UX for Business

Marketing-Driven Versus Revenue-Driven Products

Too Much Agency Work Can Warp Your Sense of Value

There are (at least) two subtle flavors of product UX out there in the world, and the designers working on them often don’t know the difference unless they have done both: marketing-driven UX and revenue-driven UX.

In the business models we have discussed so far, it is an absolute fact that some of the value you can create is value for marketing, and some is value measured in money. But many projects, especially at creative agencies, only need to create the marketing part of the value, not the money part. Not directly, at least.

If you have never worked on UX that is measured in money or customers (which is where the money comes from), then you have a blind spot, and my goal over the next few pages is to fix that blind spot.

Brand Value or Business Value?

This headline is going to make some people sit up and say, “Hey wait now, the brand is valuable for the business!” And they are absolutely correct. Again, that is why this is a blind spot! If you have never needed to create business value—and many designers haven’t—then it is easy to imagine that brand value and business value are the same.

They’re not.

A product that “only” creates brand value does not have to survive on its own success. It is always better if a lot of people use it, if retention is good, or if the usability ...