Why It All Matters: The Cost of Cutting Corners on Design Thinking & Training

The Real Cost of Ignoring Enterprise Design Principles

The problem with bad design isn’t just aesthetic. It’s operational. It’s financial. And it’s deeply human.

At Ziff-Davis, I watched in real-time as cost-cutting disguised as “efficiency” reshaped the industry. What was once a structured, team-based system of specialists was dismantled in favor of a single overworked designer expected to be a typesetter, brand strategist, and production artist all at once.

It wasn’t innovation. It was a slow-motion disaster. And I’ve watched that same disaster repeat itself with every major technological shift.

When companies cut corners on design thinking, training, and workflow structure, they create hidden liabilities that multiply over time. The fail-forward mentality—treating design failures as an expected cost of doing business—only compounds the problem.

Designers burn out under impossible expectations. Projects get delayed, reworked, or outright scrapped. Businesses waste thousands (or millions) fixing preventable mistakes.

All because someone decided proper training and structured workflows were an unnecessary expense.

The “Fail Forward” Mentality and Its Hidden Costs

The business world has embraced “fail forward” thinking—the idea that speed is more important than getting things right the first time. While iteration is a natural part of design, this excuse for bad planning has created a massive disconnect.

Failure earlier in the process compounds the pain in the bottom line. What could have been a simple fix upstream turns into a crisis downstream. Short-term cost-cutting creates long-term financial bleed.

I’ve seen it too many times. Let’s break it down:

Scenario 1: The “Good Enough” Branding Launch

Upstream Failure: A company rushes a branding project, skipping proper file organization and future-proofing considerations. Everything is built “flat,” so nothing can be easily adapted.

Immediate “Savings”

• No structured file system was created.
• No enterprise-ready formats are considered.
• No future-proofing investment.

What Happens Later:

• The company expands and suddenly needs adaptable brand assets.
• The files aren’t scalable, so everything has to be redone from scratch.
• More designers are hired to fix avoidable mistakes.

Total Cost Over Time: $100K+ in wasted labor and lost efficiency.

Scenario 2: The “We Don’t Need a Designer” Marketing Disaster

Upstream Failure: Marketing teams handle design internally with “good enough” templates and no structured workflow.

Immediate “Savings”

• No professional designer was hired.
• No design oversight.

What Happens Later:

• Brand inconsistency leads to customer confusion.
• Sloppy assets damage trust and credibility.
• The entire campaign has to be redone.

Total Cost Over Time: $500K+ in lost revenue and reputation damage.

Scenario 3: The Enterprise-Level System Failure

Upstream Failure: A corporation relies on undertrained designers and a disorganized digital asset system with no version control.

Immediate “Savings”

• No investment in enterprise-level design systems.
• No ongoing maintenance of assets or templates.

What Happens Later:

• Global rollout fails because designs aren’t formatted for multiple regions and languages.
• Lawsuits arise due to accessibility non-compliance.
• The company spends millions on redesigns, legal fees, and lost contracts.

Total Cost Over Time: Millions.

The Human Cost: Setting Talented Designers Up for Failure

Talented designers aren’t failing—the system is failing them.

Burnout from impossible expectations. Imposter Syndrome because they’re blamed for systemic failures. Physical and emotional exhaustion from trying to keep up with unreasonable workloads.

Wasting money is bad enough. Wasting people is unforgivable.

At Ziff-Davis, I saw incredible designers leave the industry because they weren’t just expected to design—they were expected to be strategists, IT specialists, production managers, and branding experts all at once. The impossible workload broke them.

The worst part? This cycle hasn’t stopped.

Today’s designers are still being trained without real mentorship. They’re still being asked to do the work of entire teams. They’re still expected to “figure it out” without support.

This is why it all matters.

If we don’t fix the foundation, we will keep building broken structures that collapse under the weight of poor planning and corporate denial.

What Happens Next?

In the next post, we take direct aim at the biggest myth keeping this broken system in place: the push-button designer fantasy.

• Why managers believe designers and AI “just push buttons.”
• How this mindset has deepened the industry’s crisis.
• Why expertise still matters—and always will.

We’ve lost too much. It’s time to take back what matters.