Should Designers Be CEOs?

How can we get maximum benefit from designers in leadership positions?

As I watched a recent Designer’s Debate Club event, hosted by AIGA/NY, moderated by Debbie Millman and entitled Designers Make the Best CEOs, I found myself considering the implications of this debate for the members of Design Founders.

There were plenty of brilliant minds onstage during this debate, but I believe the conversation really missed the mark. The problem rested, in large part, with the wording of the motion. At the beginning of the event, the motion was described as:

Designers Make the Best CEOs

I completely disagree. Not because designers should or shouldn’t be CEOs, but because that role has everything to do with personality of the individual and nothing to do with the discipline of being a designer.

During the pre-debate and Twitter voting via Poptip, the motion was described as:

Designers Should Lead Companies

In this case, I completely agree. In fact, I’d say that anyone who can bring solid design thinking and leadership to a company should go ahead and lead it.

The subtext for the entire conversation seemed to be, “if you’re not the CEO, you’re just along for the ride.” Many audience members seemed uneasy with this misconception, which leads us to the real question we should be focused upon:

How Should Designers Lead Companies?

Or maybe better yet:

How Can We Get Maximum Benefit From Designers in Leadership Positions?

Now this is more interesting. If you’re a designer founder, what would you say is the best use of your time and energy: leading everyone, leading product decisions, or maybe just designing stuff?

It is worth pausing here to mention that if you’re a solo founder, or even a two-founder team, the question could be moot. One of you will inevitably have to take on the CEO role, and that simply means less time to focus on product. This is just another argument in favor of the hacker, hustler, designer configuration. It lets everyone focus upon, and have dominion over, their strengths.

Within this context, there are certain areas that only the designer should handle. Or, maybe more accurately, some challenges are so important and complex that you really want a seasoned expert who can solely focus upon them at all times. Examples include:

• Ensuring in-depth understanding of users/customers
• Testing and iterating the hell out of your product
• Ensuring your brand is relevant and differentiated
• Leading clear thinking and metrics-driven decisions

Obviously, this is all heavy, gray-area work that could occupy teams of very smart people for years on end. Could a CEO feasibly focus on all of the above and everything else on their plate? Sure. Would a designer founder / chief product officer be better able to provide an exceedingly precise laser focus on these key areas? Most definitely.

There are many brilliant designer CEOs out there. As a designer founder, maybe you should be one and maybe you shouldn’t. But realize that, far from a demotion or handicap, skipping the CEO role actually might help you, and the company you create, reach its maximum potential.

Side note: Designers Debate Club is rad. The designers running it are brilliant and I fully support them.

If you’re a designer, a founder or you just liked this post, do me a kindness and hit the recommend button below! Thx!