I definitely think there is a learnable aspect to design. Throwing data at the problem is expensive and does not create many deep insights. But focusing on comm

I definitely think there is a learnable aspect to design. Throwing data at the problem is expensive and does not create many deep insights. But focusing on communication and how the product communicates a coherent philosophy through features and UX yields a more systematic, standalone framework to test hypotheses against, something which data can further shape. It's more important to find "must" and "cannot" boundary conditions than preferences, and it's also easier to see if you are satisfying those conditions. My formula is therefore: Pick a few principles to apply to the solution you're making, make sure as best you can that they agree with each other. Test to see if potential users agree with those principles. Select features based on the resulting design framework. Then develop the product as a way of discovering more about this framework. Lots of companies are doing this implicitly through their founding teams and hiring practices: they just end up with culture that values certain principles, so they get upheld at every meeting and the results end up in the product. But it can also be communicated and imposed more explicitly, and I think that's where design becomes more visible in the process.