Business Thinking for Designers

Becoming a leader requires spending less time on 
craft
Many designers aspire to lead other designers, teams, 
practices, and organizations. 
There are wonderful resources to help new design leaders 
learn how to manage others, provide opportunity and visibility 
to designers, and lead junior talent in seeing the forest and the 
trees. The further designers progress down this path though, 
the less design craft will play in day-to-day responsibilities. 
Craft becomes the responsibility of others on the team.
If you just go into the room and narrowly think 
about “design, design, design,” and if you don’t 
value the business or understand why you have 
to move to market quickly, your contribution will 
not be felt.
.
Kate Aronowitz
Design Partner at GV
As designers move into leadership roles, they are increasingly 
responsible for decisions that impact both customer value and 

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15 
Why you need to know business
the company’s bottom line. This includes managing budgets, 
allocating resources, hiring/firing, and calculating return on 
investment (ROI). These responsibilities are building blocks of 
business, regardless of industry. And while design leaders may 
not have to crunch numbers every day, they need the skills 
in order to competently participate in discussing expenses, 
operational planning, strategy, and the other day-to-day 
concerns of company leaders.
Ultimately, design leadership is about building better 
companies and team culture. Those who do it well stretch 
themselves beyond just design.