Designing Success: How CDOs Are Reshaping Business Strategy

Measuring return on investment (ROI) in design has always been tricky, but developing specific ROI metrics and data visualizations can make it better by far. By quantifying the impact of design, CDOs can demonstrate its value not just in terms of aesthetics but in real, measurable business outcomes. Espousing the value of design and creative thinking means becoming a champion for design within a brand, which impacts the way people work and think.

Finally, encouraging and supporting a collaborative, customer-centric culture is the glue that binds these opportunities together. By nurturing an environment where collaboration is the norm and the customer’s needs are always front and center, CDOs can create a cohesive, energized brand ready to take on the challenges of the future. “Collaboration and co-creation are at the core of design thinking,” said Schroth. “Bringing cross-functional teams together for ideation has been a great way to get teams back in the office and solve problems together.”

How Has Generative AI Impacted the Role of CDO?

Generative AI has opened up a myriad of opportunities in the world of design, and its impact on the role of CDOs has been nothing short of transformative. Generative AI, with its ability to create new designs based on suggested parameters, has become a partner in the creative process. For enterprise design leadership, this means they can explore a wider range of ideas more quickly. They can set the AI to work on various concepts, then fine-tune the ideas that resonate.

Matt Ford is the creative director of the commercial real estate enterprise SteelWave. Ford said what he is seeing is that AI has essentially raised the bar, and is going to create a dividing line between good and great work. “Good work is going to become ubiquitous and if you’re not doing exceptional work, you’ll just get absorbed. Now with the latest AI, we’re affecting several fields, be it visual or editorial; there are so many programs now that can do a pretty good job, that can create a solid foundation right out of the gate,” Ford said, suggesting that the real question is can you use AI to do some of the legwork and then focus your energy on the things that AI cannot do?

Innovation has seen a boost as well. Since generative AI can analyze large amounts of data, CDOs can better understand what works and what doesn’t in a particular market or demographic. By integrating this insight into the design process, they can create products that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also resonate well with their target audience.

Although it presents many opportunities, the introduction of AI also caused the role of the CDO to become even more complex. They must understand how to work with AI systems, which means a fresh skill set and new ways of thinking about design. CDOs are now part strategists, part technologists and part designers.

Collaboration has been a theme here and AI is no different. Working with data scientists to integrate AI into the design process means design leadership needs to create and encourage a culture where different disciplines can work together seamlessly. It’s about making sure that data science and design are speaking the same language.

What Are the Challenges Facing Today’s CDOs?

Because design is becoming more vital in business strategy, CDOs are finding it challenging to spread the use of design across different departments. As such, CDOs are trying to remove the barriers between different departments in the company while keeping the brand looking and feeling consistent. Mixing design that focuses on people’s needs with data science requires fresh ways for teams to collaborate.

Kaaren Hanson is CDO at Chase Bank. In her role she is finding that although designers offer incredible insight and can create tremendous value for customers and the business, if the broader organization does not operate in a truly customer-centric manner, the design teams’ impact will be limited. “To lead as a Chief Design Officer means not only leading a world-class design team but also creating broader organizational conditions in which customer-centered teams thrive,” said Hanson, who added that those conditions include everything from OKRs to how teams are aligned and staffed to role expectations to how reviews are conducted, what data are available, and how individuals and teams are rewarded.

Team building has become a critical skill as design’s importance has continued to grow within the enterprise. Over the years, according to Heiligenthal, there has been a shift toward bringing on specialized researchers and service designers. The reason she shared is that effective design prioritizes user needs, ensuring clarity on the challenge at hand before introducing a product to gauge its success. “In the past, I’ve had to rely on other research groups and vendors to tackle the work, but this caused bottlenecks, mainly due to funding and backlogs. So, I hired my own dedicated research and service design teams so we could be more agile and responsive to business needs,” said Heiligenthal.

Organizational structure is another pain-point for design leadership. According to Heiligenthal, most design problems require end-to-end (E2E) thinking, but most organizations are siloed. “To succeed, we need to redesign business operating models to support E2E design so we become more service oriented.” She said, However that isn’t what she is seeing happen. “I don’t see this happening for most organizations. So it takes a concerted effort to build partnerships across existing programs to show real impact, and executive leadership that will champion the service design work.”

In his role, Schroth works to foster a culture of innovation and design throughout the company. “We are never going to turn everyone at the Bank into a designer, but we can help colleagues think more like designers and enable them to adopt design methodologies and practices so that the work they are doing is more user-centric,” explained Schroth. One way they do this is by embedding designers and design processes and methodologies strategically across the business.

Additionally, CDOs are under pressure to show the value of design to others in the company and present the big picture of what it can achieve.

Proving ROI is made more difficult by intangible benefits because the benefits can be hard to pinpoint, and knowing what led to them can be unclear.

Another challenge is that as design becomes more strategic, CDOs carry immense responsibility yet have limited authority, another reason the CDO must work closely with the CEO. “As a CEO with a strong background in technology, I understand the need for CDOs and CEOs to work together to achieve sustainable growth,” said Kaushik. “The symbiotic relationship between strategic vision and design innovation has the power to redefine success in the digital era and transform entire sectors.”

Hanson said that at Chase, they work as a quad, so product, tech, design, and data all partner to create great experiences for their customers that also work for the business. Getting everyone on the same page is vital to the success of any project. “In general, when people have the same information, they tend to come to the same conclusions,” said Hanson. “Part of our work is ensuring we are all aligned on the customer problem, we have access to the same insights, and we have a shared vision for success.”

Concluding Thoughts on Chief Design Officers

The role of chief design officers is more integral and multifaceted than ever before. The responsibilities of the CDO now stretch across the entire business, driving human-centered customer experiences, integrating design into every facet of strategy and using new technologies like generative AI. By being forward-thinking, agile and realistically positive, progressive CDOs are positioning design to shape a better future for people, products and brands.