the
design leadership radar
The Design Leadership Radar provides a holistic view by describing acts and focuses of leadership in their approach to four key areas of:
The product of design – the production outputs that designers and design teams create (the product of design)
The people who design – the individuals and teams that engage in the process of design
The practice of design – the processes, tools and methods used by those that utilise design techniques, and
Design in the wider Organisation – the leader’s relationship with the broader organisational environment that they operate within
The radar applies an additional lens to look at leadership through within each of these areas, by breaking down leadership acts into three categorical levels of zoom (Saylor Academy 2012):
Micro – focusing on direct details and concrete, tangible, individual elements
Meso – focused on leadership acts at a group level with a medium-level focal length
Macro – abstract ideas, systems and the environment in which the leader operates in, examining large-scale patterns.
These three levels of zoom can also be correlated to levels of maturity within organisations, with leaders of less mature design practices focusing more on the micro scale, and increasing throughout the layers as they develop design in their organisation.
“Design has greater value creation at the outer layers than at the inner layers”
The result is a framework that can be used as a wayfinding tool to identify what actions leaders can take at different zoom levels across the four quadrants to increase their impact and evolve as design matures in their organisation.
It is also important to recognise that these quadrants and the levels defined within them are inherently connected, non-linear, and non-sequential. Leadership acts between the different levels of zoom in each quadrant can have a cyclical feedback loop where each layer flows on to the next. The area of focus for a design leader will also depend on the context in which they operate in and how well supported the design practice is within their organisations. In organisations with greater design maturity, leaders may be able to focus on advancing specific quadrants if others are addressed by specialist teams or functions.