Ryan Rumsey

Methodologies like Design Thinking, Double Diamond, Lean UX, or Human-Centered Design do more than create an interface.

business model is an outline of how a company intends to create and capture value. It describes what will be valuable to customers, how that value will be produced and delivered, and why it will generate revenue for the company.

Actual value – When math is used, actual values are in play. These are the numbers used to calculate the costs to make something, the prices at which products are purchased, the salaries of employees, the hours needed to develop a tool, etc. When EA decided to invest in new software for customer support agents in 2011, the costs of licensing and maintaining that software came into play. While actual values are relatively simple to calculate, not all companies make trade-off decisions using math.
Perceived value – While difficult to calculate, perceived values have equal, if not more, importance than actual values. When customers or executives use terms like excellence, simple to use, or beautiful, these are all examples of perceived values. These values are less sticky and require a lot of clarification to understand. I’ve worked with plenty of stakeholders over the years who wanted to “just design it like Apple does” because they think it’s the most beautiful.