Imagine navigating a ship without a map. That’s what it feels like to design a product without a clear understanding of its strategic direction and grand vision. **Good communication with product managers, developers, marketers and other stakeholders early in the process is essential**—ensuring that every design decision aligns with the product’s goals and market needs. Without this alignment, even the most beautiful designs can fall flat, risking the entire product's success.

In the strategy phase, we need to familiarize ourselves with four core components of a products strategy—customers, competition, business, and the macro environment.

### **Customers**

According to [CB Insights](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/cbi-content/research-reports/The-20-Reasons-Startups-Fail.pdf), the most common reason for startup's failure is **the lack of market need**. In fact, **42% of businesses fail** for this very reason. In this stage, the designer's role is to deepen their understanding of the problem they are trying to solve. The best way to achieve this is by talking to customers. **Without customers, there is no business**. You need to find out who the potential customers are and what they need. The more knowledge we gather, the better we can adapt to their needs and keep them satisfied.

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We can as well create [personas](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/personas?srsltid=AfmBOophDMH-vUGzrQvdH2CfVjFZT30ktUdAsuTufukxaCzfTAwsNkQw) and [customer journeys](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/customer-journey-map?srsltid=AfmBOopi9bIILkKpO7bUPUcBsDSA8IY2en2ky1MiyDaPnMZlGU4JdtGU) which will help us understand customer needs and pinpoint pain points.

### **Competition**

We also need to be aware of the competition. Is someone already solving the same problem? Find out if their customers are dissatisfied, underserved, or if their solutions fall short in addressing key problems. We need to take note of what they are doing right as well, so we can identify the minimum requirements to compete in that market.

Overall, **understanding the competition helps us position our product effectively** in the market.

### **Business**

The third important component of a good strategy is **understanding the business and its goals**. Knowing this will help us align our solutions to achieve these business goals.

By **aligning design with business objectives**, we can directly influence key metrics such as user retention, conversion rates, and brand loyalty.

For example, a mobile app that remembers a customer’s preferences and provides personalized product recommendations can make the shopping experience more enjoyable. This kind of thoughtful design encourages customers to return to the app repeatedly, building brand loyalty over time.

### **Macro Environment**

What is the big picture? What are the external influences that can affect the path of your product? These could include technological advancements, emerging markets, or increased competition, to name a few.

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As designers, it’s crucial to take an active role in the strategic phases of product development. Prioritize **clear communication with the stakeholders** from the get go. By doing so, you’ll ensure that every design decision forward contributes to the product’s success, ultimately leading to satisfied customers.

Let’s strive to design with purpose and direction, shaping products that not only meet but exceed the needs of the market.

Navigating the Product Design Process with Strategic Insight

During my freelance career, I have been fortunate enough to work with a variety of clients, offering them a diverse range of services. From helping agencies with interface design to developing various websites that helped businesses scale.

Below is a list of projects I worked on during the early stages of my freelance career.

### **Tahografi Cuderman**

*2024 -* [tahograficuderman.si](http://tahograficuderman.si)

### **Association of Slovenian farmers**

*2020*

The Association was established in response to the elections for entry into KGZ Slovenia. I was invited to assist in developing a campaign. My primary goal for this campaign was to highlight the stories of the candidates/farmers, aiming to boost participation in the elections. In a little over two months, our community grew to over 2000 members, and the stories were shared more than 550 times.

Services:

* Strategy

* Design

* Website development

* Social media management

### **Parking Ahčin**

*2019*

Parking Ahčin is one of the leading parking providers near Jožeta Pučnika Airport in Ljubljana. I assisted them in establishing a parking reservation website and provided additional services. Over the past three years, more than 1250 people have made reservations through the website I built.

Services:

* Design

* Website development

* Brading

* Copywriting

### **Naš Preddvor**

*2018*

Naš preddvor is a mayoral list that participated for the first time in the Slovenian local elections in 2018. I was approached to assist in leading their campaign. With my contributions, the mayor and six other councillors from the list were successfully elected.

Services:

* Strategy

* Design

* Website development

* Social media management

> Page in progress... Additional work descriptions coming soon.

Selected freelance projects

After my path to becoming a professional athlete came to an end, I remained open to new experiences, which led me to explore different opportunities. My first project came quite unexpectedly. I heard about a local group looking for someone to build them a website. Despite having no prior experience in web design and development, I decided to give it a try. Not only did I create the website, but I also ended up designing new branding and print materials. This project was a turning point for me, as it opened the door to more freelance opportunities. Through this experience, I discovered that my "learn by doing" approach was not only effective but also deeply satisfying.

In parallel with my freelance work, I was employed at a relatively new startup, where we were developing a B2B web application. As the first version of the application gained some initial traction, we realized that in order to scale our business, we needed to simplify our product. Up to that point, we had been manually onboarding all our clients and teaching each of their employees how to use our product. While this approach helped us get our product off the ground, it was not sustainable. If users couldn’t intuitively figure out how to use the product, it meant we hadn’t done a good enough job designing it.

