Why Design Leadership Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Necessity for Growth
Empathy, Innovation, and Strategy: The Power of a Chief Design Officer
Design = Core Product
Design goes far beyond aesthetics—it’s about crafting an exceptional product experience that encompasses everything from onboarding to feature development and, most importantly, prioritizing customer needs. Yet, despite its critical role, design leadership is largely absent in corporate America.
Only 5% of Fortune 1000 companies have a Chief Design Officer (CDO), meaning over 900 companies lack dedicated design leadership at the executive level. Many claim to have design teams, but these teams often report to Chief Product Officers (CPOs) focused primarily on revenue. This model often sidelines the comprehensive, user-centered approach essential for creating differentiated products and building brand loyalty.
Source: Design Executive Council
In this post, I’m challenging a common bias: the undervaluation of Chief Design Officers. Design leadership isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’—it’s crucial for companies that aspire to create memorable, user-centered experiences and gain a competitive edge.
Design Thinking = Billion-Dollar Brands
Consider today’s most design-driven companies—Apple, Airbnb, Google, Tesla, Slack, Facebook, Amazon, TikTok and Microsoft. These brands have built reputations on delivering holistic experiences that place users at the heart of every decision they make.
Take Apple, for example. Under Jony Ive and Steve Jobs, Apple became synonymous with meticulous, user-centered design. Every product was crafted to be intuitive and frictionless, with simplicity at its core. This unwavering focus on user experience transformed Apple into a $3 trillion company, proving that design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s a core driver of business success.
Tesla took a similar approach by rethinking the car-buying process to be user-first. By eliminating dealership visits and offering an entirely online experience, Tesla made buying a car feel seamless and accessible. This shift illustrates how thoughtful design transforms not just products but entire customer journeys.
Airbnb also leveraged design thinking to reimagine travel. By focusing on common customer pain points—like low-quality photos and complex booking processes—Airbnb turned a challenging market into a global success. With a valuation now exceeding $86 billion, Airbnb shows how design-led growth can outperform even the most established brands in traditional industries.
Facebook’s News Feed redesign in 2013 is another powerful example of how seemingly small design choices can drive engagement. Aiming to bring visual consistency across web and mobile, Facebook revamped the News Feed with larger images, refined text, and new “sub-feeds” for specific content types like photos, friends’ updates, and brand posts. The goal? To create a streamlined, visually appealing experience that increased user immersion and discoverability.
However, the initial release faced mixed feedback. Despite the visual improvements, engagement metrics dipped, with users finding some changes—like content prioritization and sub-feed navigation—less intuitive. Recognizing these issues, Facebook paused the rollout to gather user feedback. By March 2014, an updated version was re-released, balancing aesthetic updates with enhanced usability based on real-world insights.
This example underscores a core design-thinking principle: iteration based on user feedback. Facebook’s adaptive approach demonstrated that user preferences can sometimes override aesthetic changes. Through continuous testing, they were able to harmonize design updates with functionality, keeping the News Feed engaging and user-friendly. This redesign also highlighted the importance of data-driven decision-making in design, as Facebook closely monitored user metrics to ensure usability remained a priority and engagement metrics were preserved.
Design Is Good For Business
Beyond individual case studies, the data consistently shows that design leadership pays off:
McKinsey: Organizations with high design maturity achieve 32% higher revenue growth and 56% greater shareholder returns.
Forrester: 88% of executives believe that strong design capabilities boost customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, many companies still underinvest in design leadership, revealing a gap between perceived value and actual structure.
IBM: Companies embedding design principles are twice as likely to achieve innovation-driven growth, giving them agility in a rapidly changing market.
These stats underscore that prioritizing design leads to sustained growth, innovation, and customer loyalty.
CDOs Should Be Your Next Big Hire
Not everyone knows, but Instagram’s CEO started as a designer. I mention this to emphasize a serious point: if you’re a startup or a publicly traded company without a Chief Design Officer (CDO) on your executive team, you’re holding your company back.
A CDO isn’t just there to lead design teams—they’re there to define the user-centric vision and reshape how products resonate with people. Unlike traditional product leaders, CDOs bring a deep understanding of user research, empathy-driven design, and data-backed insights. They see what others miss, crafting products that solve deep customer pain points and build brand loyalty. This isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential in today’s market.
Design Leadership: The Competitive Edge in Tech
Where speed, adaptability, and user loyalty can make or break market positioning, design leadership offers a critical advantage. Companies with embedded design leadership consistently differentiate themselves by delivering intuitive, user-centered products faster and with more cohesion. A Chief Design Officer (CDO) brings a strategic vision that’s deeply aligned with customer insights and market trends, allowing companies to stay one step ahead.
Case in Point: Google’s Design Systems
Take Google’s Material Design system. This design framework, developed to create a unified visual language across its products, has not only driven consistency but also strengthened Google’s brand identity across platforms. By standardizing design at a foundational level, Google enables faster iterations, reduces development time, and ensures every new product or feature feels familiar to users—essential for a company with products spanning across mobile, web, and cloud. The result is a seamless user experience that keeps Google’s ecosystem tightly integrated, reinforcing brand loyalty and competitive advantage.
Competitive Agility Through Design
According to research by Forrester, companies with high design maturity are able to bring products to market 30% faster than competitors, thanks to streamlined, user-focused workflows . In tech, where time-to-market can determine a product’s success, this agility is a game-changer. Design leadership isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s a strategy for rapid, user-centered innovation that directly impacts revenue and market share.
Customer Retention as a Competitive Moat
When design is integral to the business, companies build products that resonate deeply with customers, resulting in long-term loyalty. Airbnb’s investment in customer journey mapping allowed it to create an experience that felt personalized at every touchpoint, helping the brand stand out in a crowded market. In a sector where alternatives are just a click away, design-led companies cultivate a competitive moat—one that’s challenging for competitors to replicate, as it’s rooted in a cohesive, customer-first culture.
Design Leadership – Is Necessity for Growth
Design leadership is more than a creative function—it’s a strategic advantage. A Chief Design Officer (CDO) doesn’t just bring aesthetic value but provides a deep understanding of customer needs, a user-centered vision, and a framework for innovation that aligns with business goals. Design is what differentiates, delights, and drives loyalty in an era where products are easily interchangeable.
Companies that give design a seat at the executive table unlock a unique blend of empathy and strategy, crafting experiences that go beyond functionality to create lasting connections with users. Investing in a CDO is an investment in future-proofing: it positions your organization to respond quickly to change, foster loyalty, and stay relevant in a fast-evolving landscape.
The companies that lead tomorrow are those that elevate design to an essential role in shaping business outcomes. The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in a CDO—it’s whether you can afford not to.