The design & brand gap
How Design and Brand teams can play better together to create more meaningful experiences.
In a world of fast-moving, user centred product design sprints, the value of brand can easily be overlooked.
A recent project highlighted this increasingly common problem.
As we finished the fifth sprint of six, a question arose. “When will Brand see this?”
A good question. One that had actually been discussed at length at the beginning. One that, it was decided, could be addressed at a later date in favour of moving quickly. One that came back to bite.
In this example, we were working on designing an experience for a digital product to bring people and knowledge closer together. A product that has the potential to drive efficiency of teams. A product that can create a more effective outcome by sharing knowledge and in doing so, deliver better experiences for customers. A product experience, you could argue, that needs the values of the brand.
More often these days, a business can consist of a single product as its main touchpoint (think of most apps in the App Store). With this single-product focus, the importance of expressing the brand through the design of a product experience is more important than ever. The problem is the expectation. Agile, lean, iterative. All words that business-folk are becoming well versed in. Words that suggest an increase in pace, with little or no attention to increase in the quality of craft, impression or emotional integrity.
Brand versus Design
Brand
The legacy that comes with the term ‘branding’ is a tricky one. It has baggage. The perception of old methods, long timelines, marketing driven and a top down approach that has product designers recoiling backwards at the mention of a Brand Guidelines book. Brand has become wrapped up in bureaucracy and a mindset that removes creative evolution in place of mindless consistency.
Baggage aside, the real role of brand is a vital one. Expressed by intangible elements of visual identity, tone of voice, personality and values, brand captures the purpose and spirit of an organisation, establishing the direction of evolution and definition of existence. This is the intangible measure that users align their own selves with. The problem is that this clarity has been lost in big businesses. Something that needs to change.
Design
The value of the design approach to business challenges is adaptability. It has problem solving at its core and can move quickly to respond to any circumstance. Listening and learning are central pillars in being able to create memorable and meaningful experiences for users. New sign-in screens that remove a barrier to entry. Onboarding flows to educate a new user and reduce churn. A complete new mobile app experience to deliver a new business proposition. A bot that reduces call-centre contact. All potential outcomes of listening and learning.
Much like the brand perception however, this doesn’t come without its flaws. With smaller teams comes smaller scope, smaller budgets and more focus on incremental steps and continuous delivery. This means the intangible craft is being de-scoped in favour of more tactical business goals. The concern is the increased risk in overlooking the longer-term vision — something crucial to building a product strategy [as Daniel Ruston talks about in his article Design for Vision, ensuring your product helps users achieve their goals, makes their lives better, and ultimately provide real meaning].
When speed & agility meet purpose & meaning
To design an effective product we need to understand the brand direction; the purpose, where the business is going, why it exists, and how to navigate an agile mindset of evolution.
To build an effective, efficient and impactful brand we need the thinking, methodology, systems and implementation found in a design & development team.
And these always begin by understanding people.
We mustn’t lose sight of the business ambition when creating experiences and micro-experiences for customers. People expect a level of consistency with an organisation at product, service and organisation marketing level.
Designing a new set of screens for a user flow can easily become a highly functional job. The reality is it’s only one part of the equation. Yes, users need to be able to complete a task with ease and minimal barriers. But what shouldn’t be overlooked is the emotional integrity. The personality. The thing that connects with users beyond jobs. Beyond tasks. The intangible things that make brands like Nike… Nike. It’s the belief in what the company stands for. The WHY (as Simon Sinek brilliantly demonstrates). It’s what drives the company that keeps people committed for the long term.
What users achieve today helps build habit. What users feel today helps build the culture.
The point is that neither approach is wrong. But together they are much stronger. Together they achieve practical experience goals and connect with the subconscious. It’s the perfect combination of brand strategy and experience design. Companies like Amazon are hard at work to align broader experiences across their entire product suite in their new OneDesign system — ultimately developing the holistic Amazon experience. The brand experience.
What could you do to kick start this relationship?
Start by asking questions and challenging yourself and your team. Here are a few thought-starters:
Find ways to collaborate
How can you involve a brand / product designer earlier? What role could they play in building an approach to a better product or telling a stronger brand story? (Try taking some storytelling tips from ex-Pixar story artist Emma Coats.)
Uncover common challenges
What challenges do each team face? How can you put yourself in the other teams shoes to understand their needs?
Understand ways of working
What goals and processes do each team have? How do they differ and what impact could this have on your project?
Share specialist skillsets
What role could each team play in your project? What skills or knowledge can you leverage to design a better outcome together?
Get to know each other
How can you get to know the other team better? Can you grab a coffee, attend a workshop or team up on an initiative? (Often something as simple as a conversation can open up great new opportunities).
Drive forward with purpose
How can you tell better stories together?
Bridging the gap between the product reality and customer-facing brand material is a conversation that happens frequently with new and existing clients alike. Depending on the team depends on which end of the scale you sit. But think for a moment about the true value if you can get this right. Both teams working towards a common goal. One that drives the purpose and vision as well as enabling your team to adapt and evolve. As the ever changing landscape shifts and new technology arises, it’s important to ensure you’ve built a story and belief for tomorrow, that you can put into practice today.
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