Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
The most talented design friends I have are now experimenting with Claude and Cursor to build their own things. So I think that's the kind of attitude we need more of. You don't need to know how to code. AI can help you build a product. This experimental mindset, this kind of really trying these technologies to see how they work, to see how they can help you as a designer bring your vision to life better or maybe faster. It's just interesting. If you set aside time to just experiment with these new tools and that will really
in a way make you more competitive but it will make you enjoy your job more and enjoy the design profession and then understand what is the future of it
hello designers and welcome to the first episode of honest ux talks in 2025. happy new year everyone may we all have an amazing 2025 and even if it's not amazing i hope it's decent and just enjoyable overall
I'm very excited to restart our conversations and I think we will have a lot of interesting topics in the near future to unpack. The industry is in a very, I would say, interesting space right now and I think we will still see a lot of change, transformation. In a way, it's not clear if we can really call this an evolution, but it's definitely just the industry transforming.
And because the industry, we're noticing the industry transforming and some of the parts of these transformations are good, like designers are becoming more mature, they're expanding their skill set, they're becoming more conscious, there are more conversations about ethics, not enough, but increasingly more.
At the same time, there's this negative phenomena where there are mass layoffs and design is kind of in a way losing power in companies because the capitalist competition is increasingly fierce and companies want to just move fast and have AI in their product or do whatever the next shiny thing. And so design gets often deprioritized or even more devalued than in the past. And so there are also, let's say, bad things that we're noticing. And so it's a very strange moment.
And that's why me and Anfisa thought that it would be interesting to give designers our take on how to orientate under these strange times. So what do I need to learn next? How do I stay relevant? How do I stay competitive? How can I become more valuable? So essentially, this question translates into what are the skills that will be in demand in 2025 and beyond?
But before we move on, I just want to take a moment to thank our partner WIC Studio for supporting our conversations. And today's conversation is all about the skills you need in 2025 and beyond. And what we argue is that one of them is this capacity to embrace new technologies and experiment with them and learn what the
potential is, what the possibilities are, what the limits in a way, and how these emerging technologies can become partners in your work. And if you're a senior designer that's working on websites, whether it's through an agency or you're doing direct client work and you're delivering high-end websites as a designer, then your playground for understanding emerging technologies and AI is Week Studio. You don't need to go further than that. So
You can go to Wix Studio and see the possibilities of AI as an assistant that supports you in delivering these high-end, sophisticated solutions, right, for building a website. So you can explore things such as responsive AI, which was a very tedious and not very valuable task. And now you can externalize it to AI and you can experiment with how that works directly in Wix Studio. Or they offer an AI code assistant, Wix.
can give tasks to and then it can help you get tailored scripts and troubleshoot and retrieve product answers and that's another way in which technology is amazing and where it's equipping us with ways to work better also things such as ai expand imagine your clients want you to add an image to your design but it doesn't fit the layout right resizing in your design software leads to this
really frustrating choice do you destroy the image and compromise quality do you awkwardly crop out key elements like this disrupts your workflow forcing you to either find a new image spend extra time and you understand the hassle in a way and so now you're able to extend the image in a way that adapts to your design with ai and not the other way around and by exploring the capabilities that weak studio is offering as ai features
you're essentially just becoming better and understanding how to use this new modern toolbox for becoming a more valuable designer. So yeah, go ahead, experiment with AI, go to your Playground Week studio and tell me how it went. So with this very long intro, I just want to jump and ask Anfisa how her past weeks were, the holidays and so on.
