How to Strengthen Product Strategy with Design

This Delivery Fellowship session focuses on how design can strengthen product strategy and move from a supporting role to a strategic advantage inside modern organizations. **Date:** Wednesday, April 1st, 2026 at 5:30 PM **Location:** Institute of Design – Illinois Institute of Technology **Address:** 3137 S Federal Street, Chicago, IL 60616 In many organizations, design is still treated as a service function that executes product tickets rather than helping shape product direction. Yet the companies building the strongest products today are those where design contributes to strategy, influences decisions, and improves measurable business outcomes. In this session, we’ll explore how organizations can strengthen product strategy through design, identify where design maturity is missing, and understand how stronger design practices can improve product outcomes and reduce operational friction. **Key objectives we’ll explore:** • Understand the four pillars required to build a mature design practice in large organizations. • Recognize why design maturity requires strategic, operational, tactical, and cultural alignment. • Learn how design can move from a service function to a strategic business driver • Recognize the hidden financial impact of poor UX through support tickets, onboarding friction, and churn. • Learn why design is becoming a strategic advantage in competitive product markets. **Interactive Workshop** Participants will break into small groups for a Design Maturity Diagnosis exercise. Each group will work through a shared enterprise scenario where design is treated primarily as a service team executing product tickets. The product organization is experiencing rising support tickets, declining onboarding completion, and slower product releases. Groups will diagnose the organization across four dimensions of design maturity: **Strategic** — Is design influencing roadmap and product decisions? **Operational** — Are systems such as research repositories