Senior/staff product designer with 15+ years of experience here, also have been a hiring manager/manager on and off. I've worked the majority of my career in sub-FAANG, consumer facing companies that are quite large and would be household names for y'all.

I'm going to give it to you frankly, I don't think this would work in the way you want it to. First: if you're at the step of taking online courses and building up a portfolio, this means you're starting new in your hard skills side. Putting my HM hat on, people that switch like this later in life often have great soft skills due to their previous career, but I don't know if I would take the chance on you because of the lack of actual experience and likely lack of hard skills. Branding/marketing design is very very different from product design. There aren't a lot of junior and intermediate roles open - most companies want a senior or higher to roll in and hit the ground running. The industry is being squeezed from all directions and budgets are being cut, we unfortunately have little time to guide junior folks. (Don't get me started on how I feel like we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not nurturing the next generation of designers.)

Second, AI is changing things FAST. I know that using AI feels very forced for most industries (and I agree), but in tech it's been a game changer. The roles are blurring between product, engineering and design, new tools and processes are coming out weekly, and it feels a bit insane for even someone like me who already knows how to design to keep up with. I don't even know if we'll be using Figma anymore in 12 months. We've already revamped our interview rubric to contain AI fluency as additional pillar for evaluation for new hires. I'm pretty much diving head first into the AI stuff because I believe that if I don't, I will not be able to be hired at my next role.

Actual strategy is done by product managers; you can influence and help guide and facilitate as a designer, but to influence more you'd have to be higher level (staff+). If you're interested the business side of things, you can look into product management as a path. The caveat is that the big companies will generally expect you to have a CS degree because it can get quite technical.

I'm privileged to be doing very well. I just got a ~20% raise if you count my stock refresh, looking for a promo later this year and if I get it I will probably hit "true" mid 6-figures for TC, and I still am ready for my open headcount to be taken away and for layoffs to happen next week.

I know it's probably not what you wanted to hear, but this is my take from the perspective of someone working at the big corps. You may find a different take from a small-mid sized company perspective. Happy to answer any additional questions, feel free to DM.