The Design Mandate
Elevating Design from Function to Executive Strategy
The evolution of digital products and services mandates a fundamental shift in how organizations view and integrate design. Design maturity describes the systematic evolution of user-centered practices within an organization, moving design from an isolated tactical service function to an integrated, strategic, executive-level function.1 This critical transition is often signaled by the establishment of a Chief Design Officer (CDO) or Vice President of Design reporting directly to the C-Suite, ensuring customer experience is elevated alongside technology, business strategy, and finance.2 For design leadership to be effective at this level, the role must evolve from focusing on producing creative artifacts, such as wireframes and mock-ups, toward effective leadership that defines specific responsibilities and expected outcomes based on quantifiable business value.2
Defining Design Maturity: The Journey to C-Suite Partnership
Leading authorities in user experience (UX) provide structured frameworks for organizations to assess their sophistication. The Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) model identifies six levels of UX maturity that describe an organization’s approach to user-centered design.1 Advancing through these stages is essential for operational excellence and strategic advantage. The first level, Absent (Stage 1), sees UX barely recognized and lacks any formalized strategy. This progresses to Limited (Stage 2), where recognition begins, but implementation is sporadic and uncohesive.1 By the Emergent (Stage 3) stage, organizations start adopting more formal practices. Strategic progress accelerates significantly in the later stages: Structured (Stage 4), characterized by formal, organizational-level UX management and integration; Integrated (Stage 5), where UX is fully woven into product development; and finally, User-Driven (Stage 6), where iteration, learning, and experimentation are integral parts of the process, positioning the organization to deliver exceptional user experiences that drive customer loyalty and long-term business success.1 The analysis of this framework confirms that improving UX maturity fundamentally requires growth across four interconnected factors: Strategy, Culture, Process, and Outcomes.3 Without strategic support and resource prioritization from executive leadership, teams struggle to sustainably advance their maturity.3
The Design Management Institute (DMI) Framework: Mapping Value and Maturity
Complementing the NN/g's behavioral assessment, the Design Management Institute (DMI) provides tools to align design capability with business metrics. The DMI offers the Design Maturity Matrix, a mapping tool used to measure the maturity of design processes, standardize strategic language across cross-functional peers, and align design investments directly with overall business strategy.4 Crucially, the DMI developed the Design Value Map, based on the American Productivity and Quality Council (APQC) model, which identifies where design adds value across four critical business parameters: Revenue, Customer Experience, Organizational Learning, and Process.4 This mapping capability is indispensable for executive design leaders tasked with constructing a robust business case for further design investments.4
Quantifying Strategic Impact: Analysis of the Design Value Index (DVI) and McKinsey Design Index (MDI)
The elevation of design leadership is directly justified by empirical evidence demonstrating its profound impact on shareholder value. The DMI Design Value Index (DVI), which tracked publicly traded US companies committed to design management over a ten-year period, revealed that design-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by an extraordinary 211%.5 The selection criteria for DVI inclusion explicitly required that design be embedded within the organizational structure, that growth in design-related investments and influence had increased over time, and that design leadership was present at senior and divisional levels.5
Further corroborating this data, the McKinsey Design Index (MDI) correlated strong design practices with overall financial success, finding that companies with higher MDI scores achieved up to 56% higher returns to shareholders compared to industry peers.7 This data refutes the perception of design as merely a cost center and affirms its role as a powerful driver of long-term revenue.7 The remarkable financial outperformance quantified by DVI and MDI is not attributable simply to the quality of design artifacts or the skills of design teams; rather, it is a direct output of the systemic organizational changes required to reach the higher maturity levels (Structured, Integrated, User-Driven) defined by NN/g.1 Because strategic support and resource prioritization are foundational for UX growth 3, executive integration (C-suite alignment) is a prerequisite for realizing this level of return on investment. Furthermore, the DMI Value Map reveals that design's influence extends beyond customer-facing metrics (Revenue, CX) to internal operations (Organizational Learning, Process).4 This underscores design’s function as an "integrative force" 5 that aligns cross-functional peers and reduces internal complexity, indicating that C-suite design leaders must necessarily focus heavily on internal systems, shared language, and governance (DesignOps) to fully realize the mapped value.8
Comparative analysis of these findings provides the foundation for the executive design mandate:
Comparative Analysis of Strategic Design Value Metrics
Metric/Index
Originating Body
Focus
Key Quantitative Finding
Design Value Index (DVI)
Design Management Institute (DMI)
Performance of design-focused publicly traded companies committed to design management.
Outperformed the S&P 500 by an extraordinary 211% over a 10-year period.
McKinsey Design Index (MDI)
McKinsey & Company
Correlation between strong design practices and overall financial success.
Saw up to 56% higher returns to shareholders compared to industry peers.