Oh no, you started in such a sad note. I almost felt like, no, we don't want to scare everyone. No, it's not going to be too bad. Please stay, stay in design. We need good people. But yeah, you're right. It's like, it's a tough market, but I also feel like there are pros and cons. And in a way, just like with any capitalistic market, things are adjusting, right? So there will be turbulence. It still happens, but in a way it has a cross to us as an industry. Now back to your question. I think
All in all, I don't have anything great to report on my vacations because my vacations were very chaotic and very stressful. I have been alone for the whole kind of vacation period for two weeks. I was sitting alone with the baby because my husband had to first work in the Christmas time, but then he got sick. So I was still sitting with the baby 24-7. And now because I am back to work, we had to set up the baby Gregory, who is 90 months old. So it's like
one year and seven months, but he is kind of still very young and we wanted to give him to the kindergarten. And it was a very, very stressful moment. Like, so for the last two weeks, we were trying to set him up for a kindergarten and we started facing this separation anxiety. He's
screaming every time when I'm not around. He is very moody. He is very irritated, anxious. Yeah, it's hard. It's really, really hard. And I cannot even downsize it anyhow. Like it's just really, really hard and stressful moment because he would scream four hours straight per day. And my Apple watch would constantly give me the notification that 90 decibels screaming, please. It's too noisy around you. It will impact your mental health or something.
It's a very stressful period and I cannot even drink a coffee or I cannot leave the room because the baby is running and chasing after me and screams every moment. So it is hard and I am trying to go through this turbulence with grace and not lose my head.
And that's kind of it. Otherwise, the good things that I can still report back to. So the vacation itself was okay. We survived Christmas, we survived fireworks, we survived parties where the baby was also overwhelmed with amount of people and, you know, all the celebrations.
He had a lot of gifts, which was nice. But at the same time, it was a lot of stress for him to meet so many people all at once. But after the Christmas was over, I was obviously reflecting on my side product community, which I put a lot of heart and soul into these days. And I am very excited because there are some very big changes coming up.
And at the end of the year, I felt like there are some things that are stagnating and I wanted to shake things up a little bit. And there will be really interesting updates coming up soon. So yeah, that's what my head is all wrapped up into. As well as work, actually. At my work, there's a lot of great projects going on today. And I'm very interested in finally having the opportunity to make some impact.
I'm not sure if I will be, but there is a good space in my team right now to make some strong impact in the industry, which is something I always strive for in the hospitality industry. So things are pretty good at work and the community-wise. However, with my day-to-day and my life and me sitting from the carpet working while the baby screams and I'm talking to our product leaders, it's insane. The amount of stress you have to endure, it's very...
very fascinating honestly i think the growth you go through when you have a baby when you have a toddler that's you know going through the first crises and i'm pretty sure it's going to be worse and worse and more intense moving forward joanna would probably say more about that but yeah the amount of stress you go through i cannot even explain how much growth and patience and resilience and endurance you develop throughout this period i guess that will be it on my side about you joanna how was your vacation
I empathize so deeply with everything you just shared. For our regular listeners, probably it's not going to be news that I also have a four-year-old daughter and I've been through the pains you've described and it's very intense. I can say it gets better. It's not going to get easier.
easier necessarily but at least you change the kind of problems you have to deal with as they grow so yeah hang in there in my case I think my holiday was much quieter I was able to unplug for two weeks which is for me
exotic. It's, oh my god, I made it. I'm a capable adult that can give themselves a break. And not just that, but I also started exploring meditation, which is something that I've been trying to do for many years now, because all the intellectual people I respect swear by it, from Sam Harris to just the people I follow and trust.
And it was like high time for me to try to find better instruments to work with my mind and just find a better way or new ways in which I could manage my thoughts and my life, right? So meditation is great. I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying. And yeah, so it was pretty quiet. I also went on a very spontaneous holiday to Spain. Like it was, I don't know, I scheduled it two days before and there were a lot of kids and it was noisy and it was exciting.
Valencia is just great. And I think that's it. And I think one important big piece of news from my side is that this week, so the second week of January, I launched my design studio. It's called AR Studio, which stands for AI Revolution, but also it's like the initials of my name.
