The New Mandate: Design Leadership In An AI-Native World

Too many design leaders are still waiting.

Waiting for product to define the strategy.

Waiting for clarity before they weigh in.

Waiting for permission to lead.

But in an AI-first world, the waiting game is over.

We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-generation shift in how products are built, experienced, and evolve. Intelligence is no longer hidden behind the interface — it isthe interface. As systems become adaptive, multimodal, and context-aware, experience is no longer downstream from strategy. It is the strategy.

And yet, many design leaders remain stuck in reactive mode, executing with polish but hesitating to direct, waiting for alignment instead of driving clarity, and focused on flows when they should be framing futures.

We’ve entered a new era of product development, one where systems learn in real time, interfaces adapt on the fly, and intelligence shapes every interaction. We’re not designing static screens for predictable use cases. We’re designing responsive, behavioral systems.

In this context, if you’re not shaping the system — its intelligence, timing, and tone — someone else is.

Intelligence Has Moved Into The Interface

In this new era, interface and intelligence are intertwined. As I wrote in Decoding the Future, the interface of the future is ambient, ephemeral, and embedded — not something you use, but something you live with. These systems listen, learn, and adapt in real-time. They don’t wait for static requirements or perfectly groomed backlogs. They evolve through behavior, context, and nuance.

Designers are uniquely equipped to lead in this terrain, if we choose to.

This is no longer about crafting screens. It’s about defining system behaviors, setting ethical boundaries, anticipating unintended consequences, and shaping the architecture of interaction itself. What the system does, how it learns, when it shows up — those are design decisions. Strategic ones.

So, if design isn’t leading that conversation, who is?

Design Is Now Directional

AI-native products don’t operate on a fixed set of flows. They generate outcomes through interaction. They learn through behavior. They personalize at the edge.

That changes the role of design entirely.

Design is no longer the final wrapper on someone else’s thinking. It’s not the last mile. It’s the system’s behavior, the invisible architecture that makes intelligence useful, usable, and trusted.

Design leaders need to own that. Not wait for a spec. Not polish the edges. But step into the center of the system and decide how it works, how it feels, and what it enables.

Product Leadership Is Evolving — So Should We

AI-native product teams aren’t waiting for specs. They’re shaping problems with LLMs in the loop. They’re iterating live. They’re integrating intelligence from day one. In these organizations, the product lifecycle isn’t linear; it’s generative. And what’s needed most is a vision that can make sense of all that complexity.

Not product managers in backlog triage.

Not engineers in optimization mode.

Not designers stuck refining Figma files.

What’s needed is a strategic voice that can see the whole system, architect end-to-end coherence, and hold the line on what great looks like in a world that’s changing in real-time.

Design leaders, this is our moment — if we show up differently.

From Execution To Direction

In an AI-native world, execution is expected. The real value of design leadership is in shaping where we’re headed — not just how it looks.

That means seeing the opportunity before the brief exists.

Designing systems, not just surfaces.

Creating coherence, not just polish.

Leaning into ambiguity instead of waiting for certainty.

And influencing roadmaps instead of reacting to them.

Design has to operate at the level of product and business strategy, or risk being optimized out of relevance.

Many design teams are still working like it’s 2015 — refining handoffs, optimizing after decisions have been made, asking for a seat at the table. But AI-native products don’t wait. They learn in real time. They adapt to signals. And they require upstream, systems-level thinking from the start.

Leading the product doesn’t require a title, it requires timing, taste, and the courage to go first.

Strategic design leadership isn’t about being invited in.

It’s about showing up early with judgment, vision, and a point of view, and shaping the conversation before it starts.

This is the shift:

From execution to direction.

From refinement to authorship.

From influence to impact.

The Interface Is The System

In AI-native environments, we don’t just design what people see. We design how intelligence behaves.

How does the system initiate a conversation?

How does it build trust?

When does it show restraint?

These are no longer edge cases. They are product-defining decisions.

