Kara Jensen January 29, 2021 
Design is the meeting of form and function to create meaningful experiences. Design is about the details that make our lives easier. Well-designed products, brands, customer experiences, and working environments have the power to transform employees and clients into an army of brand advocates. An army of brand advocates can help any company drive demand, deliver higher quality services and products and retain top talent and clients.
Below are key roles in any organization and why they should care about design.
C-Suite
As a C-level executive, you are responsible for carrying out the organization’s vision and growing its value. By leveraging design into all aspects of the business, from branding to operations, the C-suite can build more value by getting to market quicker with better products and services that gain more market share.
IBM’s Design Thinking Practice has brought 301% ROI, cost-savings of $ 20.6 million, 2x faster time-to-market, 75% reduced design time, and 33% reduced development time. (UX Collective)
Marketing
Marketing leaders and departments are often solely responsible for leading and implementing B2B design efforts within a company. Marketing’s role at the end of the day is to drive demand, generate leads and build brand awareness – all this is much easier to accomplish when you look the part. Expertly designed digital campaigns, websites, and brand materials help build credibility and trust with your target market.
75% of users admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on their website design. (Stanford)
Sales
Well-designed B2B websites and campaigns produce many leads. Well-designed tradeshow exhibits attract larger crowds. Well-designed products sell quicker than poorly designed products. While Sales isn’t responsible for leading or implementing design efforts across an organization, their success often depends on it. Sales can help influence design efforts by providing close looped feedback to marketing and product teams based on their prospective clients’ interactions.
Brand loyalty is worth 10X more than a single purchase. (Business 2 Community)
Operations
While Marketing can design a beautiful b2B website that tells a compelling brand story, Operations is responsible for delivering on that brand promise. A software company will outperform its competition if its UX design is more user-friendly. A pipette company will outsell its competition if its handle is more ergonomic. A consulting firm will gain more market share if it designed a more streamlined client experience than the competition. Design impacts more than just aesthetics – it influences the experience a client has with your company’s people and products.
73% of customers love a brand because of helpful customer service. (RightNow)
HR
Recruiting and retaining top talent is a goal of most organizations. Companies with well-respected brands will always have their pick of the litter. However, less-established or smaller companies can compete by not only having expertly designed brand communications (website, social, etc.), but nicely designed offices and onboarding experiences. It’s hard to untangle how much design impacts company culture. Design is thoughtful, and who wouldn’t feel good about working at a company that holds those values?
40% of employees were influenced by their company’s brand image or reputation when choosing it as a place to work. (Maritz Research)
The next time you dismiss design as a function of simply part of the B2B marketing team, look at the S&P 100 global companies – Apple, Adobe, Caterpillar, Target, Tesla, Qualcomm, and Oracle name a few. These are some of the most valuable companies in the world, and all are design-driven organizations.
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