WHAT DOES A DESIGN LEAD DO?

Published: Jan 16, 2026 - The Design Lead develops creative solutions aligned with client requirements, marketing strategies, and business goals while guiding campaigns from concept through implementation. This role drives ideation through collaborative sessions, produces visual and video content, and ensures cohesive alignment between design, copy, and strategic objectives. The lead also provides clear direction to creative partners, delivers high-quality results, and maintains strong communication to exceed expectations.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Design Lead

1. Design Lead Duties

  • Portfolio Management: Lead and manage the Sydney retainer portfolio with assigned designers to deliver high-quality outputs on time and within budget
  • Client Strategy: Working with clients to understand the desired outcome and developing a strategy to deliver the design within time and profit margins
  • Design Delivery: Delivering exceptional, high-quality design work to clients to meet their expectations, in agreed timeframes and budget
  • Executive Support: Provide support to the CXO/CD to manage global client portfolios in the flow of work and general duties
  • Brief Interpretation: Involvement with kick-off meetings, understanding briefs and articulating to other design members in detail
  • Constructive Feedback: Give constructive feedback when leading projects to other designers and help provide training for future development
  • Team Management: Manage local designers and identify solutions to mitigate stress for managed team members
  • Workflow Oversight: Ensure other members track time, move tickets and understand workload achievability and priorities
  • Concept Presentation: Present clear and compelling concepts to clients, justifying the “why” of design elements

2. Design Lead Details

  • Experience Vision: Create the vision for end-user engagement for a compelling user experience
  • Strategic Execution: Operate strategically and tactually to help deliver the next paradigm in customer experience
  • Visual Direction: Create the visual design definition, direction, and consistency of applications for multiple display devices
  • UX Definition: Drive the definition of UX/UI across multiple application types, inclusive of web, iOS, Android, voice, and XR
  • Product Collaboration: Work closely with the product managers to drive the product from the creation of UX and design concepts to the final launch, as well as post-launch monitoring and analysis
  • Designer Mentorship: Coordinate and mentor junior designers
  • User Testing: Participate in user acceptance testing
  • Technical Interface: Interface with architecture, engineering, and quality assurance staff
  • Demo Alignment: Work with sales support to ensure demos are reflective of prospect brands and themes
  • Client Interaction: Interact with Aequilibrium’s clients for user experience feedback and ideas
  • Trend Monitoring: Monitor UX technology trends and innovations, market trends, competitive solutions, and emerging technologies
  • Accessibility Design: Use design methodologies that adhere to WCAG and incorporate ADA Standards for Accessible Design

3. Design Lead Responsibilities

  • Workflow Evaluation: Evaluate how workflows are conducted through Design functions and cross-functional partners
  • Opportunity Identification: Identify opportunities that include both quick wins and systemic change
  • Process Optimization: Enable the company to increase the quality and efficiency of Design output through optimized tools, aligned processes, and methodologies
  • Work Prioritization: Enable ICs to focus on the work that better serves customers
  • Managerial Guidance: Provide managerial guidance to better support people and processes
  • Friction Analysis: Surface friction points that contribute to stress and burnout
  • Operational Measurement: Quantify operational improvements in measurable terms
  • Data Synthesis: Average research and data to inform insightful strategy, process improvements, and operational decisions
  • Quality Standards: Mission to create more order in the world, with high standards for quality and attention to detail

4. Design Lead Accountabilities

  • Team Leadership: Manage, mentor, and inspire a team of designers
  • Process Development: Establish and evolve systems and processes that enable the best design work to occur as well as a culture of deep collaboration and learning
  • Design Execution: Manage a tight ship on design execution and its partnership with product management, engineering, and data science to ensure close attention to details
  • Project Involvement: Get involved in key projects from the conceptual phase to giving feedback on in-progress design work to following up post-launch to glean lessons and make iterative improvements
  • Product Strategy: Play a big role in defining product strategy and roadmap
  • Customer Relations: Work with VTT salespeople to strengthen and deepen customer relationships
  • Research Collaboration: Collaborate with VTT researchers to find and prepare the research projects
  • Project Leadership: Lead the design element of projects, working side by side with researchers and more junior designers
  • Stakeholder Management: Manage expectations of relevant stakeholders before, during and after projects
  • Design Communication: Help make the design visible and understandable at VTT and to external stakeholders
  • Agency Coordination: Collaborate with and manage agency partners who provide flex capacity for the team
  • Culture Building: Contribute to the growth of team culture and craft

5. Design Lead Functions

  • Client Collaboration: Collaborating to obtain knowledge of the clients’ requirements
  • Design Execution: Bringing design solutions to life that adhere to marketing strategies and business goals, both internally and for clients
  • Idea Selling: Selling creative ideas to clients
  • Campaign Development: Building out creative campaigns from idea to implementation
  • Copy Alignment: Collaborating with a copywriter to match visuals to copy that meets clients’ needs as well as internal
  • Video Production: Producing basic video content, primarily for use on social channels
  • Idea Generation: Leading/participating in brainstorming or creative sessions to generate ideas
  • Creative Innovation: Create, design and innovate, in collaboration with others and individually
  • Artist Supervision: Provide feedback, direction and supervision to other external artists or partner agencies
  • Results Delivery: Deliver results that meet and exceed expectations, ensuring great communication
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