When we launched the first episode of our new podcast, Orbit by Osiflow, I wasn’t expecting it to hit this hard  but Shreshth (our founder) and Simonetta brought the kind of conversation that rewires how you think about design.

This wasn’t a debate about whether that button should be teal or blue. This was design in its most strategic form how to craft products that win in the market and keep a business alive.

The Beautiful Car That Won’t Start

Simonetta told a story every designer has lived through: you build something elegant, intuitive, even delightful – your masterpiece. But then the cold truth lands: if it doesn’t help the business thrive, it’s as useless as a race car with no fuel.

It’s easy to get tunnel vision on user value and usability. But as Shreshth pointed out, the third dimension viability is where design either drives the company forward or stalls it entirely.

“In today’s AI-driven market, the designers who win aren’t just problem-solvers for users, they’re architects of business outcomes.” – Shreshth Kapoor

The Product Trio’s Real Job

They unpacked Marty Cagan’s “product trio” — designer, engineer, and product manager — and reframed it for today:

• Engineer → Can we build this? (Feasibility)
• Designer → Will people love this? (Usability & Value)
• Product Manager → Should we build this? (Viability)

Shreshth added an AI-age twist: every member of that trio now has access to unprecedented speed and capability, which means there’s no excuse for not aligning fast on why we’re building something and how it will sustain the business.

Speaking the Language of the CFO

Simonetta shared how she earned a CFO’s trust. It wasn’t by polishing the pixels it was by switching her vocabulary. She stopped talking in UI terms and started talking about ROI, cost savings, and revenue protection. That’s when the relationship shifted from “designer” to “strategic partner”.

Shreshth mirrored that point with his own approach: in client workshops, he maps design opportunities directly against a company’s revenue and cost levers. That way, design isn’t pitched as “nice to have”—it”’s presented as an operational advantage.

A Four-Point Cheat Sheet for Business-Savvy Design

If you want your design work to land with executives, here’s the shared playbook they laid out:

1. Increase Revenue – Enable upsells, new pricing tiers, or entirely new lines of business.
2. Protect Revenue – Reduce churn, improve retention, and keep customers coming back.
3. Decrease Costs – Streamline processes, lower support loads, and save operational time.
4. Avoid Costs – Prevent compliance risks, support escalations, or future hiring spikes.

Frame your design work in these terms, and you’re no longer talking aesthetics you’re talking business strategy.

The Takeaway: Profit Isn’t a Dirty Word

Design without business grounding is just decoration. Profit is what lets our ideas live in the real world — and in today’s AI-powered economy, aligning with it is a designer’s competitive edge.

The next time you’re deep in Figma, zoom out past the pixels. Ask yourself: How does this help the business? If you can answer that, you’re already speaking the language that gets designs shipped, funded, and celebrated.

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🎙️ Listen to the full conversation — Episode 1 of Orbit by Osiflow is live on YouTube. If you’re a designer who wants to speak “business” as fluently as you speak “design,” this is your starting line. 👉 Watch here

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Until next time! :)

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