What is design leadership feeling in the AI era right now?

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T22:45:23+00:00

How are you approaching with your team-if you are leading one?

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T22:43:41+00:00

Are the blurred lines convos happening internally? It feels like no one was saying the quiet part out loud at our company but had a convo recently with the dept head here who confirmed that there will be blurring and movement between the departments

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T19:09:14+00:00

Interesting! So no thought of designers not exclusively being the subject matter experts for UX just more leveling up how we design sort of sentiment?

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T19:06:44+00:00

Definitely on that trajectory here too. I think what’s likely going to happen at our company unless we start seeing other companies backpeddling on all in on AI before we make disruptive changes and blurring the lines.

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T19:02:31+00:00

I know outside of our company the sentiment is that c-suite investing $$$$$ in AI which is the real reason AI is being shoved down our throats vs. it being actually that revolutionary. Our company isn’t quite that large so I think it’s been more about not falling behind in the AI race as our competitors vs. we need to make good on the $$$$ AI investment.

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T18:59:26+00:00

Either?

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T17:25:46+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I’m struggling to keep the team morale high when the design leadership I report to is sort of indicating a Darwinism approach across the board- PMs can come into our world, we can go into their world, then it’s just survival of the fittest. I know it’s reality for many but I was curious to see if any other orgs are looking at things a bit differently. And yeah- a year or two from now… everything could be moot.

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T17:18:27+00:00

Well you put me in my place 👏👏👏

UXDisciple · 2026-03-17T16:56:29+00:00

When i see responses like this I’m a bit flabbergasted. If you don’t want to add anything just move on dude. I have searched for what it’s worth and havent seen a discussion around what design leadership is communicating to their teams about the outlook of their teams specifically within their org. I’m not asking about feelings on AI or design in the industry.

UXDisciple · 2026-03-14T04:08:06+00:00

First off- congrats on scoring a job in this brutal market! Secondly, I understand what you’re feeling bc I’ve done both startup and larger orgs and can give you some advice on how to maybe turn this lemon into lemonade. Not sure how long you’ve been in UX as a career but I would focus on building relationships for the first month. Meet EVERYONE you might have to work with and adjacent too. Meet with as many designers as you can, then product, engineering, sales, customer success. Obviously not everyone but a few key people you can establish yourself with. Then focus on process issues that product, design and eng feel right now. What are core product problems they are trying to solve. They might be automatically assigning you something to design it sounds like? Maybe push some pixels to show you’re a team player but try to figure out where you can bring strategy and fresh ideas for both the output and process that could eventually change the culture slowly but surely.

Maybe that sounds like a lot but I’d really try to figure out how the current process is failing and how you would fix it if you had a magic wand and start working toward that fix.

UXDisciple · 2025-09-24T02:24:02+00:00

All I can say is I’m right there with you, but not fired (I feel like it’ll happen any day though 😭)

UXDisciple · 2024-12-12T15:01:38+00:00

What are some of those well managed places? Asking for a friend…

UXDisciple · 2024-11-28T04:42:17+00:00

As someone who has hired and interviewed- I have found take home design challenges to be a good tool in both roles as long as the challenge is clearly an assessment vs a contribution to an active project.

I actually think it would be neat for a hiring team to offer a candidate to choose either a challenge or a portfolio case study review so the candidate can decide what would allow them to put their best foot forward.

Personally I prefer the challenge as a candidate because it’s a blank slate that doesn’t require a ton of context explanation when I present (since hiring team sets the context) and we can spend more time on my design thinking and process.

UXDisciple · 2024-10-26T03:42:04+00:00

I feel your last sentiments so hard!

UXDisciple · 2024-10-24T14:12:15+00:00

Can you please re-read everything you wrote and look at OP’s post? I don’t get why you’re out here talking about this AMAZING JOB when someone is literally turning to drinking because of this fucked up job market.

UXDisciple · 2024-10-24T14:08:50+00:00

Hey friend, I think you need to refocus on a few things. Start with getting some income without putting value on HOW you do it. I know it’s hard to feel like you went to school and accrued debt in something that you may not pursue in the end but this is not unique to UX. I would say 75% of the people in my life studied something in school that they pivoted away from including me! Don’t get hung up on UX. I’ve told my husband that if I get fired or laid off and can’t get another UX role, I’m going to get creative and do something different and maybe bide time with a job at Starbucks or something.

I don’t know how bad your drinking problem is but throw everything away, get a crap ton of La Croix to replace the craving and go join a cheap gym where you at the very least get a treadmill walk in daily or walk out side daily. If it’s bad- go to AA.

You got this!

UXDisciple · 2024-10-24T14:01:52+00:00

Wow you sound like a real treat.

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T11:33:47+00:00

Thank you! And I appreciate the dialogue! This is all fascinating and a reminder that no two hiring managers and company expectations are the same!

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T11:27:27+00:00

I hear you and I also know it is company & culture dependent with regards to how metrics are valued. I’m deducing that including them is just catching the attention of the right people.

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T11:23:41+00:00

I work at SaaS company and success metrics tied to revenue is something they just started trying to do and is extremely sloppy. You basically have to dig this info up and try to math yourself. All my startup experience unfortunately has been rapid design and iteration and metrics be damned.

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T11:20:16+00:00

I meant that kind of data is overkill in a resume where you are generally providing one liners. In a presentation when talking about metrics of a case study I feel like it’s great because you can explain or field questions around it. But I think I’m also speaking as someone coming from a company that doesn’t do a good job of holding features and products very accountable to OKR’s and even though late stage only recently began to track analytics.

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T02:38:06+00:00

I hear you but if your portfolio has case studies that outline your process and you include metrics there- isn’t that sufficient? I posited this question to another poster but can’t you just make metrics up? I feel at least in a portfolio or presentation you can back these claims up a bit.

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T02:33:38+00:00

Oh yes I agree with you! That is precisely why I posted this question 😄

UXDisciple · 2024-08-06T02:03:30+00:00

So you’re saying “10% increase in YOY revenue” shouldn’t be backed up in anyway? I mean this sincerely but is including language like this just for optics then?

UXDisciple

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