Organisational Fundamentals for Designers

Learn about your context of design

Picture taken at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

For design practitioners, particularly those in senior or lead roles, developing business acumen seems like a natural step to enhance their effectiveness. Understanding the organisation's business model and how it creates value is undeniably crucial for impactful design work.

While business acumen is undoubtedly essential, what often holds designers back is a deeper comprehension of the inner workings of their organisation. This knowledge, I argue, is the primary catalyst for creating contextually relevant solutions. I strongly believe that understanding how the organisation works, how decisions are made and what people actually value is essential for designers to be relevant. The organisational structure represents the context for design work. It is the landscape within which any intervention is positioned. 

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I have delivered a few talks and workshops on the topic lately for designers at various levels of seniority. In all cases, the result has been added clarity on why things tend not to work but also a better understanding of how to structure the narrative about the value of design work going forward. 

In this post, I’ll share a guide for design practitioners, especially at senior and lead levels, to understand the organisational structure and use it to their advantage for increasingly more impactful work. Some of the things, if not all in some cases, will be known to you. Regardless, this will be an opportunity to take a moment to reflect on the drivers of your stakeholders, what they care about and how to use it to your advantage.

Organisational Structure = Context for Design

The first chapter of the book on organisational fundamentals for designers should start by describing the key functions that form the main infrastructure for work to happen. Most organisations still operate within an industrial model. In simple terms, the idea behind this is that you have certain resources (e.g. materials) that get into a factory. Those resources are worked out to produce a product with a specific shape and intrinsic value. The product is then shipped to the customer in a very linear fashion.

Basic representation of the industrial model as a linear process.

This model emerged in the early 1800s to respond to the needs of a world shifting from an agrarian economy to mass production and industrialisation. The primary need in this early stage of industrialisation is increased efficiency and scale in production. Manufacturing goods on a large scale required a systematic approach to managing large numbers of workers and complex production processes.

The resulting organisation has three key characteristics:

1. Centralised Control and Hierarchy: Decisions were made at the top and flowed down through multiple layers of management. Ensuring consistency and control over the production process.

2. Division of Labour: Tasks were broken down into simple, repetitive steps, with workers specialising in specific tasks. Increasing efficiency and productivity.  

3. Standardisation and Predictability: Producing uniform products at a high volume, with minimal variation and waste.

The resulting organisation is, therefore, optimised for efficiency, predictability, and standardisation within a structure that is incredibly siloed to allow maximum control, specialisation, and repetition of tasks. Despite today’s organisational needs being radically different from those in the early 1800s, we are still working with organisations structured this way. The challenges of our time are complex, ambiguous, fluid, systemic, and multistakeholder, making such a structure simply not fit for purpose. Regardless, this is what we have to deal with; that’s our context of design, so we better learn about it if we want to change it or even simply influence it.

Below is a simple representation of the key functions you virtually always find in medium to large organisations. I have chosen to include marketing, sales, operations, IT, product, finance, HR and the C-Suite. This list is obviously not exhaustive. You will find many other functions depending on the sector and type of organisation. However, the ones I’m listing here, in my experience, are the most common and a great place to start.

The most common functions in any organisation, regardless of the sector within which they operate.

To understand these functions, we need to know two things:

1. What’s their general objective? You want to know this because what you do as a designer inevitably intersects with other functions' work. You want to know how to engage them in the right way, at the right time, and for the right reason.

2. What are their key measures? You want to know this because unless you can clarify how what you do adds to these numbers, they will not want to work with you.

Below is a summary of the answers to these two questions per function selected. If you want to read the full story, download the cheat sheets. You are welcome.

Marketing

Keyword: Engagement

Objectives:

• Understanding Customer Needs

• Creating Value Propositions

• Generating Demand

• Building Brand Equity

• Adapting to Market Dynamics

Metrics: 

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

• Conversion Rates

• Website Traffic and Engagement Metrics

• Social Media Metrics

• Brand Awareness and Perception

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Sales

Keyword: Revenue

Objectives:

• Meeting Sales Targets

• Acquiring New Customers

• Increasing Market Share

• Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value

• Achieving Profitability and Margins

Metrics:

• Sales Revenue

• Sales Volume

• Win Rate

• Average Deal Size

• Sales Conversion Rate

Operations

Keyword: Cost

Objectives:

• Optimising Efficiency

• Ensuring Quality

• Managing Supply Chain

• Optimising Capacity and Resources

• Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

• Managing Costs and Budgets

Metrics:

• Capacity Utilization

• Cycle Time

• Customer Returns

• Order Fulfillment Cycle Time

• Cost per Unit

IT

Keyword: Enablement

Objectives:

• Ensuring IT Infrastructure Reliability

• Providing IT Support and Service Delivery

• Driving Digital Transformation

• Managing and Securing Data

• Supporting Collaboration and Communication

Metrics:

• System Uptime and Availability

• Incident Resolution Time

• Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance

• Technology Adoption and Utilisation

• Return on Investment (ROI)

Product

Keyword: Development

Objectives:

• Defining Product Strategy

• Developing Product Roadmap

• Driving Product Innovation

• Managing Product Lifecycle

• Optimising User Experience (UX)

• Driving Customer Success and Adoption

Metrics:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

• Churn Rate

• User Engagement Metrics

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Conversion Metrics

Finance

Keyword: Risk

Objectives:

• Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)

• Financial Reporting and Compliance

• Cash Flow Management

• Capital Allocation and Investment Decisions

• Risk Management

Metrics:

• Revenue

• Profitability Metrics

• Cash Flow Metrics

HR

Keyword: Talent

Objectives:

• Talent Acquisition and Recruitment

• Employee Development and Training

• Performance Management

• Employee Engagement and Retention

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Metrics:

• Employee Turnover Rate

• Cost-per-Hire

• Employee Engagement Score

• Training Effectiveness

• Diversity Representation

C-Suite

Keyword: Value

Objectives:

• Setting Strategic Direction

• Driving Business Performance

• Fostering Innovation and Agility

• Corporate Governance and Compliance

• Creating Stakeholder Value

Metrics:

• Revenue Growth

• Profit Margin

• Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA)

• Return on Investment (ROI)

• Market Share

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Operational Efficiency

• Time to Market

One thing you can do today

A good exercise I usually ask my mentees to do is to describe the value of their design work to every one of these groups without using the word design and by building on what they care about and value. You will end up with eight different narratives of the value of your work. Those narratives will become your starting point for any engagement with your key stakeholders. Imagine them as your vanilla stories on the value of design. You can then add different flavours to adapt to the context and specific objectives. These stories will help you win the heads and hearts of stakeholders. It will make your life so much easier. I promise.