Data isn’t absolute truth, as humans we are irrational, we say one thing and do something entirely different.

Most companies today are drowning in data with no clue as to what to do with the data. At Buildxact, we pay a shit tone of money to subscribe to not 1, but 5 data analytics software, each with an overlap over the next. To top this, we also hired an external agency to run deep analysis on our data. The external agency only confirmed what we've known about our customers all along or perhaps they just fed into our version of the story, a version that we want to believe is true. The bottomline is that, all this data analysis has not made us any wiser. 

I’ve seen the best results and product outcomes are still driven by a sense of taste, a desire to push for something because you know and understand intuitively that this needs to be done, even though it’s hard to find data to validate your rationale. Ultimately I think, a strong conviction in your thinking and the grit and determination to persevere throughout execution and beyond will determine the success of your venture in product. To see explosive growth, I'd rely on data no more than I would rely on a weather forecast.

While a Design Engineer means different things to different companies, I think a reasonable assumption based on the job title is that a Design Engineer is someone who sits squarely between design and engineering.

Having graduated with a degree in computer science engineering, I enjoyed coding, but after shifting to the role of a UX designer I actively dissuaded myself from coding as there was never a clear incentive to code as a designer. During the hey days of UX, a UX designer had a much higher earning potential compared to an engineer, naturally I gave up on all coding for the longest time of my career.

Tech has undergone tectonic shifts in the last 3 years. For some arbitrary reason, now its cooler to call yourself a product designer over a UX designer. I'm assuming a Product designer is an all encompassing designer, i.e someone with a Visual + Research + Strategy skills ( don't correct me if I'm wrong ). But in reality the shift highlights the need for individuals to offer generalised skillsets over any particular specialisation. A design engineer is perhaps another step in this direction, a grand generalisation of a tech roles.

As long as tech existed, there have been design engineers, but its only now that we are seeing the juxtaposition of these two very different skillsets, being fully encapsulated in the form of a Job title.

Does this mean all designers will have to learn to code? Unlikely. But does this mean that now there's a clear career path for someone who sits squarely in between these two disciplines? I hope so, and its exciting.