Skills necessary for the design manager and the design leader

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.

2 Comments
  • Marko Savić
    Posted at 15:33h, 15 July

    Thank you. :)

  • lindsayhaddy
    Posted at 20:16h, 26 June

    I am just starting out as a Design Manager in the USA, and it is a brand new field here. It is interesting to see how much further ahead Europe is, and I look forward to reading your blog.

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