We also faced significant challenges with user retention. While there was an initial spike in interest from our users, it quickly dropped off. We understood that if our clients weren’t using our product (despite having paid for it), we risked losing their business in the long run.

Our transformation began by addressing all the issues our clients faced. We meticulously reviewed every feature, asking critical questions like: Why does this feature exist? Do it provide enough value to our customers? Is it easy enough to use?

Then we needed to come up with solutions. Being a small team and somewhat inexperienced, we went straight into developing the solutions we thought were best at the time. It quickly became evident that this approach was time-consuming and overwhelming.

With some prior design experience, I immediately began sketching lo-fi solutions to these problems. In attempting to address these issues, I unknowingly began engaging in product design. The first UI I created was not the most technically perfect design, but it was exactly what our team needed at that moment. It provided a quick sense of how our ideas might turn out, allowing us to rapidly test our assumptions. These early, low-fidelity experiments in solution-building gave us valuable insights into what worked and what didn’t. By embracing the "fail quickly" technique, we were able to identify potential flaws early on, saving both time and money in the long run. This iterative approach allowed us to refine our ideas without the cost of fully developing solutions that might not work.

After releasing V2 of our product, the early signs pointed to a successful redesign. Users adapted to the new interface with minimal friction, and our support team saw a significant drop in assistance requests. The most encouraging outcome, however, was the marked improvement in client acquisition. For the first time, new users were confidently adopting our product without the need for hand-holding. This shift not only validated our design efforts but also accelerated our growth—since the redesign, we’ve been able to double our revenue in half the time, proving the value of a well-crafted user experience.

For me, this process unveiled a deep-rooted passion for product design. While I enjoyed working as a freelancer and offering various services to my clients, nothing resonated with me as much as product design. Perhaps it was the need to deeply understand the problems I was solving, or maybe it was the fact that this iterative process never truly ends.

This realization has been a turning point in my career. I’ve come to appreciate the unique blend of creativity and problem-solving that product design demands, and I’m excited to continue improving my skills in this field.

I’m eager to see where this enthusiasm for product design will take me next.

Discovering My Hidden Passion for Product Design

At the age of seven, my father took a piece of chalk and drew a line in our backyard. He then told me that I need to make seven out of ten shots from that spot. As a reward, he would sign me up to a local basketball school. Funny enough, I never made those, and here I stood at my first practice. This was not the first sport I had tried, and I remember, after that first practice, feeling like basketball was going to change my life.\
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Later on, a second-grade teacher assigned us to write down three ideal jobs. I wrote the NBA, NBA, and NBA. From then on, my dreams were certain. I will become a professional basketball player!\
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As time went by, my whole life revolved around basketball. Not a day went by without playing it. Throughout my youth, I played in many Slovenian basketball clubs. I was always an ambitious kid. Perhaps too ambitious. I just chased the feeling of fulfilment. So, for that reason, I worked for the next milestone, which was at a time to play college basketball.\
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In the year 2015, my long-held wish finally came true. I got a scholarship from a college in Orlando. Words cannot describe how accomplished I felt at the time. I remember thinking that hard work pays off, and after all, we should never give up on our dreams.\
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That feeling of refinement went by as quickly as it came. So I continued operating in the same manner. Working for the next big moment. Until I got my first reality check, I injured my back again, which was my big problem in the past. I had a spinal disc herniation when I was 17 years old.‍\
‍\
For the first time in my life, I faced the hardest decision: giving up my dream of becoming a professional basketball player.\
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I returned home and took a job as a gas station salesman, which I truly hated. Ironically, this was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I had to decide whether to become a victim of my past or to learn from it and move forward.\
‍\
I decided to start fresh. I realized that I was defining myself by what I did, not by who I was. See, I have been identifying myself as a basketball player for as long as I can remember. I made conclusions based on that persona. This label helped me to some extent. Yet, I couldn’t help but notice that it also gave me limits. With this awareness, I began to resolve this need to control myself to perfection. I began to realize that I was being held hostage, by myself.\
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A funny thing happened when I decided to stop being a person defined by all the conscious and mindful choices I make. I gained access back to presence and the ability to be in the moment, in the joy of experiencing moments in front of me. I gained access to the freedom to live this life fully, undefined.\
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When I look back on my journey, I feel proud of myself for the courage I had for revealing myself to the world. This process helped me understand the secret of refinement, which I had been searching for all these years. The problem was in the word searching. As the famous Slovenian climber Nejc Zaplotnik said:

> “Whoever seeks the goal will remain empty when he reaches it. Whoever finds the way will carry the goal within himself.”

I have no idea where my future is heading. But I decided to detach from it and let the magic happen.\
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Note: Thanks to Michelle Cuderman for reading drafts of this.

How Letting Go of My Dreams Changed My Life

Open for new collaborations! I’m particularly drawn to projects that spark my creativity and allow me to make a meaningful difference.