Why UX designers need to understand product strategy, growth & marketing

A comprehensively short argument

Product experience often holds the biggest opportunity for growth. This growth is anything from sales growth to user-base growth but whatever growth you identify it as there is no denying that the experiences our products communicate are invaluable in building or growing a successful brand.

Being able to translate marketing opportunities into a tangible product solution is one thing but creating and utilising an experience through your product is another level altogether. This is because product experience is human experience and due to the sheer amount of products available it’s never been more important to ensure your product is delightfully easy and human to use.

However finding these opportunities for the experience of your product to operate in requires creative, strategic thinking. We often have so many ideas, but not all of them will be right for our business and more importantly our users.

This is where it becomes essential for designers of all levels to understand product strategy, growth and marketing.

Where ever and whenever we are working it’s more than likely than not that the end goal is growth and to achieve growth we need product strategy to bridge the gap between what you aspire to be and what you are doing. Marketing plays its part too, as discussed, not only at the start but at the end of each touchpoint too.

I would love to be able to articulate product strategy, growth and marketing but to keep this post short, and to leave it to people more qualified than I, check out the links on each respectively.

When you start to build a better understanding of strategy, growth and marketing then you are going to be able to start creating solutions that not only delight your users but help push your brand in the right direction.

I’m not suggesting you need to be an expert in each topic but a clear understanding of the basics will help you move forward as a designer when it comes to communicating in teams and delivering successful products.

Thanks for reading — I’m currently a user experience intern at Bosch Power Tools and an Industrial Design student at Loughborough University. Feel free to get in touch or check out my website.