The rise of multimodal, context-aware interfaces, from projection mapping to voice, gesture, and ambient inputs, means that the old rules no longer apply. There are no wireframes for this. No playbooks. It’s live, learning, and improvisational.

Designers who stay in refinement mode will be outpaced.

Designers who can shape behavior, pattern interactions, and set ethical boundaries, are the ones defining what’s next.

Lead From The Future

The most powerful design leaders I know aren’t waiting for permission. They’re out ahead, translating the shifts in human behavior, technology, and business models into bold experience bets.

They bring coherence when others bring chaos.

They create space for differentiation, not just delivery.

They make intelligence feel intuitive, not invisible.

This is the future of design leadership:

Cross-functional. Systems-minded. Market-aware.

Equally fluent in customer psychology, technical possibility, and product tradeoffs.

Not theorizing from the sidelines — but shaping from the center.

Lead The Conversation — Before It Starts

The most effective design leaders in this era aren’t waiting to be invited. They’re setting the agenda.

They translate shifts in behavior, market dynamics, and technology into bold product narratives. They build prototypes that provoke decisions. They ask sharper questions, surface blind spots, and bring system-level thinking that reframes the path forward.

They don’t wait for consensus, they create clarity.

This isn’t about influence theater. It’s authorship.

Design isn’t a partner in execution. It’s a strategic co-author of the product.

The future doesn’t need more decks about the value of design.

It needs design leaders who shape how teams think, how roadmaps form, and how intelligence behaves.

When design shows up early, with coherence, conviction, and vision, the rest of the system moves faster and smarter.

This Is the Mandate

Design leadership in an AI-native world is not a support function.

It’s not a craft silo.

And it’s not a team waiting for prioritization.

It’s a strategic function — driving vision, creating coherence, and accelerating outcomes.

If you’re leading design today, you’re being called into something more.

Not just better polish. Not just closer alignment.

But real authorship. Real influence. Real strategy.

Not every team will invite you in.

Not every partner will understand it.

But the ones who do? They’ll move faster, with more clarity and more ambition — because you didn’t wait.

So don’t wait for permission.

Don’t wait for the brief.

Don’t wait for the roadmap.

Don’t wait to be ready.

Lead from the middle.

Lead from the front.

Lead from the future.

But whatever you do — don’t wait.

References and inspiration:

February 5, 2023

The Path Forward: 3 Ways for Leaders to Shape Design’s Future In Business

What got you here won’t get you there.

Standing on the precipice of a new future and looking toward the horizon, it’s clear the landscape has shifted. And will continue to evolve. Design leadership is change management — and it’s time to transform ourselves.

Design leaders in this new future can no longer focus on the desirability circle of the HCD Venn diagram and expect other disciplines to handle viability and feasibility completely. Our leaders and teams need to be multi-lingual — it’s time to lean in.

Companies need and want catalyst leadership, but there’s an apparent mismatch in expectations.

Here are three ways to shape design’s future in business and thrive as a leader:

1: Develop an integrated skillset and leverage technology.

Bring together new domain knowledge and emerging technology to become a powerhouse.

T-shaped leaders move beyond design disciplines in this environment. Business and technical acumen are required. Emerging technology is embraced and leveraged.

Designers need to understand the human insight and business aspects of the work, including leveraging data that drives business, data science, and AI/ML. Forward-leaning designers must learn to use AI-assisted tools to increase space for more strategic work.

Fuse the strategic design and business strategy toolkit. Envision experiences through service blueprints, develop approaches through future casting and opportunity framing, and map directly to ROI.

Make the future tangible through visualization, mapping, and prototyping.

2: Demonstrate business fluency and impact.

Show up as a business operator that’s driving sustainable growth.

Gain a deeper understanding of how the business works and how it makes money. Discover how value is created and what’s essential to the company. What are the most significant external and internal threats? What is the business strategy, and are you more focused on exploitation vs. exploration?

Focus on the metrics that move the business.

Don’t waste time developing a new set of metrics outside the business’s goal. Align on shared outcomes. Develop a shared vocabulary that grounds discussions in reality vs. theory.

