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Feeling like your role as a designer is shifting faster than ever? Whether you’re navigating AI’s impact, exploring paths beyond management, or trying to align your team around a clear vision — we’re diving into the ideas, tools, and mindset shifts that can help you stay sharp and shape what’s next.

In today’s email:

• Why designers with the most expertise might face the biggest career risks in the age of AI — and how to stay adaptable
• Discover how super senior ICs are reshaping product careers without moving into management
• Learn how design-led vision helps teams align on strategy and build truly cohesive product experiences

Design gems of the week

• ​How Tech Workers Really Feel About Work Right Now: Get the inside scoop on how tech workers really feel today—covering burnout, shifting optimism, and what makes startup founders stand out. Honest insights worth reading.
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• ​Building the Future of AI: Join Beta’s community of AI founders, designers, and developers. Get the tools, support, and connections you need to turn bold AI ideas into real products, income, and freedom.
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• ​The Thing You Are Expert at Will Be Your Career Downfall: Deep attachment to your expertise can hold you back from adapting to AI’s rapid changes. Those most skilled might be the most disrupted—but this is also an opportunity to expand your identity, embrace new skills, and reinvent your work.​
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• ​UI Prep Design System Bootcamp: Master the art of design systems with Molly Hellmuth. Use code FEMKE100 for $100 off and elevate your design skills to the next level. Cohort 10 enrollment opens June 16th and closes July 7th.
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A MESSAGE FROM FRAMER Create and launch your dream website with Framer — no code required, lightning-fast results. Join thousands of designers and teams who are turning ideas into powerful, high-performance sites with ease. ​Get 25% off for 3 months with code FEMKE25​

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How to transform scattered feature requests into coherent experiences with a Design Vision

It's Thursday afternoon and you're juggling multiple tasks that need wrapping up by the weekend.

Not only are you responding to urgent design feedback, but you're also trying to finish the accessibility audit that was due yesterday.
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Your calendar is back-to-back with reviews, and somewhere between standup and another "quick sync," your product manager drops you a DM in Slack.

As you've likely experienced throughout your design career, one of the most persistent challenges is making time to influence long-term product vision while managing the day-to-day demands of feature delivery.

This is where design-led vision work can help – to transform scattered feature requests into a coherent end to end narrative.

What is a design vision?

A design vision establishes a strategic narrative for your product’s future state.

Rather than starting with technical constraints or business requirements, this approach begins with a deep understanding of user needs, business goals and works outward to define how your product will evolve to serve and achieve those needs more effectively.

This goes beyond creating aspirational concepts. It’s about establishing a shared understanding of value creation that guides decision-making across your team.

When executed well, it provides the context that transforms individual features into components of a larger, end-to-end experience.

Vision driven product development

Well-crafted vision work creates alignment that extends beyond the design team. A good vision also influences the product roadmap:

Decision-making becomes more strategic. Teams spend less time debating individual feature requirements and more time evaluating how proposed changes support the larger vision. This shift reduces friction and accelerates development cycles.

Stakeholder conversations become more productive. Instead of getting caught in tactical discussions about specific UI elements or workflow details, you can focus on whether proposed solutions address the core user problems your vision is designed to solve.

Product coherence improves over time. Features begin to reinforce each other rather than existing as isolated capabilities. Users experience your product as an integrated solution rather than a collection of tools.

Building stakeholder investment

A successful vision requires genuine stakeholder engagement, not just approval. The most effective approaches focus on collaboration rather than a presentation:

Lead with research insights. Ground your vision discussions in user research and market analysis. When stakeholders understand the underlying problems and opportunities, they’re better positioned to evaluate proposed solutions.

Create conceptual experiences. Create conceptual prototypes or illustrate user scenarios that allow stakeholders to experience your vision firsthand.

Align vision with business outcomes. Demonstrate clear connections between your design vision and measurable business results. This isn’t about compromising design principles – it’s about articulating how good design drives business value.

Facilitate collaborative refinement. Use structured workshops to refine the vision with stakeholders. When people contribute to shaping something, they develop ownership over its success.

What happens next

Visions are conceptual in nature, meaning you shouldn't be bogged down with tactical planning and feature prioritization. However, there will later come a time when they vision starts to inform the day to day work. When that begins to happen:

Establish vision-driven prioritization criteria. Develop clear criteria for evaluating feature requests against your vision. This creates consistency in roadmap decisions and helps teams understand why certain features receive priority.

Build validation into your process. Concepts formulated during a vision are often hypothetical or based on assumptions. It's vital to validate vision concepts before committing significant team resources. This will reduce risk while maintaining momentum.

Create feedback loops between vision and reality. As you ship features and gather user feedback, use those insights to refine your vision.

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Building a design vision requires both strategic thinking and practical execution skills.

It’s about creating alignment that persists through the inevitable complexity of product development, ensuring that your team’s efforts compound toward meaningful user outcomes rather than dissipating across disconnected features.

Have a topic you'd like me to write about? Reply to this email and let me know! I read every reply.