I'd argue you need to have both that knowledge and the soft skills you mention (or really the power skills of communication!) to be the most effective.
I agree - of course you need some knowledge, otherwise you're not a designer. It's also curious how they're called soft skills even though they can be more important than the "hard" ones!
Yes, the Designers must understand [the] business.
This, however, works only when their colleagues equally understand the value added by design.
Oversimplified, any business must answer a few important questions: what, why, when, and how. To take the answer to the market, you need everyone to understand the answer to all of the above.
This means everyone needs to understand context, capabilities/resources and be willing to share the room.
I don't think designers learn the wrong things; I think culture shapes the dynamic of every company.
We need persuasion, negotiation and facilitation because [sometimes] we are bad at understanding the overlap and the connection between the questions. The state of play takes these sensible skills and funds internal politics.
If your only way to collaborate with your peers is to constantly engage in politics, well, as a designer, you lost.
Design is a function/domain that requires perspective to understand the problem, creativity to frame it in a way that can be solved, and the will to fail. This makes designers vulnerable to many things-and this is an understatement. But designers are not some frail creatures; they don't need protection but support.
Sometimes, the designers understand the business better than an Operator sitting in the CEO's seat.
Does this help? Not really. How do I know?
I've been in a few rooms where one person talks 95% of the timel and the how is answered before the design team says a word.
This is true. But the problem is even if we try to explain the project leaders they don't really get it and want us to go according to what they have in their mind but the truth is they have little to no design knowledge. Many leaders focus on UI rather than UX. They just want things to look unique and fancy.
I'd argue you need to have both that knowledge and the soft skills you mention (or really the power skills of communication!) to be the most effective.
I agree - of course you need some knowledge, otherwise you're not a designer. It's also curious how they're called soft skills even though they can be more important than the "hard" ones!
Absolutely!
Yes, the Designers must understand [the] business.
This, however, works only when their colleagues equally understand the value added by design.
Oversimplified, any business must answer a few important questions: what, why, when, and how. To take the answer to the market, you need everyone to understand the answer to all of the above.
This means everyone needs to understand context, capabilities/resources and be willing to share the room.
I don't think designers learn the wrong things; I think culture shapes the dynamic of every company.
We need persuasion, negotiation and facilitation because [sometimes] we are bad at understanding the overlap and the connection between the questions. The state of play takes these sensible skills and funds internal politics.
If your only way to collaborate with your peers is to constantly engage in politics, well, as a designer, you lost.
Design is a function/domain that requires perspective to understand the problem, creativity to frame it in a way that can be solved, and the will to fail. This makes designers vulnerable to many things-and this is an understatement. But designers are not some frail creatures; they don't need protection but support.
Sometimes, the designers understand the business better than an Operator sitting in the CEO's seat.
Does this help? Not really. How do I know?
I've been in a few rooms where one person talks 95% of the timel and the how is answered before the design team says a word.
This is true. But the problem is even if we try to explain the project leaders they don't really get it and want us to go according to what they have in their mind but the truth is they have little to no design knowledge. Many leaders focus on UI rather than UX. They just want things to look unique and fancy.