An organization’s fidelity to its vision and mission can be the difference between successful innovation and tumbling into obscurity. The unfortunate reality is that for many organizations, their vision and mission are only skin-deep.
For customers, an organization’s vision and principles are the promise that customers will receive the value that they expect and that the brand communicates. For designers, they can be the northstar that informs overarching goals and objectives in service of those customers. In a world where designers demonstrate their value to business through measurable outcomes, principles will often fall victim to data interpretation biases and disjointed priorities.
When organizational priorities are in conflict with organizational principles and vision, the principles and vision are often sacrificed for the sort term win, based on what the data is interpreted to prescribe. As this trend continues, organizations drift further away from their established principles, creating a growing chasm between the promised value and what is actually delivered.
Data-driven decision making is no substitute for having a point-of-view, and on its own is insufficient for guiding organizations or design teams through strategic challenges. Data is an advisor, not an oracle.
Designers do have a role to play in this scenario, but it can be a challenge when design leadership doesn’t have input in strategic decision making. Strategic design frameworks that rigorously frame data within the context of organizational principles and vision can contribute to creating clearer decision pathways that can allow organizations to make smart, strategically sound choices without sacrificing the principles that provide their purpose.
As a matter of course, organizations that abandon their principles tend to lose the trust of their customers, and may resort to customer-hostile tactics to compensate. It is a vicious cycle that isn’t sustainable, and it doesn’t have to be the status quo.