Business Thinking for Designers

Value-based decision making
Businesses survive when they create value for customers. 
Businesses thrive when they create more value for customers 
than their competitors. 
There’s an idea inside many organizations that in order to 
create business value and make business decisions, you have 
to go to business school. But the reality is, not all value is 
created by the techniques taught in business school. 
Here’s an example you likely won’t find in business school 
curriculum: Did you know that for the health of a child with 
a fever, parents have to keep track of which medication 
was used last? This simple task can create undue stress for 
parents during a 
time 
when stress levels are already high. 
There would be tremendous emotional value in relieving this 
stress.
While financial concerns often inform business decisions, 
subjective factors should also play an important role in 
decision-making. Intangible aspects like ethics, morals, or 
emotions need to influence decisions on everything from 
project roadmaps to branding. Designers are uniquely qualified 
to advocate for these values.
To distinguish the effects of these different types of values, 
let’s define them as “actual” or “perceived.”

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42 
Explore business concepts
• Actual value – When math is used, actual values are in play. 
These are the numbers used to calculate the costs to make 
something, the prices at which products are purchased, 
the salaries of employees, the hours needed to develop a 
tool, etc. When EA decided to invest in new software for 
customer support agents in 2011, the costs of licensing 
and maintaining that software came into play. While actual 
values are relatively simple to calculate, not all companies 
make trade-off decisions using math.