Satyam Kantamneni - Leveraging the Business Value of Design
Aug 21, 2023
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Satyam Kantamneni, a design professional and managing partner of UXReactor, discusses the value of design, the difference between design as a skill and a profession, and the challenges faced by design leaders. He emphasizes the importance of measuring the impact of design and understanding its value in the tech industry.
Starting with the user's needs and experiences leads to successful product design.
Design should be seen as a profession with specific expertise and mindset, not just a support function.
Aligning design initiatives with company goals and showcasing their value can drive significant business impact.
Deep dives
Understanding the User-Centered Approach
The key to creating successful products and experiences lies in understanding the user and their needs first. Many companies make the mistake of starting with technology and design, and then considering how users will use it. This approach needs to be reversed, with a focus on the user and their experience first. By prioritizing user-centered design, companies can unlock the full potential of their products and create meaningful and valuable experiences for their customers.
The Importance of Design as a Profession
Design is not just a skill, but a profession that requires specific expertise and mindset. In many organizations, design is still seen as a support function rather than a strategic driver of business success. To change this perception, leaders need to approach design as they would marketing or engineering, with a clear focus on building the right teams, processes, and environments. Design professionals need to take ownership of their role, showcasing the value they bring in creating innovative and user-centered solutions. By establishing design as a profession, organizations can unlock the true potential of design to drive growth and create exceptional user experiences.
Driving Value and Impact through User-Centered Design
User-centered design can drive significant value and impact for businesses, provided it is given the recognition and support it deserves. Design professionals need to be proactive in showcasing the value of design initiatives, demonstrating how they can save costs, improve user experiences, and drive revenue growth. This involves understanding the priorities of the company, whether it is focused on cost reduction or profit generation. By aligning design initiatives with the company's goals and framing them as solutions to pain points and opportunities, designers can effectively convince business leaders of the value and importance of investing in user-centered design.
Importance of Starting with User Needs and Pain Points
In this podcast episode, the speaker emphasizes the significance of starting with the user's needs, pain points, and experiences when designing products or experiences. They discuss how many tech companies prioritize technology before considering the user, which often leads to poor outcomes. By focusing on understanding the user, their pain points, and what the competition is doing, companies can build a better experience and design that meets user expectations. This approach increases the likelihood of success and creates a more user-centered organization.
Identifying Design Opportunities and Creating Value
The podcast episode highlights the difference between design problems and design opportunities. Design problems are pain points that users can articulate, while design opportunities are pain points users may not recognize as problematic. By identifying and addressing these opportunities, designers can create significant value. The speaker provides an example of a product designed for the automotive industry, where they transformed a three-hour deal sheet process into a 30-minute experience. This design opportunity was discovered by analyzing data, understanding user pain points, and leveraging AI to create personalized solutions. The podcast emphasizes the importance of problem-solving and delivering measurable outcomes in design.
Satyam Kantamneni shares how he articulates the value of design, why design is a profession and not a skill, and why there’s no such thing as a UX/UI designer.
Highlights include:
Why does the profession of design find itself in crisis?
What surprises you about design leaders’ understanding of business value?
What is the difference between design as a skill and design as a profession?
Why do you want to be in the pain killer and not vitamin business?
How do you encourage senior leaders to separate fact from assumption?
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Who is Satyam Kantamneni?
Satyam is the Managing Partner and Chief eXperience Officer at UXReactor, the fastest growing specialised UX design firm in the United States, where he leads a global team that helps large and complex B2B enterprises to become truly user-centred innovators.
Before co-founding UXReactor in 2015, Satyam was the managing director of user experience and design at Citrix. In his six years there, Satyam went from being the first designer, to growing and leading a UX and design team of over 50 people.
Satyam has also previously been a user experience manager at PayPal, where he managed a global team and was responsible for establishing the company’s India Design Centre, which grew to over 30 people by the time he left.
The author of “User Experience Design: A Practical Playbook to Fuel Business Growth”, published in 2022 by Wiley, Satyam is on a mission to raise the profile, depth of understanding and appreciation that business people have for design.
