Design strategy is and who actually needs it
I know exactly how to build a design strategy - that’s not the hard part. It’s a clear process of research, workshops, alignment, and documentation.
What’s hard is saying what design strategy is and who actually needs it - in one sentence, clearly and simply.
I can explain the difference between vision and strategy:
• Vision is inspiring and long-term
• Strategy is a measurable decision
I can also explain what a design strategy includes (spoiler: very similar to any other type of strategy):
• A brief with goals, metrics, and the core problem
• The strategy itself - one inspiring sentence that sets direction
• A list of measurable countermeasures broken down by teams
• Presentations, docs, slides - the boring but necessary stuff
• A UI vision - how brand attributes come alive in the product
• Go-to-market planning
And most importantly - it should all live in one place
I can confidently distinguish between business, product, brand, and design strategy:
• Business strategy is how we grow and make money
• Product strategy is how we solve user problems to realize business goals
• Brand strategy is what we stand for and how we want to be perceived
• Design strategy is how we bring business, product and brand strategies to life through design
I’ve spent time thinking about which companies need design strategy, and when.
Then I remembered the 3 phases of company growth we studied at business school:
1. Gaining market share (fast growth, feature parity)
2. Expansion (new markets, new segments, new verticals)
3. Orchestration (ecosystem, integrations, personalization, brand-as-experience)
At each phase, the cumulative effect works differently.
Phase 1:
You grow revenue by acquiring and activating users, adding baseline features, growing the market share.
Design strategy only plays a role here if you’re entering a mature market and want to differentiate through experience (think: Monobank, Tesla, Apple Watch).
Otherwise, design will usually be deprioritized.
Phase 2 & 3:
You need something to connect the dots between business, product, and brand strategies.
Otherwise, each will move in its own vertical and slow down the compounding effect.
Design becomes the glue - not decoration.
If your business is brand-driven (and in mature markets, it usually is), then you must express the brand inside the product.
Think: Apple, Duolingo, Airbnb, Figma, Google, Uber. These are products that rely on retention, on brand love, on experience.
Often, design strategy is baked into product strategy - and that’s totally fine.
But I always say (and many people disagree with me) that when I build design strategy
I don’t work inside “product”. I work across business, brand, and product.
So no - I still haven’t found a one-liner to explain why design strategy matters.
But at least I’ve written the long version. Maybe someday I’ll find the short one too.