Max Fumagalli

Are design tools helping your team… or slowing it down? 🧠 • Too many platforms • Unclear workflows • No shared standards Tooling should enable creativity, not complicate it. This piece breaks down how to manage workflow shifts in design teams. If you're part of a design function, take a look 🔎

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Design Systems: The Foundation of Every Great Digital Experience 💪 Consistency isn’t luck, it’s a solid design system. A strong design system brings structure, clarity, and speed to every product, helping teams move fast without losing craft. It’s where innovation scales and brands stay recognisable. 👉 How are you using design systems to work smarter and build better? #designsystems #userexperience #designagency

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As your business matures its experimentation program, it's important to align on: 👉 what metrics matter most, 👉 how they're defined, and 👉 who owns which ones. Check out the article Jonas Alves (Co-Founder at ABsmartly) shared to learn more about Metric Governance!

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Most deep tech brands lead with complexity. Quantum breakthroughs. AI models. Patents and roadmaps. But luxury brands learned long ago that the story of craft matters more than the craft itself. Taste isn’t about elitism—it’s about restraint. It’s knowing what not to show, what not to say, and when to let silence do the work. As deep technologies like AI and quantum computing move from the lab to the world, the companies that lead will be the ones who communicate with elegance, not excess. Because when everything is powerful, taste becomes the real differentiator.

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👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾This report articulates something many teams struggle to quantify… Design systems aren’t just internal tools. When they’re treated as real infrastructure, they shape customer trust, speed, and how a brand shows up. When they’re not, people feel the gaps long before teams see the impact.

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When design and production run through different systems, speed is always an illusion. Integration is what allows ideas to move cleanly from concept to reality without compromise. That’s the difference between iterating on paper and actually bringing better products to life.

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You don’t need to design everything at once. You need to design the right things first. What sounds simple - start small - is actually one of the hardest things to do when building a design system. In our latest ebook, design leaders share their insights - like this one from Joe Cahill, Creative Director at Unqork - on how to keep your design system alive, get buy-in from teams, and make engineers your allies. 👉 Built by Netguru experts, featuring lessons from VISA, Wolt, Delivery Hero, and Allegro. 📘 Grab your copy: https://lnkd.in/dwyY6nNT

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5 Things Designers Can Do Right Now to Improve Their Work: 1. Have a point of view 2. Have a point of view 3. Have a point of view 4. Have a point of view 5. Have a point of view You don’t need more tools. You need to decide what you actually believe.

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Take your design career to the next level with our Toolkit. This isn't another course. It's every method, framework, tool, and strategy CDO School founder Ryan Rumsey developed to help designers turn their decisions into business outcomes that matter to people writing the checks. No recurring subscriptions. No forced community. No artificial progression. Just the complete collection of tools you'll reference throughout your career.

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Manufacturing is facing a skills crisis—and traditional training isn’t going to fix it. With the UK losing around £6 billion annually due to long-term vacancies, traditional training just isn’t enough anymore. What if instead of shadowing and classroom sessions, we gave people VR headsets, AI mentors, and immersive experiences designed to let them learn by doing and add value from day one? In my team’s latest article for frog Design Mind, we argue that design and AI powered experiential learning isn’t just a nice-to-have. It is the only way forward if we want to close the skills gap and build a resilient future workforce, faster. 👉 Read here: https://lnkd.in/etb3eBfq Shoutout to my co-creators Arlene Carsley FCIPD Jessica Ayuya Jaedan Edman Oliver Harvey #AI #Aerospace #Manufacturing #DesigningAI #DSEIUK2025

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When Bold Studio asked about values-led design, it opened up conversations we need more of. William Kelly and the team at Bold Studio just published a thoughtful interview exploring Driftime® – A Design & Impact Agency's journey, the birth of Design Declares, and what running a values-led business actually looks like day to day. What struck me during our conversation was how rare these stories still are. Agencies doing meaningful work often operate quietly, while those making the loudest noise might not be creating the deepest impact. There's an interesting balance we've all noticed. Lean too heavily into pure creativity, and sustainability becomes an afterthought. Focus solely on sustainability, and the creative spark can dim. The magic happens when both elements strengthen each other. For those commissioning design, this creates an opportunity. Look beyond the obvious portfolio pieces. Seek partners who've figured out how to make sustainability fuel creativity, not constrain it. They're out there, often doing their best work without the fanfare. William approached me after INTL last year (definitely there for the other speakers, not me 😅). What started as a brief chat has become this deeper exploration of how design can genuinely create positive change. The full interview touches on early Driftime days, building movements like Design Declares, and practical insights for anyone navigating this space. Read the full piece: https://lnkd.in/e5y8uFuG What values drive your creative decisions? #DesignForGood #CreativeLeadership #ValuesLedBusiness #SustainableDesign #DesignDeclares

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INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: features don't make products iconic ——— Every product is a pile of tradeoffs pretending to be a solution. Battery versus performance. Simplicity versus more. Privacy versus convenience. Products that feel coherent aren't the ones that solved these tensions, they picked a side and committed. Kindle's original design had no backlight, no color, slow refresh. Terrible at everything except reading text. Those constraints weren't limitations, they were the narrative. This device believes reading matters more than email. Contrast that with tablets trying to be everything. Great screens, powerful processors, full ecosystems. But when you pick one up, what's it for? No constraint means no story, just capability. Capability doesn't create meaning. It creates a convoluted story. The hard part isn't deciding what to include, it's what to exclude and why. Products without constraints are feature lists. Products with intentional constraints make an argument about what matters. Don’t just design a tool, design a point of view. ——— Create your story → https://craftedby.agency/

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The earlier you can show clear visuals, the better your design conversations become. But in many firms, presentation-quality imagery comes later than it should, after key early decisions are already made. This live webinar explores how AI can support earlier visualization in the design process, helping teams communicate intent more clearly and explore more options without long rendering timelines. 📅 February 26, 2026 ⏰ 1:00 PM CST 🎟️ Free to attend Register here: https://lnkd.in/d4auSdkF #Architecture #AEC #EarlyStageDesign #AIinAEC #Visualization #DesignTechnology #DigitalDesign #ClientPresentations

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Is AI about to replace designers or supercharge us? In today’s episode of "It’s only a Prototype", I’m joined by Rupert Warries, arguably the UK’s leading expert on AI in design. He shares how AI is transforming product design right now. We go deep into: ✅ How AI is helping designers validate their thinking ✅ The IP minefield of using AI in commercial projects ✅ How AI creative tools help designers visualise their ideas quicker ✅ The hidden risks of showing clients AI-generated images ✅ Why nurturing AI skills in your team now will pay dividends ✅ How AI can be used to improve your design process This is a must-listen for design leaders, product innovators and anyone curious (or sceptical) about AI’s role in design. 🎙️ Listen now and decide: Is AI a crutch, a threat, a tool or a creative partner? 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eSNKzirm

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