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Design is a critical component to any business reaching its potential. Some companies may only consider design in the beginning phases of product development or perhaps some companies may view design as simply “making something pretty.” These presumptions about design are quickly being squashed due to companies like Amazon Prime and Netflix outperforming the rest of the index by 211 percent due to their investment in design processes, capabilities, and leadership over the past ten years.

Overall, there are three assumptions that attribute to design being a major profiter for business: design is more than one department, design is more than a single phase, and design is more than a gut feeling.

Individuals within the design department need to intermingle and collaborate with others, not just during the design phase of a product. An easy way to incorporate this idea is to rethink the office space into more of a collaborative space where co-workers are not stuck in single cubicles, but instead the environment is more like a workshop that facilitates collaboration.  Also, designers need to be trained in industrial and user-interface design to break down barriers and improve financial performance.

Design must happen throughout product development to encourage a design-led approach because this will lead to increased customer satisfaction throughout the life of the product. One must only look at how car manufacturers are capitalizing on this design-led approach by continuously reviewing driver data post-sales and making vehicle updates remotely to ensure customer satisfaction. Also, companies need to move from prototyping products once to prototyping products frequently because this will cut back on production-line issues and reduce the time it takes to get the product to market.

It is vital for a design leader to be well aligned with what the customer loves and what the customer needs. Some companies have even placed design leaders as company directors in able to guarantee that the voice of the customer and the attention to product quality are never out of reach from the top management team. Customer-satisfaction scores and human factors risk calculations are design metrics that allow companies to have concrete data to base crucial decisions about design on, instead of merely a gut feeling.

Design is a CEO-level prerogative for growth and long-term performance. Design is a valued entity to any company. Design is a guaranteed avenue for improved financial performance and increased customer loyalty.