Design Strategy vs. Design Vision: What's the Difference?


Design Strategy vs. Design Vision: What's the Difference?

by Jeff Humble


Dear Reader,

There's a rookie mistake that I see design strategists make over and over.

They think that a vision is a strategy. But vision and strategy are wildly different.

What's the difference, you say? Well, vision is more about where you want to be, while strategy is more about how to get there.

Why don't I show just show you? Check it out below:

Source, shared by Linus Mimetz in the Guild

Last night we hosted a Fishbowl event called Empowering Design Teams, and you can grab the recording below. We delved into the art of leadership in design. In the recording, you will hear stories and uncover insights to foster a culture of empowerment within your design team.


WORKSHOP: Aligning with Strategy
Get a crash course in strategy from Jeff Humble in 3 hours
July 15, 2026 @ 18:00 CEST
Buy a Seat


COURSE: Facilitating Workshops
Learn to turn meetings into momentum and clear decisions.
Next cohort: Autumn 2026
Join Waitlist


COURSE: Defining UX Strategy
Learn to design a winning strategy that aligns design with business.
Next cohort: Autumn 2026
Join Waitlist


Until next week, give yourself a break. You've done enough for the week!

Jeff Humble
UX Strategist & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute

P.S. We've got a few seats left for Defining UX Strategy starting in 2 weeks. Join us and master design strategy in 6 weeks with videos, workshops, and tons of feedback. Join here

The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.

Read more from The Fountain Institute

7 Ways Hiring is Evolving for Senior Designers by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, 2026 has been a wild ride for product designers, so we thought it might be worth checking in to see what's changing about design hiring. There has never been a better time to think outside the box with your career strategies. In this article, we give you a playbook from various experts where every piece of advice is from this year. Get comfortable with live problem-solving. Shipped, traceable work beats case studies....

5 More Signals about the Future of AI Interactions by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, The way we interact with AI is changing, and it fascinates me. How will we interact with AI in 2035? Signals give us a hint. What are signals? Signals = surprising examples from today that suggest where the future might end up. Last year, I did part 1, and now I want to share 5 more. Signal #1: Google built an AI-enabled mouse pointer from Google DeepMind This is a signal that I think will catch on fast. The Google...

Which parts of your work do you actually want to keep? By Hannah Baker This one's a few days late; life got in the way. Back to our regular scheduled broadcast next week. For a long time, I was using Claude the same way most people do. As a chat function. A thinking partner. Something to help me get things done. But I kept running into the same problem. Every new conversation, I'd have to re-explain everything, my tone, my formatting, what I needed the output to look like. So I'd stay in the...