I am Aaron Martin. I create web experiences, mobile products, custom typography, and branding experiences. I provide creative direction by way of design, strategy, and art direction.
As a design leader, your "first team" isn’t just the talented group of designers you guide daily—it’s the cross-functional collective of executives, product managers, engineers, and marketers who shape the company’s direction. This shift in perspective is the cornerstone of evolving design into a true business function. It means recognizing that your primary allegiance lies with the organization’s strategic goals, even when that requires tough choices that don’t always align with the design team’s preferences or the pursuit of "cool" ideas.
Great design, as I’ve said before, only happens in a box. That box is built from constraints—some creative, some technical, and often, many that are purely business-driven. Engineering costs can limit ambition. Time to market can demand speed over polish. Audience expectations or customer commitments can turn your roadmap into a feature factory, leaving little room for complex concepts or heavy refinement. In these moments, the "best" design choice from a creative standpoint might not be the best choice for the business at that particular time. Embracing this reality is the mindset shift that separates design leaders who merely execute from those who influence and drive meaningful outcomes.
This doesn’t mean abandoning design principles or settling for mediocrity—it means redefining success. Your role is to position design as a strategic partner to leadership first, collaborating to extend the company’s vision and align your design vision to support it. Practical metrics come second, serving as tools to prove design’s value in terms the C-suite understands: revenue, retention, cost savings. But getting there requires navigating a delicate balance—making hard calls that prioritize business needs while keeping your design team inspired and engaged.
In this chapter, we’ll explore how to make that shift. You’ll learn to drive business outcomes by aligning design with organizational priorities, even when it means sacrificing perfection for pragmatism. We’ll dive into proving design’s ROI in ways that resonate with non-design partners, framing user insights to support strategic decisions, and managing resources with an eye toward the bigger picture. Along the way, we’ll tackle the tension between design ideals and business realities head-on, offering practical ways to communicate these choices to your team and help them see their work as part of a larger mission.
This builds on the strategic vision you crafted in Chapter 1 and the collaboration skills you honed in Chapter 3. To influence the company’s direction, you need to be a great collaborator—someone who can bridge the gap between design’s potential and the practical demands of the business. The reward? A seat at the table where decisions are made, and a design function that’s not just a service, but a driver of success. Let’s dive in.
Design’s true value lies in its ability to move the needle on what matters most to your organization—engagement, retention, revenue, and profitability. But to do that, you need to align your team’s work with the company’s strategic goals, even when it means making choices that aren’t the most exciting for your designers. This is where the "first team" mindset comes into play: your decisions must prioritize the business’s needs, not just design ideals.
Start by understanding the company’s objectives inside out. Meet regularly with executives—quarterly at minimum—to grasp the mission, vision, and current priorities. Then, translate those high-level goals into design initiatives. If the focus is user engagement, rethink your UI to make it more intuitive, perhaps simplifying a feature your team loves but users find confusing. If retention is key, streamline onboarding, even if it means cutting a flashy animation that slows load times. Set clear KPIs for each project—aim for measurable targets like a 10% boost in retention or a drop in bounce rates. These metrics keep your team accountable and prove design’s impact in terms the "first team" understands.
Alignment isn’t just about setting goals—it’s about collaboration. Work closely with product, engineering, and marketing to ensure your efforts integrate seamlessly into the broader strategy. This cross-functional partnership, which you’ve already built in Chapter 3, is essential for driving outcomes that matter. Sometimes, this means pushing back on a "cool" design idea—like a cutting-edge interaction that’s costly to build—because the business needs a faster, simpler solution.
Behavioral Tip: When tough choices arise, frame them as a chance to solve real problems. Tell your team, “This isn’t about less creativity—it’s about more impact.”
Proving design’s value to your "first team" means speaking their language—dollars and cents. It’s not enough to deliver great design; you need to show how it drives revenue, cuts costs, or boosts efficiency. This often requires focusing on metrics that matter to the business, even if they’re not the most glamorous from a design perspective—like tracking form completions over pixel-perfect layouts.
Start by tracking how design changes impact key indicators. If a redesign increases sign-ups by 20%, calculate the revenue lift based on average customer value. If a UX tweak reduces support calls by 15%, quantify the cost savings in staff hours. Translate these wins into financial terms and share them with stakeholders. Storytelling helps here—craft concise case studies that show how design solved a problem, improved a metric, or opened a new market. For example: “Our simplified onboarding flow cut drop-off rates by 12%, adding $200K in annual revenue.”