and the word air which hopefully will kind of give the feeling of airness, easiness, lightness, like just making complexity simple which is something that as designers we should be doing. It's a studio in which I will try to do consultancy work and fractional leadership and
and internal trainings and workshops for companies to help them kind of figure out how they can surface AI in their products and even internally in their workflows in a meaningful and valuable way without having to
force AI so that they can then say, oh, we have AI in our product. Here's what it does. Nothing that would help anyone. But yeah, so that's what I think I want to see more in the industry, meaningful stuff in the AI space. So this is my, let's say, mission, my ethos at AR Studio, just facilitating thinking, right? And
hand-holding companies in trying to figure out which is the philosophy that they have around AI and design. And it's going to be very interesting and I think I'm going to learn a lot. I've been postponing this for many years now, but I have been thinking, I've been reflecting on how can I make
more impact in the industry like you work in a full-time role and then it's very much about a very specific problem that you spend I don't know sometimes four months on and it's interesting and it's valuable and you dive deep and you get a complex understanding of that problem but you can't really have a
let's say, broad impact when you're going so narrow in the problems you solve. And so that's what I kind of felt after the past couple of years working in full-time roles. It's like, I'm very good at very specific problems, but I just want to do more broader, more...
in a way eclectic or encompassing problems. So yeah, we'll see where this road takes me. It's very open-ended. I'm very excited by it. So with this intro being said and our new journeys ahead, let's jump into the topic of today, which is what are the most...
in-demand skills or sought after or what should designers focus on in this, let's say, emerging new era of design. And I just want to start by inviting you to maybe reflect on some of the things you've noticed in the industry and where you feel are valuable skills now. So if you look around at designers that are landing jobs with ease, what are the skills that they have? And like, what do you feel are valuable skills at this moment?
Yeah, I like that when you said it was ease. I think nobody's able to make it with ease, even when you're very experienced and very well-seasoned designer. I feel like it still takes a moment to calibrate what you offer and find the right company. So with ease was probably when everything was available and everybody wanted you and you were just like picky about the company you're into. But these days, it's really, even when you're a very well-seasoned designer, it's hard to find the right match.
But it's more fulfilling when you did your homework with reflection and you found the right company for yourself, right? So it's pros and cons overall. With the skills per se, talking about the topic of today's episode, I think if I look into the whole market today, so looking high level, bird's eye perspective at the moment,
Let's be honest and try to kind of explain what's going on in the market. And we've talked about it multiple times. So it's kind of reestablishing the same things. Market is still in crisis. The roles are growing. I can see people are being hired, actually. For example, just yesterday, I saw the message from one of our junior designers who was hired.
at the end of the year, after like half a year of searching, which is a very cool signal because junior designers is super hard to find job, right? So I do see people finding jobs, but after doing a lot of homework, reflection, preparation, strategy, really doing the deep dive into what they can offer essentially. And so what it means for the market, it means that today the market is still in crisis,
roles are becoming harder and harder to land, but it's still very possible to land job. It's just going to be super perfect match, typically. What it means for us designers and what kind of roles in terms of skills and what we're applying in our day-to-day job, it means that the expectations from designers are growing because when the competition is high and when you have so many designers available, the companies obviously realize that they, for the same budget,
They could shoot higher. They could find somebody who has everything in their portfolio. They're very well-rounded, but also with some fantastic extra skills, with some extra talent, with some strength, right? Something that makes their team even more strong, sort of amplifying the talent. And so that means that for us today, if I were to sort of make it as a picture, what skills we are expected to perform on the market,
It would be, when you think about this T-shaped person, the letter T, right? This top, the horizontal line, from being just a little bit of everything, the horizontal stacking of skills, it will have to become much, much thicker from being a thin top line.
horizontal line, it will become so much thicker. So that means that you're expected to be really good in all of the fundamental skills as a designer. And so like being really well-shaped, full-rounded designer to embody somebody who could do this all. So instead of hiring, previously we were sort of relaxed, market was establishing itself, companies had budget, they could hire people with specializes, with niches, with...
specific verticals. Now they're looking for people who have strengths in most of those verticals, but one very strong talent to actually get somebody is excited, right? So what would you be go-to person for, right? What is your unique talent? What makes you unique comparing to the rest of the designers on the market today? And so that means you have to become very well-rounded and it's very, very tricky because obviously it's hard to get all those skills without, you know, practicing. So how can you suddenly become super experienced in all those like important skills?
And to be specific about the skills, what I usually mean under like what is expected from designer and which part is sickening. In my opinion, good designer and skills that we're expecting today from designer are skills such as obviously critical thinking, obviously UI design. Many of us start from UI design strengths, right? Yeah.
