Influencing product strategy

What role does design serve in influencing product strategy? What unique perspectives do we bring as we build meaningful things for people? Design makes the ambiguous tangible. Design is less about knowing the future, and more about exploring what it could be. Design doesn’t have to direct; instead, design continuously shapes.

Designers often have a first take at a product and team’s strategy. Through design, we can see a product’s multiple futures. Our unique lens can connect dots across all product experiences.

Because we can see around corners, design can ground and anchor executives. We can see where things break and converge, and make fuzzy things become concrete.

The best product strategies are opinionated. When all else fails, lean on design and intuition to make a mark and step firmly in a direction.

While there will always be insights and data, design can cut through signal versus noise. Design questions assumptions in a space. When designers, partners, stakeholders and executives all head in different directions, design can identify blind spots and downsides.