Keeping your Specialisation: Endurance of a Silo

Boxing yourself in a silo can make you invisible to the ruthless organization that need not perceive your value. Image: Midjourney

Research is an essential part of designing products that serve users effectively, yet it often fails to receive the recognition and value it deserves within organizations. During a recent webinar on user research, I found myself pondering two questions: when should one be a generalist or specialist, and what qualities make a specialist valuable within a company?

In today’s design process, silos have become so specialized that experts focus solely on their designated area of expertise. However, in the past, we designers were generalists who tackled all aspects of the design process, including design research, and immersion with users to gain actionable insights. While this approach may not be equivalent to the rigor of qualitative or quantitative research, it did result in a more holistic understanding of the product and its users. But today you are a patriot vehemently fighting for your piece of motherland called specialization.

So where does the value of your specialization lie within the design process and the business? I believe that specialists must have three key qualities to be valuable within an organization.

1. Accountability: The first is accountability, meaning that you can stand by your proposals, modifications, or deletions to a product and possess the skills to revert back when they fail. This should be associated with the successful achievement of organizational or business goals as much as meeting user needs.
2. Tangibility: The second quality is tangibility, your ability to present tangible evidence to stakeholders, users, and the business or technology teams to support their recommendations. Every member of a silo should be able to contribute to the construct of the product through key skills and active creation. Demonstrate how your ideas can change the product for betterment.
3. Durability: Finally, specialists must have the endurance to be involved in the entire business lifecycle — not just one part of it — to ensure that your key insights and ideas are incorporated into the final outcome. How can you contribute from conception to realization? How can you become intrinsic to the larger roadmap of a service or a product?

By possessing these three qualities, a specialist’s siloed expertise becomes a valuable asset to the organization, making them more likely to be retained during times of recession or layoffs.

I believe this will also result in self-evaluation of your contribution and participation to effectively achieve business goals. Do you have these key qualities to be a valuable specialist in your organization?