> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.zilck.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # “Be More Strategic” Is Bad Feedback. Here’s What It Means - URL: https://www.zilck.com/be-more-strategic-is-bad-feedback-heres-what-it-means/ - Published: 2026-11-01T15:09:47.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-01T15:09:47.000Z - Description: It’s the most common note designers get and the least useful. Turned into three questions, it shows you how design starts earning its budget. - Author: Zilck Team - Tags: Design When McKinsey tracked 300 public companies over five years, the ones that scored in the top quartile for design grew revenue 32 percentage points faster than their industry peers. Their shareholder returns were 56 points higher, according to [*The Business Value of Design*](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design?ref=zilck.com). The same study found the weak link wasn’t talent. Just over half of the companies surveyed said they had no objective way to assess or set targets for design. Fewer than 5% said their leaders could make objective design decisions. That gap explains one of the most common, and least useful, pieces of feedback in creative work: “We need to be more strategic.” ## A Note Nobody Can Act On Vicente Reyes Montealegre, who leads the brand and web teams at the studio Afternow, takes the phrase apart in [a new essay for Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/stories/2026/10/26/strategic-thinking-for-designers?ref=zilck.com). His argument is that design is already strategic by nature: it means giving work intention and purpose. What’s usually missing is the context that intention needs. He identifies three symptoms. Designers don’t fully understand how the business makes money or who its customers are. They work in a silo, producing good work that doesn’t serve the wider operation. And they speak only in design terms, while leadership listens for growth, efficiency, and risk. None of those is a craft problem. They’re information problems, and both sides share them. Designers say as much themselves. In Figma’s [State of the Designer 2026](https://www.figma.com/blog/state-of-the-designer-2026/?ref=zilck.com) survey of 906 designers, 91% said clear goals and expectations help them do their best work. Eighty-seven percent said decision-making power improves their performance. Put simply, when leaders ask for “more strategy,” they’re often asking for something they haven’t provided. ## Three Questions That Replace the Vague Note Reyes Montealegre turns the vague note into three habits, each with one question attached. They work as well for a business owner briefing a freelancer as for an in-house designer. > **“How is my work helping us get there?”** This starts with knowing where the business is going: its revenue model, its customers, its next goal. A homepage redesign is a craft exercise until someone links it to a target, such as more qualified leads or fewer support calls. > **“How can we improve how we work together?”** This means looking past the design team to sales, marketing, development and operations. His example is a brand designer who builds a sales deck without first asking what the sales team needs the deck to do. The deck can be beautiful and still fail. > **“Why should my work matter to them?”** This means presenting to the audience you actually have. His advice: “Lead with the bottom line, keep it high-level, and bring solutions.” ## Change the Vocabulary, Keep the Craft The most practical detail in the essay is how Afternow changed the words it uses in client presentations. “Playful” became “impactful.” “Serious and understated” became “scalable” or “manageable.” The work didn’t change. The framing did. A design system pitched as “consistent typography” sounds like a preference. Pitched as “every new page ships in half the time,” it sounds like an investment. This matters because, as McKinsey found, many companies can’t evaluate design on its own terms. If the people approving the budget can’t judge the craft, they will judge the outcomes, so designers need to name those outcomes. AfterNow also changed how work flows. The studio created a shared brand definition, reusable templates and design systems for smoother handoffs, and brought strategists and developers in from the start of client projects. “Less time on translation, more on execution,” Reyes Montealegre writes. ## A Caveat on the Numbers McKinsey’s study is from 2018, and top-design companies may differ from their peers in ways beyond design. The figures show a strong link, not proof that design alone drove the returns. The Dribbble essay offers no data of its own. It’s a practitioner’s framework, and it should be read as one. But the conclusion they share is hard to argue with: design pays off when it’s tied to decisions the business is already trying to make. ## What This Means For leaders and business owners, the fix starts with the brief, not the designer. - **Replace “be more strategic” with a target.** Say what the work should change: conversion, sign-ups, sales cycle length, support tickets, time to launch. If you can’t name one, that’s the strategic gap to close first. - **Invite design in before the decision, not after.** A designer brought in to “make it look good” at the end can only polish. One who hears the problem early can change the outcome. - **Ask for one business sentence at every review.** Before discussing colors or layout, ask: “What should this do for the business, and how will we know?” It sets the frame for every comment that follows. For designers, the move is equally simple. - **Learn the money map.** Find out how your company or client makes money, who its best customers are, and which number leadership watches each week. - **Translate before you present.** Open with the outcome, then show the craft that delivers it. Keep the design vocabulary for the design team. - **If nobody can define “strategic,” define it yourself.** As Reyes Montealegre suggests, ask what it means in your organization. If no one knows, writing the answer may be the most strategic thing you do this quarter. Good craft still matters as much as ever. But it gets funded when the people paying for it can see what it changes.