From Doer to Multiplier
When we think about design skills, we often focus on the technical aspects—things like UI design, prototyping, and research. These are the foundational skills that set you apart early in your career and define you as “a designer.” But as you grow in your career, you’ll quickly find that your technical skills are only part of the equation.
After a few years, what’s blocking your senior career growth isn’t how well you prototype; it's things like collaborating with PMs, stakeholder management, presentation skills, quality of feedback, adaptability, business knowledge, etc.
This week, we'll explore the evolution of a product designer’s career, and how your role shifts from doing the work to influencing others as you progress.
The doer
In the early stages of your career, you need to excel at turning other people’s ideas into something tangible—typically an attractive, intuitive, interactive prototype. Being good at visual design, for example, is also the best skill for getting noticed and landing interviews early in your career. For the first year or two of your design career, I recommend to every product designer to double down on the craft of design.
The response from other design leaders is often comments like “UX is more than UI” or “form follows function”. But as a junior designer, your work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You’ll usually get support from others, and people will understand if you don’t feel confident planning and executing a research plan or driving a discovery workshop. However, if you don’t feel confident turning requirements into a prototype, nobody is coming to save you.
As your carer progresses, you’ll notice a declining return on investment from your technical skills. Instead, you’ll have to invest in skills you probably haven’t spent much time worrying about before.
Self-Assessment Questions:
- Can I turn requirements into polished design outputs like wireframes and prototypes?
- Do I have a strong foundation in visual design, interaction design, and usability principles?
- Am I getting consistent feedback on the quality of my craft and design execution?
If you’re mainly focusing on your technical craft and building your portfolio, you’re likely still in the Doer phase.
Resources
Get better at the "doing".
The planner
This phase involves transitioning from pure craft to strategy and collaboration, leading more complex projects and working with cross-functional teams.
As you grow as a designer, you will be trusted to lead the design (and possibly research) of increasingly complex features. If you’ve built up a foundation of technical skills, your success now depends largely on your ability to ask the right questions, gather and analyse data, understand where your work fits into the wider business context, build relationships across departments, and communicate effectively with the people who have the information you need or the decision-making power.
You'll need a plan and a process to consistently break down complex problems and turn them into solutions that address business goals and user needs.
Self-Assessment Questions:
- Am I leading design work on increasingly complex projects with minimal oversight?
- Do I feel comfortable asking the right questions and facilitating conversations across departments?
- Can I identify how my design work impacts broader business objectives?
If you’re leading projects and collaborating with PMs, developers, and other teams to solve more complex problems, you are likely in the Planner stage.
Resources
The multiplier
At this stage in your career, the value you bring isn’t just in your individual contributions—it’s in your ability to multiply the impact of others around you.
The quality of feedback you give, the insights you share, and your influence on colleagues becomes increasingly critical to your career success. You’re no longer just working within your own sphere of influence; you’re shaping the work of others and helping the team achieve its goals.
By guiding others toward the business’s objectives and influencing their work, you amplify not just your own impact but the impact of the entire team.
Self-Assessment Questions:
- Am I actively mentoring or guiding other designers, and is my feedback improving their work?
- Do I play a strategic role in aligning design work with business goals, providing insights to leadership?
- Am I helping to build and scale design processes that benefit the entire organisation?
If you’re focusing more on mentorship, team leadership, and influencing organisational direction, you’re likely in the Multiplier stage.
Resources
Looking ahead
As you continue to evolve as a designer, remember that each phase of your career requires different skills and priorities. Whether you’re just starting out and focusing on your craft, or you're in a leadership position influencing others, understanding the trajectory of your growth is key to long-term success.
I hope that was helpful! If you have any feedback for me, please reply to this email.
Thanks,
Dan Winer
Ps. about last week…
Here are a couple of great resources on the topic of last week's email on assessing your current skill level:
