"Having worked in industry as a User Experience Designer for over 20 years (under many titles, but the same basic job), I am happy to see programs like the one described, but I am not sure that they are the solution.  In a typical technology lead company, it is the product development managers who really set the tone and make the decisions on the inevitable trade offs that come up while creating a product.  They nearly always come from a engineering/programming background.  The best results I have seen is when these managers learn the value of design over time and become champions without getting in the way.  I have never seen a designer leading product development.  I suppose this would lead to two paths - try to educate more dev mgrs on design, or make designers more technical so they can take on tech leadership roles.  I am not sure making designers better designers is going to do much.  "