Do you put clients or users' problems before?

Question

• Clients need problems to be solved so that they can keep their product selling or services up and running.
• Users need something that can solve their problem and make lives easier.
• Solving client's problem might also solve users' problem or maybe NOT. There is no guarantee.
• If your motive is to solve the end-users' problems, you make their life easier and might as well solve the client's problem in many possible ways.

So, who do you put forward? Client or the user?

Answer 1

I am a User Experience Designer, so it is my job to put users' needs first. Everyone else on the project team is looking out for the client, so I feel justified in focusing solely on users.

Since I'm the single user advocate, and because it's the client who's writing the check, I usually lose these battles. (This is a frustrating career. Your question implies that you feel the same.) But what kind of UX professionals are we if we just do what clients ask for? Aren't we the experts? Aren't we supposed to educate clients (and coworkers) about the value of doing proper user research, about usability and ease of use?

Everyone else in the room is putting the client's needs first. You speak for the users.

Answer 2

This is a big dilemma in all spheres. But if you're interested in product's success, put the USERS first.

Your client is interested in ROI and making money off this product, hence he hired you as an expert. It is your duty to make him or her or them understand that the solution you're offering will provide the needed results for conversion and revenue streams.

Whenever my client gives me an argument that goes like : I know my TA ( Target Audience ) best, I don't argue with him / her, I simply offer to do an A/B testing with the solution he liked and mine, in order to get some statistics and make the decision based on facts, not suppositions.

My general advice in here is put the business first and make your client see that as well ( if he / she doesn't ) because after all the goal of the app is to make money by offering a tool for the users that they'll appreciate and integrate in their lives. And from this point forwards there're plenty of tools to achieve this result. Your job is to communicate it clearly to all parts involved.

Answer 3

Both

As a UX Designer, my job enforces me to fight for the user. In the end, we are the responsible delegates for the users. But as a responsible decision maker, I need to be rational.

Let's give money away?

Let's assume I have lots of money, I can easily go and establish a special bank that gives away money for free to anyone, by the 2nd day I will be broke and the business will be closed.

I did indeed solve users/market needs - at least for the ones who ran fast enough, but I did not achieve a long-term bi-directional beneficial lifecycle.

If I as a - UX Designer - want to be fair, I will try to solve as many user needs as possible with focus on business objectives, and ensure that they will return benefits on both sides. This way we guarantee that the relationship between the users and the service provider will further improve rather than killing it.