Professional Diploma in Design Leadership and Management

Design Management – Deploy design resources to help you reach your business objectives.

A design manager is responsible for delivering impactful design results by connecting the dots between business and design at a strategic, tactical and operational level. To achieve this, a design manager can be accountable in areas such as design strategy, design process, design briefing and many more.

Design Leadership – Align everyone around an inspiring design vision.

Design Leaders display competencies beyond those of a traditional leader – they are more intuitive, more human-centered, and more visual.

Whereas design management deals with ‘how, when and with whom’, design leadership is focused on the ‘why and what’, and the very best design managers and leaders know when and how to switch between leading or managing content, people or processes.

Design Strategy – Define how design will deliver against organisation and user objectives.

A design strategy is a high-level plan to achieve design objectives and goals within a certain business context. It helps to achieve overarching organisational objectives, to align peer strategies and to make the right choices in terms of design resources and capabilities.

The Design Strategy Compass is a tool that links the corporate mission and vision with your design strategy and enablers.

Design Process – Create design processes that drive better efficiency and effectiveness.

Combining characteristics of artistic and production processes, a design process is a structured, repeatable approach to delivering design solutions in alignment to the objectives and constraints of your organisation. Due to the wide scope and organisation context of design it has many formats.

A design manager builds and adjusts design processes, aligns them to the rest of the internal and external organisation and runs them effectively and efficiently.

Design Quality – Set and manage quality objectives for more objective design decisions.

Discussing design quality is not easy: when is design good design and when is design good enough? A design manager sets design objectives, and manages creation and execution in such a way that the set objectives are met, not more nor less – the challenge is to not over or under deliver as this can harm performance of your organisation.

Design Language – Define, manage and grow brand design equity.

Design languages are used to build brand recognition by applying design assets coherently and consistently. This is not only relevant for consumer-driven organisations but also for business-to-business organisations.

Born out of a brand strategy, a design manager applies, maintains and refreshes design languages. When doing so, they build brand equity for the business but also efficiencies in development time and costs.

Design Briefing – Connect design, business and people with impactful briefing.

As a design manager you need to know how to develop and communicate a design brief. Then you have to manage or lead your designers to deliver on the design brief. This module explains why and how to do that.

Design in Customer Experience – Design for a more holistic customer experience.

Companies can no longer stand out through manufacturing strength, distribution power or information mastery. Offering a great customer experience is crucial in achieving a competitive edge.

In order to build a great experience, every contributing function needs to be meticulously aligned. It’s the role of design and the design manager to deploy their unique capabilities whilst knowing when to lead or support other functions.

Design Teams – Find a shared purpose and boost design team potential.

A design team is a team of professionals that execute design tasks to achieve specific business objectives and goals. Doing this effectively and efficiently is a challenge. A good design manager knows how to build, maintain and adapt their design team depending on the challenges ahead. To do this proficiently, he or she must truly understand the competencies and capabilities of the people in their team.

Design Value – Justify your design investments through a holistic business lens.

Design brings value to people through great products, experiences and services, and with that economical value to organisations , society and the planet.

To deliver this value, continuous investments in design is needed. The justification of these investments through efficient and effective implementation is a critical aspect of the Design Managers role.

Design Storytelling – Excite, entertain and engage stakeholders & peers.

Storytelling is a communication strategy that aims to engage and bring your audience into an ‘imaginative situation’ that delivers information and solutions through stories and facts.

Specific to design, communicating and ‘selling’ design management topics requires a balance between content, creative storytelling and managerial structure.

Design for Humanity – Champion design for a better, brighter future.

As sustainable design becomes a critical aspect of every organisation, design leaders and managers must move their strategic focus from problem solving to problem definition and problem owning.

Design Value – Justify your design investments through a holistic business lens.

Design brings value to people through great products, experiences and services, and with that economical value to organisations , society and the planet.

To deliver this value, continuous investments in design is needed. The justification of these investments through efficient and effective implementation is a critical aspect of the Design Managers role.

Face-to-face in Dublin with live project presentation in front of senior member of the organisation.

Read about the:

• Design Management Professional Diploma class of 2023
• Design Management Professional Diploma class of 2022
• Design Management Professional Diploma Class of 2021
• Design Management Professional Diploma Class of 2020