Value Is Always in Motion

Inside dynamic systems value is constantly moving. The thing that was valuable and important at one point in time becomes a commodity at another.

Being able to see the value move is a skill. This is the core of the painfully overused Gretzky quote about skating to where the puck will be. Even though I cringe every time I hear someone trot out this quote, it doesn’t make it less true.

Markets, technology and society are always in motion and being able to see that motion is essential for success. There are many frameworks and analytical tools to help see value in a system. Finding ones that work for you is worthwhile.

One tool for understanding value is history. Why is something the way it is or why do we do things this way? Understanding how things came to be will often show that something was created to capture value at one point in time but that value has moved making the thing less valuable. For example, it was once very valuable for Designers to know information architecture. This was because the Web was largely desktop based information systems. As mobile rose, many of the artifacts and methods that were essential to design in late 1990 or early 2000s became less valuable. Regardless, you would see designers continuing to use them.

This is also true of economic value. Where things that were sources of profit at one point in time commoditize and profit moves.

Too many designers try to design for the world as it was or the world as they wish it were vs the world as it is.