Your Main Investment Should Be Design

Honestly, I am super confused by y’all! I am talking to you - the entrepreneur, startup founder, business owner. 

Day in and out, I hear the same tune of how each of you want to create and grow a massive empire. Everybody wants for their business to be the next big thing, yet very few of you are doing the one thing that assures the long term success - invest into design of it! 

Everyone loves and admires companies such as Apple, Mercedes, Google, Tesla, Lego, Ikea, Spotify etc….Does anyone actually notice what these companies have in common by a large margin? - Design! 

Is it a coincidence that first company to enter trillion dollar space is Apple? A company whose sole modus operandi is design focused?

So why does every budget cut, every saving, every financial salvation begins by cutting the design budget? 

Shouldn’t we be using the powers of design toward our advantage of building superior products and companies?

Traditionally we know that a tight business plan, researched financial forecasts and marketing strategy is what investor seek out and what assures a successful business path right?

Not always. 

While a strong business and marketing plan provide foundation for growth and expansion, I believe it is good design that is the foundation of sustainability. I don’t mean design of just a product. I mean design, as a whole, of your entire business. From how you speak and present yourself, to how you interact with customers, to how you design the experiences around your brand. A good customer experience paired with great design of a product or services is the ultimate winning card of longevity.

Conventional corporate leadership places a significant emphasis on various essential but often mundane administrative aspects such as compliance, taxation, data management, operations, information handling, marketing, and technology. 

While these are undeniably crucial for the efficient and successful operation of a business, there's another critical factor that tends to be underrepresented in corporate leadership - design. 

Design has the potential to play a far more influential and ultimately crucial role in determining company's success. 

Why is good design not represented at the helm of board rooms?

Honestly, I believe that most executives do not understand how far reaching design goes. To most a good design begins and ends with a cool logo, bright packaging, dope interface.

But design is way more encompassing of a field than initially thought of. It extends to every corner of human interaction with brands, products, software, hardware and tech. It is prevalent in customer experience, in team growth and leadership. It is easily detectable in spaces, cultures and conversations.

Almost anything your brand produces, speaks of, writes of, engages with is by design. How you speak about your business, to whom? Are all moving parts of a design ecosystem.

The Benefits of Good Design

So, what are the benefits of good design? The real long-term ones?

Design puts humans, specifically your customers at the forefront of the decision making. This flips the conversation and strategy from “what can we do?” to “what should we do?” While most companies begin their journey with developers, only those that start with design first get ahead further. Development-first model builds you a product that people can use, while design-thinking model allows you to build products people actually want to use.

I see this play out time after time. I believe our relationship with design must change. While most see design as an expense, in actuality it is an investment.