Business Value of Design Job Description

Defining the role of a chief design officer

The role of chief design officer (CDO) has changed—and the way you describe the role should change with it. Below, you’ll find a traditional, outdated job description for a CDO, as well as an updated one compiled from interviews with 200 leading chief design officers. The new ‘best practice’ job description details more specifically the responsibilities and expected outcomes of the position and how to measure them effectively.

Chief design officer

Job description

Description

Core responsibilities

Background

Skills and mind-sets

Description

Core responsibilities

Identify end-user needs and behavior through research, including observation, interviews, surveys, analytics, and user testing.

Define requirements for a brand-aligned user experience.

Lead teams to create and deliver high-quality digital experiences and artifacts (for example, user-experience patterns, wireframes, screens, prototypes, and design systems).

60%

Transforming the user experience

10%

Transforming the organization

30%

Transforming the design team

Core responsibilities

Background

Description

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Background

Skills and mind-sets

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AFTER

BEFORE

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BEFORE

AFTER

Role expectations should be aspirational and involve transformation, not just execution. The description should also include expected allocation of time between goals.

No unnecessary stipulations around educational background

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Transforming user experience

Support development of innovative new business models (eg, deliver 2x disruption-opportunity presentations per year) Improve experiences for customers by ensuring high-quality design, including ownership of all front-end interaction points (eg, company website) Drive design standardization across the organization with biennial design-standard reviews and 2 to 4 training sessions per year for designers

Transforming the organization

Represent design at top level of the organization: 2x CEO leadership meetings per month, 3x to 4x board meetings each year Spread design by creating a common language and set of practices across organization (eg, by hosting 2x education sessions a month)

Transforming the design team

Develop design team skills, supporting regular conference visits for different skill sets (eg, user-experience conference) Nurture a thriving community of designers through monthly town halls, ideally 2x per month stand-ups Build and maintain the design team (including 3x campus recruiting visits) Represent organization’s brand at functions and in press (2 conference presentation per year, 2 articles)

Responsibility set is ambitious yet clearly quantified and should include cross-departmental responsibilities and interactions.

AFTER

Facilitate work sessions with product teams and users to define key design goals and requirements. Audit the landscape competitively for inspiration as well as design ideas that can be used in the current design process. Lead the user-experience and product-design efforts for the team, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality product. Produce superior graphics and visual components.

Create prototypes that demonstrate the intended end-user experience and key interactions. Conduct user research to inform, iterate, and validate the product design, using methods such as field observations, interviews, contextual inquiries, surveys, and remote usability testing. Collaborate with other leaders to ensure successful development, release, and launch of world-class product.

BEFORE

Professional experience

10–15 years design experience in industry or with an agency Proven leadership experience

Education requirements

Educational background in design from a leading design school

Professional experience

Extensive design experience (15+ years) in either design-led organizations or agencies 10+ years’ experience in positions of design leadership with proven track record Experience in 5+ major product (or portfolio) releases

Education requirements

No formal-education requirements

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Skills

Commercial fluency Capable of creating comprehensive metrics systems across multiple products, consumer journeys, and teams. Ability to link design and commercial metrics and convey insights to peers. Leadership and community building Ability to manage diverse team consisting of multiple disciplines and spread over multiple geographies. Ability to forge strong sense of connection between the team and other departments. General management Comfort with basics of running a large department (eg, hiring and firing, team prioritization and allocation, budgeting). Compelling communication skills Aptitude for convincing others (internally and externally) of the value of their ideas. Ability to represent the brand in public domain (2 to 4 industry events, 2+ press articles). Demonstrable design talent Evidence of design ability—for example, 2+ top-tier design awards in order to better attract strong design talent. Ethnographic skills also valuable to understand quickly and effectively the potential for design in organization; experience with 3+ organizations preferred.

Mind-sets

Outside-the-box thinking Demonstrates ability and willingness to develop innovative, exciting solutions to business problems. Possesses passion to challenge status quo and find new solutions. Humility Takes collaborative approach required to understand organizational problems. Believes in a nonhierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, safety, and trust. Customer centricity Is fascinated with how users experience products and services and has a hunger to improve those experiences. Ambition Possesses significant personal and professional drive to improve standing of design internally.

Skill and mind-set requirements should be tailored toward effective leadership rather than individual capabilities.

AFTER

Skills

Able to design distinctive, intuitive creative artifacts (eg, wireframes, task flows, screen mock-ups, prototypes) Expert command of industry-standard design tools (eg, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, InVision) Experience conducting user research and user testing Exceptional collaborator with cross-functional teams from tech, design, and business Strong communication skills, with ability to articulate and optimize design based on the value to the user and the business Ability to work effectively in a team setting, including synthesizing abstract ideas into concrete design implications

Mind-sets

Empowers others to fail, learn, and grow Experimental mind-set to drive innovation Believes in a nonhierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, safety, and trust Not afraid to “roll up the sleeves”

BEFORE

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