Reactive vs Proactive design
Most design teams don’t lack talent — they lack strategy, ownership, and a business voice.
Why is design often seen as decorative or just a “make it usable” function instead of strategic? Because many designers themselves don’t understand what makes it strategic.
As a result, instead of delivering value, they focus on getting their decisions approved by others, turning design into a reactive function.
Why this happens
A lack of understanding among designers about the actual value of design — and a focus on execution rather than impact.
Weak strategic thinking — instead of setting direction, designers fall back on comfortable tactical tasks or vague explanations of processes.
Inability to speak the language of business — they struggle to explain design impact using metrics and numbers that leadership cares about.
I believe it’s a result of how design education is structured — but it is what it is.
Consequences
Instead of showing leadership, designers focus on approvals. No proactive thinking, no new ideas.
Designers fail to show business impact, losing leadership’s trust. For example: solving future problems that may never happen — like overinvesting in scalable design systems or forcing a visual match between marketing and product UI.
Design is seen as a service tool, not a source of ideas.
Designers become dependent on managers instead of initiating change themselves.
Bottom line: design ends up perceived as a support function. Leadership loses interest in design initiatives, and designers strip themselves of influence — leaving behind this legacy when they eventually move on.
What to do — some thoughts:
Recognize your value
Understand that design is not just about visuals or usability — it’s a tool for making and saving money. It helps improve metrics and revenue, increase conversions, or reduce customer churn (google “growth product design”).
And importantly — it improves collaboration inside teams. Meaning: don’t fight with devs, PMs, marketers, etc.
Develop strategic thinking
Learn to see the bigger picture — how product and design affect the business overall. Read up on business basics: marketing, sales, analytics, finance.
Ask yourself:
What problem am I solving?
How will my work impact the business?
What result do I expect from this?
Speak the language of business
Let’s be honest — we’re paid because the work brings in money. So we need arguments that leadership understands. Instead of “this improves UX,” say “this can reduce churn by 15%.”
If you can’t come up with a convincing business case — maybe it’s not worth doing.
This also works outside leadership — colleagues from other teams understand words like revenue, time savings, and user retention much better.
Initiate solutions, don’t wait for tasks
Bring new ideas. Spot areas where design can drive change — like optimizing internal processes, introducing new ways to solve user pains, or combining existing technologies into something useful and well-packaged.
Again: it should bring clear business value and be easy to explain. Otherwise, half-baked initiatives just weaken your credibility and influence.
Work with metrics and data
Measure how your work impacts key indicators. Did the redesign improve conversion? Did a new flow speed up a critical task? Use this data to support your decisions.
You’ll need to deeply understand what metrics exist, why they matter, and which ones are relevant right now for your company and team. And if you’re a manager: regularly remind it to your reports.
From my experience, when you ask them about metrics, they answer like third-graders being quizzed on times tables: “uhh—I forgot, I’ll check tomorrow, I don’t think we were assigned that.”
Build confidence through learning
Critical thinking, analytics, communication, management. A product designer should understand product management. A marketing designer should understand marketing.
Learn to explain your ideas
Make your ideas clear to people outside of design.
Build partnerships
With colleagues from other departments: marketing, sales, engineering, HR, support, finance — everyone.
Share your wins
Don’t just keep your results inside the design team — make them visible to leadership too.
Step into a leadership role
Take responsibility for outcomes, not just delivery. Become the voice of design in your company — showing its value through real examples.
In this kind of world, design becomes an integral part of a company’s strategic ecosystem — where its value is obvious, and designers don’t just improve products, they actively shape the business itself.
How do you show and explain the value of your work?