What are the best practices for balancing user needs and business goals in UX research and software design?

To balance user needs and business goals in UX research and software design, it's essential to understand the problem from both perspectives. Conduct user research to gather insights into users' needs, pain points, and behaviors. Similarly, work with stakeholders to comprehend the business's goals, constraints, and objectives. Analyze the data and identify areas where user needs align with business goals. Prioritize design solutions that address both user and business requirements, and continually iterate and refine based on feedback. Finally, communicate findings and design decisions effectively to stakeholders to ensure buy-in and support.

A product designer's job is to be a perfect mediator between users, business priorities, and the development team. So, it's not a one-time problem but an always-lasting background task. It's obvious that a designer has to know what's going on with users. Tools for this are also well-discussed. What is much less obvious is that a designer should also be aware of what's going on in the development team and which ideas stakeholders have. Tools for this are your soft skills: communication, empathy, curiosity.

I would add here the important concept of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) from the lean startup. In a nutshell, design a “scientific” test by building the simplest product that can validate or invalidate a crucial assumption that you have.

The hardest part here is to persuade stakeholders to make some trade-offs. Because you wouldn't argue with users (you are their advocate), stakeholders usually have their opinion, which is typically strong and solid. A few approaches to deal with them: – Numbers – Existing research – Other products and companies as an example – Splitting tasks into stages and checking feedback after every stage finish