Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Wielding Design

Cowan, Alex, Mount...

Technical Note

Wielding Design

Cowan, Alex; Mount, Madison

OM-1818 | Published October 8, 2024 | 17 Pages Technical Note

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Generalists need to understand enough about the key disciplines in their companies to effectively engage with their collaborators. That doesn’t mean being an expert; it does, however, mean knowing enough to be curious, to ask relevant questions, and, most importantly, to align the work of specialists with the business’s top-line objectives. Design continues to be a core discipline at the world’s most valuable and dynamic companies. The business world has been periodically enthralled by design as a lodestone for innovation and organic growth, which it is. But for the most part, actual practice is still not generally well taught from a general management (e.g., MBA) perspective. As with accounting or finance, there is no single easy, universal answer to the question of exactly how much a generalist should know. That said, there’s not a lot of mystery, either: Plenty of companies are running productive design programs and there are plenty of talented designers on the ground doing the work. This note focuses on design for digital user experiences (UXs), including those that usefully include AI.

After reading this tech note, students will be able to: 1. analyze a user’s interaction (or non-interaction) with a product in terms of a design “stack” in order to better identify and coach the design talent your product needs; 2. frame and guide work at each layer of the design stack, particularly the differences and the interrelationship between product design, interaction design, and visual design; and 3. identify productive opportunities to leverage AI.