As a UX lead I was challenged with making critical product decisions. Quickly I realized that the trifecta of design intuition, mastery of craft, and taste actually wasn't going to cut it.
After returning to freelance consulting, I started asking how to better inform design decisions? How to collaborate between design, data, and engineering?
As designers, we're still reluctant to admit data to our desks. For example my great UX/UI design friend strongly believes that making usable products is mainly about visually beautiful experiences.
And he's not a lone thinker amongst my acquaintances. UX/UI Design has not yet fully embraced the power of data.
However, the benefits are clear and materialise already with first data inquiries. The change is not overly complex, and is often almost immediately applicable (often, useful data is already being collected by other parts of the business).
The impact is also almost immediate.
With one of my clients in Prague, we estimated that 1/5 of changes scheduled for their app now directly influence the bottom-line. And indeed, in less than 8 months those UX optimisations yielded better engagement, higher spend, and lower churn.
It also became much easier to close leads, as my pitching became empowered by proofs and the possibility to demonstrate economic ROI.