The design manager should be able to manage:

• design people,
• design budgets,
• design timetables,
• design work,
• design organizations.

It is obvious that it is a wide range of complex skills, especially if we consider that design managers are often supposed to be the design leaders too.

A design leadership requires on the other hand six basic skills:

• envisioning the future,
• manifesting strategic intent,
• directing design investment,
• managing corporate reputation,
• nurturing the environment for innovation,
• training for design leadership (Turner in MacDonald (ed), 2004, p. 14).

Source: MacDonald, Stuart (ed). 2004. Design Issues in Europe Today. The Bureau of European Design Associations – BEDA, 58 p.