6 Business Concepts Designers Must Master
Mastery of UX or visual design alone isn’t enough to make a designer truly indispensable. To have a profound impact, designers need to understand the broader business context in which they operate. Successful design doesn’t just solve user problems; it also aligns with business goals, drives revenue, and helps companies outmaneuver their competition. This requires fluency in key business concepts that might initially seem outside a designer’s purview.
1. Business Empathy
Who Are Our Competitors, and How Do We Stack Up?
What
Business empathy means understanding the competitive landscape — not just who the competitors are but how they operate, their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. It goes beyond user empathy and focuses on business dynamics.
Why
Designers often think their job is solely to meet user needs. However, understanding competitors can illuminate why certain design decisions are crucial for maintaining competitive advantages. For instance, a competitor might provide a seamless checkout process that is faster than yours. In this case, a design that merely meets user expectations might not be enough — you need to exceed them to stand out.
How
