Design does not occur in a vacuum. It is a part of the product lifecycle continuum. The continuum is usually dominated on the one hand by business functions that initiate, finance and propel the product development forward, and on the other hand, by engineering functions that build the desired product. Design, for the most part, has been an insignificant player.

The high-level process models in the following diagram capture common configuration that reflect the sequencing of design in relation to business and engineering:

• The gaps that separate business, design, and manufacturing represent isolation and communication gaps between teams
• Shape sizes represent the relative organizational concentration of resources in terms of people and budgets dedicated to each phase
• The sequence of placement represents the order in which the perspectives of each entity are being considered

In these models, the business phase is always at the front, followed by engineering. The placement of design is variable as is the impact of the configuration on the overall process.

The process models are:

1. No design or end user input is involved in the process whatsoever--business stakeholders develop the requirements for the product, including the ones that impact design and usability. Requirements are handed down to engineers, and the end- result is a product that includes minimal consideration of important aspects of user experience, such as efficiency, productivity, or satisfaction.
2. Designers are affiliated with the business side of the product, typically with the product managers or the marketing group. Business stakeholders and designers have little or no contact with engineering while they develop the requirements for the product. These are handed down for execution with little consideration of technical implementation issues. Consequently, the engineering group must modify the design to accommodate budgetary or technical constraints at a point when consulting with designers is useless due to production deadlines.
3. Designers are affiliated with the engineering side of the product, and have limited access to the business group. Product requirements, often at high level and without any feedback from end users, are handed down to designers who are directed to prioritize technical constraints over usability and experience considerations.
   
4. Design is a small entity within the company, supporting business and engineering in the maintenance of existing products. The team must abide by inflexible workflows and can make only small, incremental improvements to the products assigned to it. As in the other models, teams work in silos, with each team focused only on its responsibilities. In such cases, the fragmentation can often lead to a complete neglect of the end product's user experience.

These four models are still common, but in many product and service categories, the trend is toward user experience as a primary competitive measure. Companies and organizations that employ these models recognize that they need to reorganize if they want their products to survive and thrive.