Design leaders require business fluency and the ability to directly connect the work to the impact it’s creating for the business. Otherwise, they end up focusing most of their time down instead of across and up, lacking comfort in business conversations and accountability to metrics that move the needle.

Directly connect the work to the impact and ROI.

3: Architect a culture of system thinking, experimentation, and collaboration.

Become the orchestrator and organizational designer.

World-class organizations will move beyond the basics. Develop embedded capabilities and practices like service design, experience strategy, design technology, and experience architecture. This also requires hybrid leadership.

Define, hire, and develop talent along a spectrum from craft to strategy.

There’s a skillset distinction between shipping products, building platforms, and defining and mapping business systems and opportunities. The right talent and alignment are needed for strategic design, with accountability to deliver outcomes. Create integrated processes, mechanisms, and operating models leveraging cross-functional teams.

Strategy and organizational operating systems are connected.

Develop strong advanced product teams with portfolios aligned to the company’s strategic intent and clear accountability to budget and outcomes. Adapt your organization to what the company needs now while building the capability to create value for the future in adjacent markets.

Build a culture of hands-on experimentation through prototyping, modeling, testing, and iterating.

This is an exciting time where design leaders can shape the future of business if they are ready for it. It requires an integrated skillset, business fluency, and a culture of experimentation. The time is now.

August 20, 2022

The People Who Have Influenced My Design Practice and Leadership

Throughout my career, I’ve been influenced and inspired by many people, books, and experiences that have shaped my approach to the work. But there are a few who’s philosophy and perspectives have become part of my designer DNA and ethos.

By internalizing their teachings and perspective and evolving from them, I can attribute the foundation of my design practice and leadership to these influential people, who continue to inspire me and constantly renew my passion for design:

Charles and Ray Eames

“The details are not the details. They make the product.”

Not only were Ray and Charles an amazing couple well known for their modern furniture design, they pioneered work in film, environments, textiles, and architecture, and pushed the boundaries of what design means and could be. Their bar for quality and attention to detail are why I exude the mantra that the details are what separates good from great.

When asked by Madame L’Amic, curator of the exhibition “Qu’est ce que le design? (What is Design?)” at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais de Louvre in 1972, Charles Eames responds:

Q: “What are the boundaries of Design?”
A: “What are the boundaries of problems?”

Bruce Mau

“Design is the ability to imagine a future and systematically execute that vision. So if you think about what all designers do, they’re all futurists. They’re all thinking about what’s going to happen. They’re going to make something new happen in the world. They’re all trying to make the world a better place. I’ve yet to meet a designer who wakes up in the morning thinking, “I think we could do something worse.” That’s not our mandate. That ability to create a vision is one of the most powerful tools that a designer has. We don’t really understand how powerful it is — it’s an incredible power to create the future by showing somebody what it looks like.”

If you haven’t read Massive Change and MA24 — do it.

Dieter Rams

Dieter is a goldmine of quotes and inspiration, especially his ten principles for good design. Modern, minimal, and timeless, his “as little design as possible” philosophy always has me pushing teams to find the elegance in a solution, paring it back to its essence. Distill complexity, expose simplicity. But I find his approach to life and expectations for designers even more intriguing.

“Good designers must always be avant-gardists, always one step ahead of the times. They should — and must — question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes. For the reality in which they live, for their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits.They must also be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology.”

Brigitte Borja de Mozota

“Design is a management tool that creates differentiation in the internal capabilities of the company. Design is no longer seen as the output of design-form, but as a creative and management process that can be integrated into other organization processes, such as idea management, innovation management, and research and development management, and that modifies the traditional structure of process management in a company.”

Brigitte is a researcher in management science, and wrote one of the first books I read on Design Management, which became my handbook. Her work on The Four Powers of Design clearly outlines a balanced scorecard approach to measuring and communicating Design’s impact.

These leaders have shaped my design leadership approach, my practice, and inspired me to shape the world around me. I hope by sharing this it will move others to learn more about them and become inspired themselves.

