It's Simple. Design Communicates.

Use design early on to communicate with leadership...

"Let’s start off with a simple definition of leadership. Leaders establish a vision, communicate it to their team and stakeholders, and drive for results to make that vision a reality. Companies with people in this role deliver quality products at the right time. Unfortunately, finding great leaders is hard.

Some people have remarkable foresight into the market, others have impeccable communication skills, and some know how to eloquently time, scope, and schedule complex operations. Quite rare is the person that can do all three. So what does this have to do with design? Well, let’s look at how design fits into this triumvirate.

Most companies consider design part of the implementation phase: a step in the process of getting things done (as illustrated above). Assembly line design like this can help the usability and visceral aspects of a product (i.e. “make it pretty”) but a large amount of design’s potential value is left on the table."   continued ...   (Via LukeW)

Design being introduced too late in the communication process