In Part 2 of The High Impact Design Leader, we introduced the three intelligences we believe underpin high impact design leadership: Creative Intelligence, Business Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence.

In Part 3, we move from the model into the reality of leadership, exploring what Creative Intelligence actually looks like when experienced design leaders are putting it to work.

We previously described Creative Intelligence through five capabilities: Reframing, Opening, Sensing, Choosing and Projecting. Together, they help design leaders challenge the way a problem is understood, create space for different possibilities, recognise meaningful signals, make decisions when there is no perfect answer, and give shape to directions that do not yet fully exist.

But defining those capabilities is one thing. Applying them when the brief is imperfect, the evidence is incomplete and the organisation still needs to move is another.

For this chapter, we spoke with three experienced design leaders whose careers span very different industries and forms of design: Philip Thompson, Vice President of Design at Intuitive, Caleb Schmidt, Senior Vice President and Head of Experience Design at U.S. Bank, and Jordi Morillo, Senior Director of User Experience at Insulet.

We asked them how they lead in those moments. How they challenge a brief without slowing everything down. How they create space for exploration. How they know when they have enough evidence to move. And how they help organisations engage with something that does not yet fully exist.

Again and again, the conversation came back to judgement.

Knowing when to keep questioning and when to make a call. When exploration is still useful and when it is starting to drift. When to hold onto ambition and when a more pragmatic next step is what the situation needs.

That is where the five capabilities become more interesting. They do not show up neatly, one at a time. Experienced leaders move between them, combine them and adjust the emphasis depending on what the moment requires.

As Caleb puts it:

“Critical judgement is knowing when to keep pushing, when to compromise, and when to say: that’s good enough for the time being.”

That thought sits right at the heart of Part 3. Capability matters, but so does knowing how and when to use it.

As always, The High Impact Design Leader is a living handbook. We would love you to read the full chapter, reflect on how these capabilities show up in your own leadership, and share where your experience reinforces or challenges our thinking.

Read The High Impact Design Leader / Part 3

Team PARK 🖤