Why development leaders are investing in design

What does it take to consistently ship great products? For many development leaders, the answer is evolving. To understand this shift and its broader impacts, we commissioned research from the International Data Corporation (IDC)—surveying 500 development leaders across North America and Europe and augmenting with qualitative interviews. While we expected to hear about expanding responsibilities and the growing impact of generative AI, we were struck by how often respondents cited design as a focal point—not just as a defining factor in product success, but also as a key part of the product development process.

Leaders who rated design as “extremely important” were five times more likely to say their last project far exceeded expectations. Those same leaders also pointed to stronger collaboration with design as key to faster cycles, closer alignment, and better products. As AI tools evolve, design is playing a growing role in maximizing the potential of AI outputs. In a landscape where roles are shifting and expanding, design quality, clear communication, and cross-functional partnership are emerging as real competitive advantages. Here, we explore how successful teams are navigating these changes, and what we can learn from their example.

The business case for design

As teams ship more products at a faster pace—driven by competitive pressures, internal demand, and generative AI’s ability to speed up product development—leaders are finding that strong design craft helps them stand out in a crowded marketplace. In fact, in IDC’s study, 75% of respondents said design is “very” or “extremely important” to software development. When asked about the key business benefits of focusing on design in product development, the most common benefits were improved customer retention, higher customer engagement, and increased product innovation. And, leaders that said design was extremely important were 5x more likely to say their last project far exceeded expectations.

The data reveals that design has evolved from an aesthetic consideration to become a strategic driver of business results—one that leaders are actively investing in. As one Chief Data Officer in the financial services industry put it: “Design is now a strategic differentiator, impacting customer satisfaction, employee productivity, accessibility, and data-driven decisions—it’s recognized as having business value.”

Designer-developer collaboration drives better products

With design quality now recognized as a core driver of product success, organizations are rethinking how development and design teams can work together to deliver it. Given increased velocity and competitive pressure, development, leaders are discovering that collaborating with design teams from the outset accelerates time to market and improves the final product. Rather than working in isolated swim lanes, development and design teams are now aligning on scope from the start, making trade-offs together, and iterating in real time. This clear communication between teams throughout the process—not just at handoff points—has reduced friction, sped up the development process, and even improved team morale.

54% of leaders said increased design collaboration led to increased innovation, 47% reported improved customer experience, and 43% saw faster time to market. “Seamless design-engineering collaboration ensures user-friendly, scalable solutions, reducing rework and improving adoption,” said a survey respondent who's a Vice President of IT in the healthcare industry.

Leaning on a research method called metaphor elicitation—a qualitative method that uses metaphors and symbolism to elicit deeper feelings—IDC asked leaders to submit images that represented what strong design collaboration felt like to them.

Their options ranged from the poetic to the practical: synchronized swimmers, scaffolding structures, gold stars, and clinical instruments. One leader described it as “synchronization and harmony.” Another said it’s “like building a solid structure from the ground up with strong collaboration and careful planning.” These metaphors reflected clarity, confidence, and a sense of collective momentum—the feeling that when they work well with design, everything else works well too.

Design expertise is essential in maximizing AI’s potential

While AI makes going from 0 to 1 easier than ever, design skills are what turn an initial output into a usable, user-ready interface. Though often viewed as a fast track to a finished product, AI-generated designs are actually requiring more hands-on input from designers—not less. Development leaders said the outputs of these tools require greater design expertise for ongoing evaluation, refinement, and cross-team review. “Human designers are crucial to refine AI outputs into user-centered, effective solutions,” said a survey respondent who’s a Chief Data Officer in the financial services industry. The need for design expertise and intuition showed up most in areas like quality control, user experience, and brand alignment. Across all these findings, a clear pattern emerged: The best results come from teams that view AI as a starting point, not the final step.

Design’s role in building AI-powered products

The focus on design craft and cross-functional collaboration is proving just as critical as teams take on AI-powered products

. The benefits of a well-designed product echo those of a design-driven process. Just as AI tools can accelerate development, the study found that as teams spend more time building AI-powered products, leaders increasingly understand that well-crafted interfaces drive user adoption and satisfaction. As AI-powered products enter the market at increasing speed, design quality is emerging as a key lever—not just for visual appeal, but for building user trust and credibility. “Good design ensures adoption, reduces training time, and improves overall satisfaction,” said a Vice President of IT in the healthcare industry. Others added that good design helps reduce friction, drives efficiency, builds credibility, and leads to higher adoption rates and user satisfaction.

IDC asked leaders to share images that captured their experience building AI-powered products. Responses included a lemon tree, compass, and rollercoaster, accompanied by descriptions like, “A mix of creativity and deep technical problem-solving,” and “More engineering and design effort but with a better outcome for users.” In the sometimes muddy waters of creating AI products, development leaders are finding that design adds clarity and direction.

IDC’s study confirmed what forward-thinking teams already know: Design is more than just a visual layer—it’s a strategic driver of product success. To stay competitive, teams should recognize design as a strategic business priority, foster more cross-functional collaboration between design and development teams, invest in scalable design practices, and ensure human oversight to refine AI outputs.

IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Figma, Design-Driven Development: Elevating Software Innovation Through Visual and User Experience Excellence, #US53550125, June 2025