A huge mindset gap exists between designers and their clients, causing problems for both sides. If you bridge this gap using business knowledge, you become a truly indispensable high-touch consultant. In this talk, Jane Portman, the UI/UX consultant behind UI Breakfast, teaches what business skills you need (copywriting, marketing, sales, product management), and how you can use them to launch your own products, build an audience, and treat your own services as a product.

2. Indispensable Business
Knowledge for Designers
by Jane Portman at UI Breakfast

3. Step #1
Understand Your Place in the Business Universe
Step #2
Study Business Essentials
Step #3
Practice in Your Own Product Sandbox

4. Step #1
Understand Your Place
in the Business Universe

5. Ptolemaic geocentric system
An illustration by Bartolomeu
Velho, 1568 (Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris)

6. Design is never a priority.
It’s just a small aspect of your client’s business.

7. You are never a priority.
What matters is your ability to solve problems in your
client’s business.

8. Why is UI design important?
It helps to make more money!

9. Why is UI design important?
It increases sales
It simplifies onboarding & reduces churn
It makes customers happy
It makes the business profitable

10. Your path to success in a nutshell:
Call yourself a consultant
Talk with your clients about their business
Charge 10x

11. Step #2
Study Business Essentials

12. The Business of Consulting
Your ideal client
Your unique value proposition
Your rates
Your working process

13. Brennan Dunn (blog and courses)
http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/
The Independent Consulting Manual
(book I co-authored)
http://independentconsultingmanual.com/?coupon=uibreakfast

14. Product Development
Positioning
Research (“sales safari”)
Pricing & subscription models
Product lifecycle

15. Amy Hoy & Alex Hillman (blog)
http://unicornfree.com/
Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast)
http://startupsfortherestofus.com/

16. Copywriting
Long-form sales copy
Customer research for language
Conversion rate optimization

17. The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza (book)
http://amzn.com/B00COQFUNU
Joanna Wiebe at Copy Hackers (blog and books)
http://copyhackers.com/

18. Marketing
Audience and positioning
Email marketing
Lead magnets
Outreach

19. Your First 1000 Copies by Tim Grahl
http://amzn.com/B00DMIWAIC
Drip (free crash course)
http://blog.getdrip.com/
Running a Successful Outreach Campaign
(podcast episode with Kai Davis)
http://uibreakfast.com/06-successful-outreach-campaign/

20. Step #3
Practice in Your Own Product
Sandbox

21. Why do your own products?
Practice the whole business cycle
Build authority/audience for future projects
Get better clients who respect you
Get some “passive” income

22. Define your audience
Know them, like them, make sure they can pay
Option A: people like yourself
Option B: people like your clients

23. Set up your business environment
Marketing site with long-form sales copy
Email list
Lead magnet (freebie)

24. Start with productized consulting
Sell your services with long-form sales-pages
Set your own rules and processes
Get recurring revenue

25. Productize Your Service by Brian Casel
(free course)
https://casjam.com/resources/productize-your-service/

26. Move on with infoproducts
No technical burden, no support
Practice the launch process
Make your first product money
Obtain instant credibility as an author

27. Authority by Nathan Barry (book)
http://nathanbarry.com/authority/

28. Think twice before going into SaaS
High technical/support burden
High investment of time & money
Much harder to sell
Very slow growth curve
Higher chances of failure

29. Sign up for my free course explaining the
business view of UI design
http://uibreakfast.com/1hour/

30. Good luck in business!
Thank you my friends!