We’ll all be design engineers in a year… and that’s a good thing!

Earlier this month I met with a product manager who wanted to know if a designer on my team had capacity to take on a small project. Everyone’s stretched thin and we’re no different. I didn’t have a great answer for her.

When I asked about the project’s details, she shared a prototype she made in v0. It wasn’t polished, but it showed what she had in mind.

No reading through a 15 page PRD. No “Let’s set up a quick call to discuss!” A 15 second schpiel and her prototype told me what I needed to know. It was like that scene from The Matrix where Neo learned kung fu in 15 seconds.

That moment made something clear: Ai makes it easier for anyone to turn an idea into something real. We don’t have to wait around for a professional. There’s no limit to who’s allowed to have ideas.

My PM experienced this, and we designers can too. How many times have we noticed a design flaw in our product, filed a Jira ticket to have an engineer fix it, and watched it fall to the bottom of the backlog.

Ai helps us make these fixes ourselves, just as it helps a product manager start a prototype without having to wait for a designer.

Specialization is for insects

EPD roles are flattening and generalists will own the future.

I forget who said it, but it’s true. It doesn’t mean we won’t do product design, it’s just that we’ll be able to do (or at least start) other things as well. Designers aren’t limited to flow charts, static mockups, and basic prototypes.

I predict the early parts of projects, getting from nothing to something, will become shared across roles. For designers looking to branch out, code is a natural next step. I see a future where we’re fixing small bugs ourselves instead of begging an engineer, implementing that animation that didn’t make the sprint but you know would absolutely slap, and even building simple features when engineering resources are tight.

Our new reality is that anyone can make a rough draft.

But that doesn’t mean those drafts are good. That’s where our training and taste come in.

Ai is like a hyperactive intern: fast, eager, but clueless without guidance. It doesn’t know if what it’s creating is any good. This is what we mean when we talk about taste, knowing what’s worth keeping and what needs fixing.

We can code more of our designs now, but we’ll still want a professional engineer to review and refine that code. Just like my PM who started prototyping, she’ll still need a designer to shape the final experience.

Taste. Fundamentals. Craft. That’s the part that still matters.

Back to my prototyping PM…

“But I’m not a designer…”

When I saw her prototype, I asked her to keep going. She looked embarrassed. “But I’m not a designer.”

“That’s ok” I assured her. A designer could jump in later as an advisor or co-designer, help steer the design, and polish the finer details.

Despite the lack of a professional designer, this project is moving forward. This is what “doing more with less” looks like in the age of Ai. (I haven’t even mentioned the time when our team of designers with little to no code knowledge shipped 30 UX papercuts last week, that’s another post).

I’ll end with a personal note: Ai has made coding fun again! Even with a front-end background, I’ve never been great with JavaScript, never loved digging through massive codebases to find a file, and definitely never enjoyed making the same edit over and over by hand. I’ve offloaded tasks like these to Ai, which means I can focus on the fun parts.

And the most fun part: Seeing my design actually working in a browser.

🧶 Stray Links

Staying on the theme above, in Design Leadership in the Age of AI, Andy Budd argues that AI won’t replace designers but it will replace those who don’t adapt.

I loved Dive Club’s episode with Intercom’s Emmet Connolly, where they talk about what design will look like in the Ai era. Lots of parallels into where my team is in this Ai journey and what we’re working on.

A bunch of tactical tips for anyone using Figma Make. I usually don't like articles on company blogs because they're watered down so much, but this is an exception.

I’ve been kicking the tires on Superinterviews and it’s been eye opening. Even for those of us not on the job market, it always helps to be ready if that dream job comes along (or if the worst should happen). Superinterviews has already pointed out a bunch of things I would not have thought to say to an interviewer (and showed me just how rusty I am!).

Since becoming a manager, I don’t get the same dopamine spikes I did when I was an IC designer and developer and Jamie Lawrence explains why.

🏛️ From the Archives

A favorite I periodically re-read.

I peridocailly re-read “Should you become a manager”-type posts to make sure I’m the right role. Cap Watkins’s Should I Become a Manager? is one I keep coming back to. Lots of real talk in there, like the part about parallel career tracks for ICs and managers:

❝ Nice Site

Love the product storytelling on Antimetal. An acceptable use of scroll-jacking, and bonus points for the retro inset text and aqua buttons at the bottom 🤠

Thanks for reading ✌️
- Ted (@tedgoas)