Indispensable business knowledge for designers

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A huge mindset gap exists between designers and their clients, causing problems for both sides. If you bridge this gap using business knowledge, you become a truly indispensable high-touch consultant.

In this talk, Jane Portman, the UI/UX consultant behind UI Breakfast, teaches what business skills you need (copywriting, marketing, sales, product management), and how you can use them to launch your own products, build an audience, and treat your own services as a product.

Published in: Design

Indispensable business knowledge for designers

  1. 1. Indispensable Business Knowledge for Designers by Jane Portman at UI Breakfast
  2. 2. Step #1 Understand Your Place in the Business Universe Step #2 Study Business Essentials Step #3 Practice in Your Own Product Sandbox
  3. 3. Step #1 Understand Your Place in the Business Universe
  4. 4. Ptolemaic geocentric system An illustration by Bartolomeu Velho, 1568 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
  5. 5. Design is never a priority. It’s just a small aspect of your client’s business.
  6. 6. You are never a priority. What matters is your ability to solve problems in your client’s business.
  7. 7. Why is UI design important? It helps to make more money!
  8. 8. Why is UI design important? It increases sales It simplifies onboarding & reduces churn It makes customers happy It makes the business profitable
  9. 9. Your path to success in a nutshell: Call yourself a consultant Talk with your clients about their business Charge 10x
  10. 10. Step #2 Study Business Essentials
  11. 11. The Business of Consulting Your ideal client Your unique value proposition Your rates Your working process
  12. 12. Brennan Dunn (blog and courses) http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/ The Independent Consulting Manual (book I co-authored) http://independentconsultingmanual.com/?coupon=uibreakfast
  13. 13. Product Development Positioning Research (“sales safari”) Pricing & subscription models Product lifecycle
  14. 14. Amy Hoy & Alex Hillman (blog) http://unicornfree.com/ Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) http://startupsfortherestofus.com/
  15. 15. Copywriting Long-form sales copy Customer research for language Conversion rate optimization
  16. 16. The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza (book) http://amzn.com/B00COQFUNU Joanna Wiebe at Copy Hackers (blog and books) http://copyhackers.com/
  17. 17. Marketing Audience and positioning Email marketing Lead magnets Outreach
  18. 18. Your First 1000 Copies by Tim Grahl http://amzn.com/B00DMIWAIC Drip (free crash course) http://blog.getdrip.com/ Running a Successful Outreach Campaign (podcast episode with Kai Davis) http://uibreakfast.com/06-successful-outreach-campaign/
  19. 19. Step #3 Practice in Your Own Product Sandbox
  20. 20. Why do your own products? Practice the whole business cycle Build authority/audience for future projects Get better clients who respect you Get some “passive” income
  21. 21. Define your audience Know them, like them, make sure they can pay Option A: people like yourself Option B: people like your clients
  22. 22. Set up your business environment Marketing site with long-form sales copy Email list Lead magnet (freebie)
  23. 23. Start with productized consulting Sell your services with long-form sales-pages Set your own rules and processes Get recurring revenue
  24. 24. Productize Your Service by Brian Casel (free course) https://casjam.com/resources/productize-your-service/
  25. 25. Move on with infoproducts No technical burden, no support Practice the launch process Make your first product money Obtain instant credibility as an author
  26. 26. Authority by Nathan Barry (book) http://nathanbarry.com/authority/
  27. 27. Think twice before going into SaaS High technical/support burden High investment of time & money Much harder to sell Very slow growth curve Higher chances of failure
  28. 28. Sign up for my free course explaining the business view of UI design http://uibreakfast.com/1hour/
  29. 29. Good luck in business! Thank you my friends!

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