups focus on growth in hopes of finding revenue models later; established companies focus on profit while keeping an eye out for new growth opportunities)
- "If you have a business partner who asks why you’re not “doing it like company X,” a great response is: “Because we’re not designing for the values of company X and their customers. We’re creating a competitive advantage for us.""
- "I place credibility above all others because, ultimately, factors like trust, accuracy, and good intentions matter more than usability. If a customer doesn’t believe your product or service is credible, they’ll quickly take their business elsewhere."
- "Companies support non-traditional factors like accessibility or openness when designers can show that these factors create competitive advantages. This pivot, from describing “what design is” to talking about the “competitive advantages design work provides” benefits both your organization and your customers. And it builds trust."
- "Many of the lessons in the book represent ways I’ve been able to develop my ability to think like an executive, which ultimately helped me become one. One of the most important things to remember is that executives have limited time. They’re schedules are full, days are endless, and they need help processing information quickly. Designers who can communicate concisely and effectively are more likely to get invited back to future discussions."
- "When you work with collaborators and leadership teams, show data and rationale to support your reasoning by consistently highlighting the risks and opportunities of a decision."

[Ivana Putri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short yet concise read that you could finish in a day/one sitting (it took me 3 days though lol)

I like how the book is opened by addressing the elephant in the room; by giving the reason why designers need to learn business because we can't always expect the stakeholders to listen to us, since sometimes design roles are being treated as merely "supportive" roles, and they still could develop product without us anyway.

The content is mostly about the methods that designers could use to understand and align with the business stakeholders, and those that could help designers to translate their recommendation in a way that might be more acceptable for the business team (although it doesn't explain how to quantify design impact). If "design thinking" is for understanding user/customer, the "business thinking" in this context is meant for understanding the business stakeholders and their intentions. I think this book is kinda like Articulating Design Decision, but specifically catered for communication with biz people.

I learned lots of new stuff from this book and I love how it shows how some famous frameworks could be applicable in this context; negotiation canvas, pyramid principle, you name it

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una lectura recomendada si como yo estás recién aprendiendo conceptos básicos y técnicas para incrementar tu saber relacionado al negocio y por qué es importante tomarlo en cuenta siendo diseñador. Fácil de digerir para iniciar a implementar en los proyectos.

[Simplypheyie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think i will need to re-read like 2 more times to grab it all. so much gems in a few pages.

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bussiness thinking is the frame for innovation. This type of design process is the language of design. Designer focused primarily on perceived value and the evaluation of the customer. Different company have different level of maturity and this separates the level of design change.

[Josh Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

One useful idea I found was the difference between analytical storytelling and narrative based storytelling. eg. narrative style is better for communicating a vision, analytical better for giving a recommendation.

[Alex Bielovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing quite like AI overtaking the world to motivate you to do some extra studying. Add a new job role on the horizon to that, where I’ll be communicating more between departments and will benefit a lot from this reading.

[Kayla Lyman Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last chapter was the best chapter but would not reccomend they even offer this as an audio book because the diagrams listed in the physical book from other reviews is what makes this book effective.

[Ryan Rumsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this book a lot. You should too!

[Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.85 stars

Designers: This is a good primer on business-speak and ways to measure and frame design + product decisions for a wider audience but this should, in no way, be the only book on business you read.

Some other books to read but DYOR
- The Hard Things About Hard Things
- 0 to 1
- Playing to Win
- Innovators Dilemma and Competing Against Luck
- The Messy Middle
- Lean Start-Up
- Great by Choice