My Approach to Design Leadership
I love what I do and as such I have built up, over many years, and rock-solid approach to how a design function should be built, managed, maintained and deployed across the business. Below are some of the key points I focus on.
01
Design exists to drive commercial outcomes: to grow revenue, reduce cost-to-serve, accelerate time-to-market, and protect the business from risk. Everything I do as a design leader is in service of that. The job isn't just to produce beautiful work; it's to build a function that consistently areas in the right direction.
Design as a commercial function
02
I set design strategy by starting with the business strategy and working backwards. That means understanding the P&L, the operating model, the regulatory pressures and the competitive position before deciding where design should focus. .
Strategy and vision
03
I have built teams for years and always aim for them to be commercially literate, technically credible and culturally robust. That means hiring for character and judgement as well as craft, getting the org structure right, and being deliberate about who reports to whom and why. I build strong teams with clear expectations and honest feedback.
Building and leading teams
04
Design earns its position by being useful to product, engineering, risk, compliance, marketing and operations, rather than by demanding a seat at the table. I invest heavily in the partnerships that make design effective: paired leadership with product and engineering, embedded relationships with risk and compliance, and direct lines into commercial and customer functions.
Embedding design across the business
05
Craft is a commercial asset. Higher-quality interfaces convert better, reduce support costs, lower training overhead and protect brand trust. I hold a high bar on craft because every percentage point of quality compounds across customer and employee interactions and shows up on the balance sheet.
Craft and quality
06
A mature design function runs on infrastructure: a properly governed design system, clear tooling standards, predictable processes and a measurable operating model. I treat DesignOps as seriously as I treat any other function's operating disciplines, because it's what allows craft and velocity to coexist at scale.
Design systems and operations
07
I run an integrated process across research, service design, product design and content, as one capability working on a shared problem rather than separate disciplines handed off in sequence. In complex environments this matters more, not less: the cost of fragmented design shows up as risk, rework and missed deadlines. I make sure the process is visible, lightweight and adaptable to the level of risk and complexity that works for the business.
End-to-end design process
08
A design function is only as strong as the floor of capability across the whole team. I invest in structured training, clear progression frameworks and the kind of internal IP, playbooks, principles and worked examples, that lets a function compound knowledge over time. Growing designers internally is faster, cheaper and more culturally durable than buying capability from the market.
Capability building
09
I didn't put this near the bottom because it is less important. In fact it is embedded in everything above. AI is reshaping how design gets done, across research synthesis, content generation, prototyping, code handoff and quality assurance, and I lead teams that use it deliberately, expressively and enthusiastically. The opportunity isn't replacing designers; it's removing the friction that prevents good designers from spending their time on judgement and synthesis.
AI as a force multiplier
10
Last but not least, I measure design at three levels: business outcomes (revenue, cost, speed, risk), product health (adoption, completion, satisfaction, support volume) and function health (quality, velocity, capability, retention). Reporting against all three keeps design accountable, makes the case for investment defensible, and gives the function a shared language for what good looks like. If you can't measure it, you can't defend the budget, and a function that can't defend its budget can't grow.
Measuring design's impact