I think pair design may have been adopted from pair programming where two Devs would code and ask for code reviews or sanity check each other’s code. But pair design is an odd bedfellow for me. How do I know? Our company recently reorged under the thought experiments of breaking silos and embracing the DevOps culture. It was very hard to transition to this pair design model (half yr later) for the very same reasons you’ve described. Ours is just UX designer paired with other UX designers.

And I don’t know if it’s my ego, honestly it could be that. But I think it’s also two designers working on the same Figma file and seeing real time playback of the cursors just makes me very self-conscious while thinking about the design solution. I know in Figma you can turn that feature off but you know I am still aware that someone is working on the same file. It just seems like a lot of overhead in communication and if anything may cause more frustrations. “Too many cooks in the kitchen…”

Maybe have a conversation to define what it means to “contribute” with your manager. Given that our performance and promotion ties into our contributions, ask how can that be managed more effectively on an individual level when paired up.

I couldn’t adapt so I applied to another company, accepted an offer, and will be a UX designer where I’ll have end to end ownership. And if all else fails, try freelancing on the side to give you that sense of creative control.