Blog/Design the way your business can stand out – McKinsey

12th July 2022

Global management consulting company McKinsey has released a report into the value of good design to business and it makes interesting reading.

Redesigning the design department is the result of a survey of three million designers across 100,000 design departments, combined with their company’s financial performance and it reveals that a successful design department is not only one of the key factors that can contribute to growth, but may also may add as much value as your product itself.

McKinsey identifies a number of misconceptions about designers and design teams, namely that they’re all trendy types, holed up in a fancy warehouse office, in funky glasses and a barista type beard, for whom style matters more than substance.

McKinsey recognises that integrating your designers into project teams rather than sitting in separate design departments yield the best results and can best promote buy-in, innovation and employment satisfaction.

Having your designers sit alongside the rest of your project team can also help the design literacy of non-designers, allowing better dialogue and ultimately arriving at a better solution more quickly – the important of which is recognised by McKinsey.

However, the report does stress the importance of providing your designers with the tools they need to do a good job, and that this needs to be constantly reviewed for them to give best value to your company.

Maddison Creative is a design studio based in Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England, developing innovative online and offline solutions for businesses of all sizes. With dozens of happy clients and hundreds of completed projects.