Org Design for Design Orgs

Preface

Why We Wrote This Book

Design books typically discuss design practice—tools, processes, and methods for doing design work, and case studies that show how that work has been applied to real-world problems. These books are meant for design practitioners who are looking to improve their craft.

This is not that kind of design book. Instead, this book responds to a profound shift that has occurred within enterprises over the past 10 years. Businesses and other organizations have realized that design, like sales, marketing, and information technology, must now be a core competency. Design has proven vital to business success, whether reducing costs and customer churn, or increasing revenue through creation of new value. This has driven companies to seriously invest in internal design capabilities.

The thing is, design is way less mature than other corporate functions, and its practice and impact suffer because of its lack of sophistication. Companies aren’t realizing the potential of their design investments. Most business leaders are not designers, and so don’t know how best to establish design in their organizations. Many design leaders, with backgrounds in the practice of their craft, don’t understand managerial and operational issues, and struggle with the organizational aspects of building and leading teams.

Org Design for Design Orgs is for those business and design leaders. This is the book we wish we had as we began our careers building and managing design teams. Like so many ...