Healthy Conflict in Product Design
December 16th, 2008[ Software Development ]
Warning: generalizations and stereotypes follow.
In all software companies, likely all companies, there’s a constant battle of varying degrees of ugliness between sales and design. Sales spends all her time with customers and potential customers. All they want is for design to just do what they ask. My client needs the product to do this, just make the product do it.
Design on the other hand doesn’t like knowing that real humans exist. Design prefers personas or focus groups and doesn’t want to hear what sales wants built. Instead design wants to lie on the grass, get inspired, simplify, contextualize, and maybe design a feature or two. Will design solve real customer problems? Well in the best companies yes but likely not in the way sales suggested.
So we have a divide? A constant conflict between sales and design. What do we do? Well we get them in the same room together and hug it out right? Build consensus, get sales and design to agree and get on the same page.
Naw. Sure you need some of that, however, only so much as to have a respectful relationship between the two. The phrase ‘if two people always agree then one person is redundant’ applies here. If sales and design always agree then the good news is you can get rid of one. The best approach is to recognize and embrace the conflict and the divide. There’s strength and value in it, don’t get rid of that. It’s healthy dysfunction, keep it but make sure it’s just enough that you can still be productive.