Six Essential Competencies for Design Leaders Today
Because strategic design doesn’t start with pixels — it starts with people, systems, and courage.
The last few weeks have taken me across Europe — from the sharp thinking rooms of Imperial College London to the sun-drenched studios of IED Barcelona. As part of a European book tour, I’ve had the privilege of meeting design leaders, students, and aspiring changemakers. We talked over panels, presentations, coffee, cava, and tapas — about what’s next for our profession, and more importantly, what’s next for us as leaders.
One question kept coming back: What does it take to lead design in this moment — this fast-transforming, AI-shaped, ambiguity-rich moment?
We’re living through a tectonic shift. As Giulio Frigeri and I explored in our recent blog (thank you all for reading and sharing), design is not dying — it’s transforming and entering one of its most strategic chapters yet. It is shedding its obsession with surface and stepping into strategy. The work ahead isn’t just about smoother screens. It’s about structuring agency. Building trust. Navigating between code, compliance, and conscience. Bringing clarity where others see only chaos.
But transformation is a muscle, not a moment. So, how do we train for this next chapter?
Lately, I’ve been leading a course for emerging design leaders in collaboration with the Service Design College. Together with the attendees, we’ve been exploring a new leadership blueprint: six core competencies I believe every design leader must develop to navigate our current context effectively. These are not abstract virtues. They’re practical, actionable, and essential.
Here they are — the six superpowers of today’s design leaders.
1. Know Your Internal Clients
Competency: Deep empathy with internal stakeholders — knowing not just what they ask for, but what they’re accountable for.
Why it matters:
Design doesn’t live in a vacuum. To lead it, you must understand how decisions get made — and what your partners are really trying to achieve.
How to build it:
Map your stakeholders like users. Revisit those maps quarterly.
Interview your internal partners regularly. What are their goals, blockers, pressures?
Translate their needs into bigger systems: tech shifts, policy changes, cultural signals.
Share your findings with your team in the form of a living “needs intelligence” dashboard.
2. Outcome Orientation
Competency: Shift your focus from outputs to impact.
Why it matters:
Design is no longer measured in wireframes. It’s measured in what actually changes — for users, for the business, for society, for the planet.
How to build it:
Don’t just deliver — ask what changed.
Co-create impact KPIs (including ethical and systemic ones).
Storytell the “why” and “what happened” in every review, not just the “what we did.”
Make “How will we know this is working?” a team mantra.
3. Understand the Business Model
Competency: Know how your organisation creates, delivers, and captures value.
Why it matters:
You can’t change a system you don’t understand. Great design leaders speak both customer and commercial fluently.
How to build it:
Study the business model like a service blueprint.
Follow the value: how it moves across teams, products, markets.
Learn what drives revenue, cost, and risk.
Shadow finance or product strategy teams.
Join the strategy conversations — especially the ones not “about design.”
4. Visible Ownership
Competency: Boldly own and model a customer-centric perspective.
Why it matters:
Being customer-centric isn’t a tagline — it’s a leadership act. If you don’t advocate for the user, who will?
How to build it:
Speak from the user’s point of view in meetings.
Use data, quotes, and visuals to ground discussions in real human stories.
Share tools with others so they can do the same.
Recognise and uplift colleagues who demonstrate user-first thinking.
5. Collaborative Influence
Competency: Build trust and momentum — especially without formal authority.
Why it matters:
Design often leads through influence, not hierarchy. This is your quiet superpower.
How to build it:
Learn how informal power works in your org.
Host sessions that frame shared problems — and co-own solutions.
Slow down. Listen. Understand the hopes and fears behind resistance.
Give people tools that help them succeed — and let them shine.
6. Proactive Leadership
Competency: Step into gaps — with courage, clarity, and humility.
Why it matters:
Leaders aren’t defined by title. They’re defined by what they choose to notice and act on.
How to build it:
Use sketches, stories, and maps to propose early ideas.
Make a habit of “permissionless proposals” — small offers of value.
Spot where leadership is missing. Fill the gap, even temporarily.
Build your discomfort muscle. Strategic design lives on the edge of certainty.
These six competencies are not exhaustive. But they’re a powerful starting point — and they’ve sparked rich self-reflection in every cohort I’ve shared them with. Try rating yourself on each. Ask your team to do the same. Start the conversation.
Because leadership in design today isn’t about being in charge. It’s about being in service — to users, to systems, to a future we all have to co-create.
Let me know how these land with you — what resonates, and what feels missing. This framework is evolving, just like the practice it’s designed to support. If the idea of a course for next-gen design leaders sounds intriguing, the next cohort runs in November. Get in touch with the Service Design College to learn more.
M
P.S. Thank you again to Ileana Stigliani, Kevin Corley, Alberta Soranzo, Nikki Barton, Arunima Kapoor Duque, and Manuela Procopio — for sharing the stage with me and helping shape the future of design leadership, one conversation at a time.
