When a company as huge and influential as Apple makes a change in its top leadership, the world pays attention, since a high-level leadership change could affect the future trajec

Apple CEO Tim Cook is about to take over one of the most significant parts of Apple’s business: its design team. The team currently reports to COO Jeff Williams, but once Williams begins his just-announced retirement “late in the year,” the design team “will then transition to reporting directly to Cook,” Apple says.

Apple’s design team is moving back up the ladder to answer to the CEO for the first time in years. Here’s what it could mean.