Things move slower in deep layers because their impact in both the organization and society is higher. It demands more conversations with non designers, more time used to showing the value of design, and the impact the product will make, beyond understanding the broader questions it demands.

What has been my role in showing the value of research and design for key people that don’t understand it?

How to have more responsibility:

  1. Research how people use the product and how does it affect their lives - Finding the undesired consequences and metrics beyond the ones tracked my the company. How much addiction is being added or how much happiness that product creates. Listen to people and read research papers with care and attention

  2. If the product influence people’s opinion, be honest about that - If there is not a good answer, the best and safe thing would be stop working on that. Understanding the impact of the work on society should come first than such impact.

  3. If the platform allows unrelated people to talk, find out what can go wrong - Get feedback from people victims of sexist, hate, discrimination speeches and consider limiting the forms of interaction (DMs, comments) even if that decreases engagement.

  4. Think if the product impact the environment - Does it consumes too much energy? If it asks people to do something in the real world, watch how people do it and consider what would happen if it became a huge success. e.g. for a food delivery app, optimizing car/motorcycle routes or maybe even using only bikes can have a great impact. The bigger the organization, the bigger the impact it makes.

The impact we make as designers is quickly expanding to include way more questions than just how people feel using the products.