10 Factors for Creating the Next Generation of Chief Design Officers (Preview)

In our time talking design to non-designers, it’s always so rewarding to see people fall in love with design. Society, corporations, and design will impact each other in dramatic ways going forward, so we need even more people to fall in love with design.

By José Dos Santos, Head of Design Americas, Signify and Sebastian Fixson, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Innovation, Babson College

In our time talking design to non-designers, it’s always so rewarding to see people fall in love with design. Society, corporations, and design will impact each other in dramatic ways going forward, so we need even more people to fall in love with design.

A design coach with 30 years of experience boldly stated that, “the job ‘designer’ of today will disappear. Computers, AI, and other similar technologies will take away the role of the designer as a problem solver, this has happened in other professions. There is an opportunity, if designers understand this and make a shift from problem solving to problem definition, and then to problem owning, but this means more responsibility and accountability. For this, designers need to be closer to top leadership.” 

Our research has taught us how important it is for designers to lead design, and for that leadership to sit at the highest level of business, where priorities are discussed and budgets and decisions are made. However, while there are many who believe the Chief Design Officer (CDO) role is a growing phenomenon, and respected companies like McKinsey have even provided data and insights attesting to the importance of design, evidence seems to suggest that design leadership at the highest level in large corporations is still very rare…

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