From Design Thinking to Product Decisions: How Designers Influence the Way Teams Work

Designers are not just shaping interfaces, they’re shaping how product decisions get made. In modern cross-functional teams, the real leverage of design lies in improving how design, product, and engineering collaborate to explore problems, test assumptions, and move forward with clarity.
In this talk, Dian shows how designers can apply design thinking beyond the design phase to influence the entire product development process. Through practical examples, including mini design sprints, cross-functional workshops, and shared discovery practices, he demonstrates how involving non-designers earlier can lead to better alignment, faster learning, and more confident decisions.
The core idea is simple: when designers make their thinking visible and collaborative, they don’t just improve outcomes, they improve how teams work together to reach them.