It's also an interesting topic because if I make a little detour, I think it's like the market is swinging today, right? From being very process-oriented today, we're back to UI design-oriented. And if you remember 2014 or 15 or something, everybody was Dribbble designer, so everything was UI design-oriented. It's a swinging sort of thing until we calibrate ourselves and we find the kind of middle ground for the whole industry.
But before it was UI, then it was process and design, UX, blah, blah, blah. And now it's back to UI. And it's kind of swinging back and forth until we find the middle ground. But at the moment, we see a lot of need for UI skills. It needs to be strong. It needs to be unique and almost like really in-depth. While before it wasn't like this, we suddenly have to become stronger than UI. And other skills beyond...
critical thinking, UI skills, strong communication as always, good designers, good communicator, storytelling, analytical skills, business understanding, technology understanding, attention to the details and things like that, right? So all those skills that we typically see even required from job roles, if before they needed to be just on a good enough level, now they need to be really good. Plus one big extra talent.
what makes you unique? What would be your strength that will most likely get you hired in this job? So what would be your go-to person for, right? For example, you could be a great storyteller and everybody will be coming to you when they want to get the feedback on their storytelling. Or you would be a person that knows design system the best. So you will be the person who everybody will be asking about the patterns, right? So what is your thing? So
What will be you fighting for when it comes to day-to-day job? So yeah, I guess it would be my answer. It's all the same skills that we typically expect from any designer, but much more in-depth, plus one strong pillar, one strong vertical that you still need to push for if you want to be outstanding and you need to surprise people around you with that pillar to inspire people. Because at the end of the day, we still hire somebody who can contribute and make your team more outstanding and more unique, more well-rounded in a way.
So the quality overall is growing for the whole design team. That would be just kind of my perspective. I know it's a lot of things, but I wonder if you noticed any market trends, patterns when it comes to the skills, especially for 2025, what things are important and where the designers can get in more depth moving forward in this year. I love your answer. I resonate with most of the points that you made. And I
I'm not sure I can add a lot to that, but I feel that one of the things that is becoming increasingly visible, and I think every designer should be aware of it, is that visual skills now matter a lot. And I just want to emphasize that. The
People who are landing jobs with ease are ones that can present their portfolio in a highly engaging visual style. It's the ones that they can communicate themselves very visually as well, both in the portfolio, maybe on social media when they're building a presence and whatnot. So visual skills are now essential. And this is an important change because for many years, we were kind of looking down on valuing this as designers, right? We were like, you
you know what, design is not about pixels. Design is just a manifestation of the design in the end. But what's more important is the thinking behind it. And that still holds true. But you also have to be very good at visualizing that solution today. So it became a non-negotiable. So I think that the people who are now might feel lost. I'm even seeing people leave the design industry because they really can't.
play this visual game and they're like, you know what, I don't have a place in this industry as it's transforming. And then there's also the question, but what if AI will produce UI? And so it's a matter of time before this skill goes back to not being quintessential. But I think...
having a very strong aesthetic muscle, let's say, an aesthetic vision. So building a strong eye for visual design is something that, even if you will produce it with the help of AI, understanding how to create beauty is now very valuable. And...
It's different from what we were all used to. And so that's one thing. But at the same time, I feel that strong critical thinking and systems thinking and being able to deal with complexity is something that's more and more required from designers. And
that can manifest in being able to handle complex team dynamics or complexity of an organization that you come and work in. But it can also be handling the complexity of a product or even sometimes having to understand some of the technical aspects that you're designing for, especially since many products now are becoming in a way technical because they're employing AI and they're using these models and
that kind of has an impact on design. So now you have to understand parts of something that in the past, it didn't really concern you. I mean, we were talking for many years, should designers know how to code? And the answer was always, I mean, it's a plus, it's an advantage, but it's not mandatory. I don't think designers should know how to code in a mandatory way, but the designers that have a technical understanding, they will be clearly more valuable because some of the products are becoming commonplace
complex in a technical way by using different tools now. So the toolbox of how we build is expanding with all the new emerging technologies, right? So now we're using agents or we're going to use, I don't know, different things that keep appearing. And then the more you understand how to surface those, and you don't have to have a deep understanding, like similar to a scientist or a researcher working on these models, but it's
the more you grasp what they can do and what they're good at and how to combine them, employ them and so on, the better you will be at coming up with design solutions as well. And that's also sort of counterintuitive because I also remember in the past we were talking about how designers should not care about the technical complexity or implementation. They should just come up with the
best possible solution for the user and then have the engineers figure out how they implement it. So it's not our job to concern ourselves. It's not my task to understand what's possible and what is not possible, but it always was in a way. But there was also this kind of angle going on in the market. So the thing is, now we really have to kind of understand many things are possible now.