May 15, 2022

Mastering Orchestration: 8 Ways to Drive Business Outcomes as a Design Leader

Connecting competitive advantage and value to customer and business impact.

As a Chief Design Officer (SVP/VP Design, Head of Design, etc.), you’re responsible for connecting the value and competitive advantage that design creates to customer and business impact. Here are eight ways to drive business outcomes no matter what scale you’re operating.

Decode corporate strategy and connect the threads. Translate the corporate mission, vision, and strategic intent into the differentiating design capabilities that will provide competitive advantage. Develop a clear thread that ties the strategies together — from corporate strategy all the way down through to experience strategy. Illuminate the alignment and connection. Translate corporate objectives into design objectives.
Define an inspiring design vision and clear execution path. Create the design vision, and the three-year strategic plan, principles, roadmap, and operating plan to get there. Define goals that lead to the clear outcomes and milestones defined in the strategic plan. Develop an inspiring vision of the future. Make strategy tangible through narrative and prototypes. Socialize, get feedback, and communicate far and wide.
Drive a dual operating system. Deliver for today while making strategic investments in the future. Orient towards experience maps and roadmaps that paint a clear North Star and define the progress signposts on the way there. Make sure you’re executing short-term responsibilities while also shaping the future. Align your best talent to the most critical work for the company, while making space for exploration to go after what’s next.
Identify beacon programs. Use beacons as the light that guides the organization to new ways of working. These become your case studies and examples of how being experience-led yields better outcomes. Leverage these programs as catalysts to embed human-centered design into the fabric of the organization.
Make teaming a priority and build organizational leadership muscle. The larger and more matrixed the company, the more important this will become. This is a requirement if you want to reinvent any experience at scale. Teaming across the organization will pull together diverse, cross-functional perspectives, forge strong working relationships, increase collaboration, and accelerate the work needed to achieve the business outcomes you’ve defined.
Create quality and coherence mechanisms. Leverage orchestration and governance to create experience cohesion. There’s an interesting dichotomy that happens as you elevate as a leader and your organization scales. You can no longer be close to every program, and yet, you need to be able to hold the quality bar and ensure cohesion.
Show don’t tell. Measure what matters, and align to shared outcomes and metrics wherever possible. Define leading and lagging metrics for all of your priorities/objectives. Benchmark current state and get moving.
Connect design outcomes to customer and business impact. As a [design] leader, there’s a critical difference between stating and demonstrating business impact. How you measure progress and the effectiveness of your plan is where the rubber meets the road. Develop a scorecard, impact reports, narrative artifacts, and ongoing communication. Continuously communicate progress across and up.

May 1, 2021

How Design Creative Summit

I’m excited to join an awesome lineup at the HOW Design Creative Leadership Summit — focusing on emerging challenges faced by leaders in design, product, and engineering. Increase your impact by becoming an in-house intrapreneur and staying creative, productive, and sane as a leader in our new remote world.

I’ll be joined on the virtual stage with Maureen Carter (she, her, hers), Ryan Rumsey, Arianna Orland, Rania Svoronou, Chris Wilkinson, Felix Lee, Dan Mall, and Stephen Gates, sharing insights and approaches on how to lead teams to get results.

In my talk “Leading Innovation: Making Design Your Competitive Advantage”, I’ll share insights and frameworks of how to spearhead design-driven culture, followed by a 30-min Q+A.

February 1, 2021

Expedia Group Arrivals

I had the pleasure of being featured on the Life at Expedia Group blog as part of the New Arrivals series. In this interview, I talk about my journey into Experience Design, what excites me about Expedia, evolving us into an experience-led company, and the impact I plan to make this year.

December 17, 2019

Design Trends – Talent

“ You can't be a successful unicorn hunter if you’re going to bring people into a horrible culture. You have to create an environment that creatives want to be a part of.”

https://www.invisionapp.com/talks/design-trends-talent
https://www.invisionapp.com/design-trends-report-talent