In 2025, the essential skill for designers will be the ability to connect their design work to business impact. As businesses tighten budgets, understanding how design choices affect metrics like loyalty and customer value becomes critical. Designers must learn to articulate how their work contributes to key performance indicators (KPIs) to justify their value. Challenges arise in B2B or internal applications, where tracking user choice and behavior is difficult. This highlights the need for frameworks like CASTLE to address the complexity of internal design.
Businesses aren't paying for pretty pixels when budgets are tight: designers are asked to draw clear connections to justify their value.
At Target, everything needs to connect to loyalty metrics and customer lifetime value. When I present design decisions, I always start with how this impacts our business KPIs, then explain the design rationale.
One of the most challenging aspects of designing for internal applications is that users don't have a choice.
In 2025, the most critical skill designers need is the ability to translate their design work into business impact.
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