But proving ROI isn’t just about numbers—it’s about perception. Align your design goals with the company’s broader objectives. If leadership is focused on growth, highlight how design drives user acquisition (e.g., a landing page tweak that boosts conversions). If cost-cutting is the priority, show how a design system reduces development time. This alignment reinforces design’s role as a strategic partner, not just a cost center, and builds trust with your "first team."
Behavioral Tip: When pitching design investments, lead with the business case. Start with “This will increase retention by 10%” before explaining the design details.
User research isn’t just about improving design—it’s about informing business strategy. Your "first team" needs insights that guide decisions, from feature prioritization to market expansion. This means prioritizing research that drives business outcomes, even if it’s not the most creatively fulfilling work—like running quick usability tests over deep ethnographic studies when time is tight.
Build a research function that delivers actionable data. Hire researchers skilled in both qualitative (interviews, usability tests) and quantitative (surveys, analytics) methods, and integrate them with your design and product teams. Share findings regularly—weekly syncs or real-time dashboards work well—to keep everyone aligned. But don’t stop at design implications; connect insights to business goals. If research shows users want a new feature, tie it to potential revenue (“This could increase upsells by 8%”). If it reveals a pain point, highlight retention risks (“Fixing this could save 5% of churn”).
Collaboration is key here. Involve non-design partners in research planning—ask product managers what questions they need answered or marketers what segments they’re targeting. When you present user data that shapes company direction, you’re not just supporting design—you’re driving the business forward, reinforcing your role as a "first team" member.
Behavioral Tip: Push your team to think beyond design. In every research debrief, ask, “How does this help the business succeed?”
Managing your budget isn’t just about staying under cost—it’s about making strategic choices that align with the company’s priorities. This often means saying no to some design initiatives—like a flashy rebrand—to focus on what’s most critical for the business, even if it disappoints your team. The "first team" mindset guides these decisions: resources must serve the organization’s goals first.
Start by assessing your team’s needs against the company’s objectives. If leadership is pushing for a new product launch, allocate budget and headcount there, even if it means pausing a design system overhaul your team’s excited about. Work closely with finance to understand constraints and explore flexible options, like phased investments or shared tools across departments. Track resource use to spot inefficiencies—maybe a $10K/year tool subscription can be replaced with a cheaper alternative, or a process can be streamlined to free up hours.
When managing external partners (agencies, freelancers), set clear objectives and monitor costs tightly. Every dollar spent should tie back to a business outcome—say, a prototype that accelerates a product launch—not just a design deliverable. This discipline earns trust from your "first team" and proves you’re a responsible steward of company resources.
Behavioral Tip: When cutting a project, explain the “why” to your team—tie it to the company’s needs, not just the budget. Say, “This pause lets us win bigger later.”
Making business-first decisions can create friction with your design team, especially when it means shelving creative ideas or pushing for "good enough" over perfection. A designer might pour weeks into a concept only to hear it’s scrapped for a quicker, less ambitious fix. This tension is inevitable—but it’s also manageable. Your job is to help your team see the bigger picture while keeping them motivated.
Start with transparency. When you make a tough call—like shipping a minimal feature to meet a deadline—explain the business rationale. Say, “We’re prioritizing speed because a competitor’s gaining ground, and this keeps us in the game.” Frame it as a chance to solve real problems for users and the company, not a compromise. Share the context—maybe revenue’s tight, or a client’s threatening to walk.
Next, involve your team in the broader mission. Invite them to cross-functional meetings where they can hear product or sales perspectives firsthand. Share financial metrics or customer feedback so they understand the stakes. Celebrate wins that come from these choices—like a quick iteration that boosts retention by 10% or a cost-saving move that funds a future project.
Finally, maintain morale by showing how constraints spark creativity. A tight budget might force a clever workaround; a short timeline might yield a leaner, better solution. Remind them that design’s impact isn’t measured by pixels alone—it’s measured by the value it creates for the business.
Behavioral Tip: When your team pushes back, listen first. Acknowledge their frustration—“I get it, this isn’t ideal”—then guide them to the business perspective: “But here’s why it matters.”
Design as a business function isn’t about abandoning creativity—it’s about channeling it toward what matters most. By embracing the "first team" mindset, you position design as a strategic partner that drives outcomes, not just deliverables. This means making hard choices—aligning with business goals, proving value in terms leadership understands, and sometimes prioritizing pragmatism over perfection. It also means leading your team through those choices with clarity and purpose, helping them see their work as part of the company’s success.
The payoff is a design function that shapes the organization’s future, not just its products. You’ll earn trust from your "first team," secure resources for bigger bets, and build a team that’s resilient and business-savvy. It’s not always easy, but it’s how design leaders move from the sidelines to the driver’s seat.