Everything is possible in a way, right? AGI will be possible probably very soon. So with everything being possible, how do we use that as designers to create better solutions and better experiences? And then the last point I want to make towards valuable skills, also very similar to first two points, things that in the past were deemed optional now become essential. Having this business vocabulary as a designer is very important because now with this competitive capitalists
race that's more intense than ever, the more you can speak to other stakeholders and business stakeholders and the CEOs. And the more you can talk the language of business, the better you will be able to insert the design decisions in the company and infuse the company with a proper design ethos, right? So that's really, really important to understand how can design help these companies while also building
remaining ethical and a force of good, but help the profitability and the race in a way, support them in that. So, and many designers as they progress in their career, they start expanding by learning more the science of business, if that could be considered a science. I wanted to add on this point. I also felt like it's very important to note we need to become much more strategic and understand in business context.
strategies, communication. These are things that are also intertwined with psychology. But without really understanding how to build things strategically, it's very, very hard to make a cut. And if you, with your design work, do not make a cut, then you're not a very efficient designer and that your ideas are not influential. They don't really make it to production and then they don't bring the impact to the business. And so like thinking business, understanding context, understanding how to package your ideas, understanding, even like using psychology, biases and nudges,
how to present information so that it builds the narrative and changes the way people think and works with objections and works with conflict, et cetera. Really understanding how to make a difference. It involves understanding business strategy, psychology, all of those things. So it just becomes like business is so important. Technology is so important. Visibility is important, right? Communication is so important. Critical thinking, storytelling, UI, everything is just so important. Honestly, this market is getting nuts.
What do you think about that? Do you want to...
I agree. It's insane. The bar is very, very high now. I think it's very difficult for designers to not feel demotivated. And now they have to kind of do everything in order to be successful and valuable. And so all of a sudden, it's not about specializing on a skill, but like being able to do everything. But I think that even if you think about how the market, the tech market and the job market will change in general with technology progressing, like I was having this sort of mindfuck
mild, but maybe not so mild panic attack a couple of nights ago, I was really thinking, worried about what kind of jobs will my daughter Mia be able to have in 20 years from now? Like, what will she even work? Like, I couldn't find a single job that will not be threatened. Let's say, do not use a very heavy word, replaced, but
threatened by AI, right? And then I realized that maybe the physical things like, I don't know, creating a very niche custom bags or clothes or like hairdressers, stylists. It's really interesting that the jobs that felt like are less valuable now, you
more the people who matter and have the most power are the i.t people now they're getting that power kind of out of their hands so if you think about that the people will succeed in the future and the roles that will still exist are roles that kind of have this aspect of generalist makers in general founders that can just have an idea and run with it and then employ different resources to make that happen
people who can really think strategically about problems if you just foster this kind of mindset of i'm a generalist i can think about a problem from multi-disciplinary perspectives like i can bring different fields and different angles together to unpack the complexity and the possibilities of this problem and the potential solutions so
generalists are the people who will succeed in the future so it's overwhelming but it doesn't have to happen overnight right so it's not like starting march 2025 you need to have all these 10 skills or else you're not gonna have a job it's not overnight it's gonna be a slow transition and of course some jobs will still require stronger skills over others right so
jobs that will require a lot of collaboration because maybe it's a very intense workspace or maybe it's just, I don't know, a difficult organization that you have to navigate. And so collaboration will matter most. And jobs that are very technical. So it will matter to have that technical thing stronger. So my point is we will still have diversity in roles and then match that diversity to the things that we're good at.
