# The role of a Business Designer and how to become one

Author: Roald Larsen

Source: https://untaylored.com/post/the-role-of-a-business-designer-and-how-to-become-one

## **What being a Business Designer is about**

Before we dive into what a business designer is and what this person does, let's quickly go over Business Design itself. Business Design is a rather "new" discipline which emerged as a response to the limitations of traditional business thinking. linear, product-centered, siloed and short-sighted. Business design solves these shortcomings by mixing in a new skillset to problem-solving and it's called design thinking.

‍

> Business design = business strategy + design thinking

‍  

Simply said, it combines the human-centred principles from design with the commercially driven attitude that characterizes business strategy.  

Now that we addressed Business Design it's easier to understand the role of a business designer. At Untaylored we like to think of a business designer as _“the person who designs for long term business viability by combining a human-centred approach to business problems. Always with a strategic, analytical, lean and financially driven skill set.”_

_‍_

## Responsibilities  

According to Tsukasa Tanimoto, who has written extensively about it, the Business Designer is mainly responsible for:  

*   framing, directing and/or informing the design process through a business lens to ensure design solves business problems effectively;
*   translating design solutions into value and impact through a language that business stakeholders are familiar with to prove design provides solutions to business problems;
*   applying human-centred methodologies to strengthen business and financial components of design work to create services and products that are viable;  
    

In other words, business design applies design and design thinking to business problems with the objective of bringing innovation to life.  

‍

## Tasks

Some of the Business Designer tasks involve:  

*   Analyse disruptive market trends and products
*   Define growth strategies and opportunities
*   Design and test new business models and monetization strategies
*   Translate design choices into measurable outcomes
*   Conduct financial analysis, forecasts and implement KPIs
*   Design new value propositions and optimize for product/market fit  
    

Across all these activities there’s always an emphasis on the collaboration with other designers (service designers, interaction designers, research designers) and a bias towards experimentation.

‍

## Profile  

Looking at a business designer’s background, they often have prior experience in innovation management, business consulting, strategy design, but also entrepreneurial driven roles in startups/venture capital firms.

‍