The path to product impact: building the design impact pyramid
Designers love to talk about the battles of getting “a seat at the table.” Yes, it’s exhausting to constantly be proving our worth as designers and feeling like we’re yelling into the void to be included. But there is a way to do this that doesn’t involve banging our fists and demanding space. I’ve done this, I’ve seen this . It is real, but it’s not always fast. Getting to the table takes strategy.
Good intentions and pixel polishing isn’t enough. And neither is throwing some slides into a deck and hoping for the best.
Real impact where design is part of roadmap and influences product decisions instead of being viewed as downstream delivery comes from building upward through what I call the Design Impact Pyramid.
Let’s talk about what that means.
Foundation: people
The foundational layer for everything is who you hire and how you set them up for growth, as an individual and in team structures. Design impact starts with the team itself - skills, maturity, balance, and ability to work effectively.
You need:
The right mix of strategic thinkers and tactical executors
A mix of levels to enable leadership and growth
An intentional org structure that supports mentorship, velocity, and quality
If you skip this part and try to scale fast with misaligned or under-leveled teams, you're building on sand. No process can make up for hiring the wrong people.
Layer two: process
Once you have the right people, they need structure. This isn’t about over-engineering. It’s about designing the org to function.
That means:
Clear principles, rituals, and review paths
A hiring and onboarding model that reflects your values
Operational glue: systems, documentation, collaboration models, cross-functional alignment
When process is done right, it removes friction without introducing bureaucracy. It lets the team focus on solving problems, not navigating chaos.
Layer three: partnership
Credibility is the bridge. When design runs cleanly - understanding the problem space and contexts, delivering quality work, collaborating smoothly, and showing up consistently - product and engineering notice. Design earns trust by being dependable and delivering consistently both in quality and in cadence, not by being loud and angry.
And that trust becomes the foundation for real partnership:
Design is looped in early
Designers help shape what gets built, not just how it looks
UX maturity increases across the org, not just in the design team
This is where the seat at the table shows up. Not because you demanded it, but because you’ve done the work to show that builds confidence in your expertise.
Top: product impact
The top of the pyramid is product impact, but you don’t get there without building everything beneath it.
This is where:
Design influences product direction
UX decisions are tied to measurable outcomes
Teams ship better, faster, with fewer cycles of rework
Customers feel the difference
And the org starts to see design as a strategic advantage, not just a tactical function pushing out wireframes.
The wrap-up:
If you want design to matter, stop chasing the top of the pyramid. Build from the ground up.
Hire and grow the right people
Structure the org to let them do their best work
Deliver with consistency and integrity
Earn trust
Then, design will have the space to impact the product
If you’ve read this whole post, you may still be wondering what happens if you do these things and you still don’t get a seat?
The truth is, at some point, it’s likely not you; it’s the conditions in which you exist. And as a design leader, that’s reality I still need to acknowledge. All of this works when it works, but there are times you do all of this and design still doesn’t get the seat. It’s not always about effort, it’s about organizational readiness. I wrote more about that here.
