Hi peeps, after combing the internet for open and active design leadership opportunities weekly, I’ve been noticing some patterns, thought I’d share!
Big takeaway: Product design is evolving. The strongest opportunities go to designers who show range and demonstrate measurable impact.
More competitive market - Hiring is happening, but it’s selective. Because AI accelerates output, companies are valuing designers who can think strategically vs creating a factory output.
“Full-spectrum” designers - Companies want designers who can do more than UI, think research, prototyping, data, and product thinking. Why?Products live and die by outcomes, not aesthetics. That means designers who can run a test, read a funnel, or measure a signal are more valuable.
Leveraging AI is a must - AI isn’t replacing designers, but it’s reshaping what kind of design is valuable. The edge goes to those who can both design AI features for users and use AI to accelerate their own workflow.
Impact over aesthetics - Portfolios that show real outcomes (metrics, before/after results) carry more weight than polished mockups alone.
Soft Skills are still SO important - Your ability to tell the story: why this matters, how it connects to KPIs, and what trade-offs were made, is critical. Can you present, negotiate, and influence? Example: A designer who can’t explain research insights to engineering won’t move the roadmap, no matter how polished their mockups are.
Just some patterns I’ve noticed. Any big ones I’m missing or disagreements with the above?
I honestly see these things shifting possibly every year or so. With the growing capacity of AI, who knows what things will look like in a year, you know?
But totally agree, soft skills are a freaking treasure.
The speed at which AI software tooling is exploding is mind-boggling and so rapid that it’s difficult to maintain adoption. I, like yourself @ben think that things are likely to slow down as people build the tooling which will have the most longevity and usefulness. Very similar to the dotcom boom, where we got Amazon and Google, but nobody remembers Pets.com, Peapod or Webvan. Same with AI tooling.
I also think that now that we have the ability to build our own tools (Agents and MCPs anyone?) - there also will be a side-market of people who build discardable, single-purpose tools when there aren’t tools available. My hard guess is that there will be folks who discover a universal, undiscovered need by doing this and accidentally create a billion dollar, long-lasting business of the future.
legitimate thing that probably occurs way more frequently than we’d think