4 books on strategy every designer should read

🐝 Strategy is one of those corporate buzzwords agencies and individuals alike will throw around casually and often to justify charging a premium.

Strategic planning. Strategizing. Competitive strategy.

🤔 But what does strategy ACTUALLY mean?

🔮 It’s not as mystifying as you might believe.

The following books outline principles specific to design, brand and business but they all hover around the same central idea:

⚡️ Strategy is about making choices.

Design strategy in particular should be a shared language between designers and business owners. It doesn’t have to be complicated or burdensome.

It can be simple. And effective.

So if you’re interested in making choices that will improve your designs, your presentation skills and your business…

Check ‘em out below ⬇️

📚 Good Strategy / Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt - The title pretty much sums it up, but this little book shares dozens of clear examples on how to recognize which is which (and how to avoid the pitfalls of bad strategy).

📚 Playing To Win by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley - Includes a thorough breakdown of the ever-practical “strategy choice cascade,” a framework for designing a holistic competitive strategy.

📚 Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever - Greever focuses on listening and communicating strategy (which are essential for any collaborative effort to actually work). “Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience.”

📚 Zag by Marty Neumeier - This one outlines the “only-ness” test, a powerful brand positioning tool. “Our [offering] is the only [category] that [benefit].”

Theree’s dozens of design strategy books and resources, but I’d start with these.

What books would you add?