LEADING PRACTICE

Leading the practice of design considers the tools, processes, and methods used by those who engage in design activities, and the operational processes that amplify those activities. Effective design leadership also considers how this scales across the organisation, in how they use design methods to solve broader, more complex business problems.  

Level 1: CRAFT (Micro)

At the most foundational level, the focus on the practice of design centres around the definition of tools, processes and methods that designers use to create an output or outcome. This includes recommendations for software and programs, sensible defaults and standards that provide a baseline for how Designers should operate, and leveraging practice frameworks such as the double diamond (British Design Council 2005) to set a baseline of design activities.

Level 2: OPERATIONS (Meso)

When design teams reach a certain level of maturity and scale, design leaders often seek to operationalise supporting process that amplify the efficiency and effectiveness of designers and the delivery of design work by letting them focus on the craft. This includes establishing a basis of support tools, processes and rituals such as design systems, recruitment processes, and design critiques.  

Level 3: SCALE (Macro)

The ability for design to be adopted at scale across an organisation is dependent on how accessible design tools and practices are for non-designers. At this level of scale, design leaders activate capabilities in non-designers by providing artefacts that enable the easy adoption of design methods in different contexts such as templates, playbooks, canvases and toolkits. This can be further augmented by providing a network of experts to help onboard and support non-specialists.