11. A matter of focus

Who are you designing for?

Design is not neutral.

It can be centered, among other things, on the following dimensions:

• The user: we do everything the users ask for.
• The business: we do only what the business demands.
• The competition: we obsess over the competition and systematically copy features.
• The technology: we incorporate features only because there is new technology to support them.
• The sponsor: we blindly execute the wishes of the person who governs the product and the resources to develop it.

The focus you dedicate to each dimension determines the quality of the design.

Design that is 100% user-centered seems like a solution, but it’s not sustainable.

It’s a matter of adjusting the focus appropriately.

Any trained monkey can focus solely on one of these dimensions and execute a strategy based on that.

However, the mix that each organization configures, that is, the focus it assigns to each dimension, is the secret sauce that differentiates it from the competition. This mix, as one would expect, should vary over time, according to the circumstances and needs of the organization.

What’s important, what’s really crucial, is to understand that these dimensions exist and must be modulated consciously to achieve specific objectives.