but nevertheless yes it's more demanding to be a designer and i think that's not necessarily a bad thing if you think about it for many years we were sort of immature right so i did see a lot of examples and even just think about this
Let's take the most recent example, Instagram's changing of the grid, which is very controversial and everybody's hating on it and so on. You see so many products that do things that frustrate users. There's so much frustration when you use technology.
which means that there's still immense potential in actually building experiences that feel good, that are not frustrating, that do not leave us feeling like we were betrayed, right? So technology is still annoying for many parts. And as designers, we have a lot of opportunity to continue to improve the way these devices and surfaces and mediums feel. And so even if things become very automized and perfect, modernized,
My point was, there's a lot of immaturity in products and tech in general right now. There are a lot of products who are very far from where they should be. And so we're not a mature industry. Design and product in general is not mature. So I think it's a good thing that we push ourselves, that we do not allow these kinds of, oh, it's just bugs. Sure. I mean, but we're
We're in a world where technology allows us to not have those bugs. More and more, we are capable of building things that really work well and feel good and do good. So I think it's good for us to raise the bar continuously. That's how you grow and that's how a space evolves. And so, yeah, it's more demanding, but is it a bad thing?
Or maybe we should just strive to be better. Those are my thoughts. Do you want to comment? Yeah, definitely. I do have a few thoughts. And I felt the same way, honestly. When you were saying that at the same time, it's a good thing. I kind of had the same perspective as well. Like when you think about it, even with the hype was AI, right? When the hype was AI started, everybody was like, oh my God, we're done. AI stole our job already. Why are we even here? Why are we even getting the salary? AI already stole our jobs. Everybody was like very pessimistic.
I'm not sure, maybe people are still pessimistic somewhere, but I was like a little bit worried or uneasy. I didn't know what to think about it. It was very early. Like it was pandemic even, like think about just the last few years. It was pandemic. Everybody was like, oh my God, what's going to happen? And then boom, tech market was booming, right? Everybody first maybe lost, but then immediately found jobs. And the same with AI. Everybody was like, oh my God, oh my God, pessimism, pessimism. Now AI is solving so many problems. So many like hard jobs that I'm doing by day. Like it automates my work.
It does a lot of things that I would usually have to pay a lot of money for, like, for example, accounting sometimes, or figuring out the taxes, or figuring out this or that. A lot of things that previously were less accessible is now much more automated with AI, and it is a very good thing. I personally have a very strong optimism, I mean, in 20 years from now, for me, I'm not sure what's going to happen. It's too hard for us to say.
But I am having like optimism as of next, I don't know, perspective of five, seven years from now, because I think that AI will make our job better eventually. Not eventually, five, seven years from now, I guess. Later is hard to speculate. And so, yes, like I feel like, okay, with AI right now, it's not a bad thing. It actually makes your job better. You probably are more efficient. You're able to focus on the right thing rather than like a hard-doubled job.
annoying, irritating, repetitive things, hustling things, I guess. The same applies to the market, actually. And when you think about it, yes, it is hard. Yes, it is a crisis. Yes, it is overwhelming. The bar is rising so high that it feels like it's impossible to climb that fence. But
But when you think about it and what Ioana was just saying, zooming out even higher, having this high-level perspective will give you an idea that also while there is a crisis, there is always a growth. And it gives you opportunity to improve the work environments in general. So,
While maybe in this year still we will see some pushbacks in terms of markets direct maturity, maybe there will be still like, again, the swinging dynamic when, you know, cut resources, more UI, but also maybe we need more professional strategic thinkers. So it will be swinging back and forth.
But with swings, they go all the way up one side, then it goes all the way back to the other side. And eventually it slows down and it lands in the middle. And with the market, I feel like while we're still swinging around, it actually will go back to the middle and we will have less problems that we used to have like five years ago. We'll have to have less fights.
where, you know, we fight for basic things such as, I don't know, budget for the research or design system or tools or whatever, right? The design will become much more mature space. People will understand what to expect from design because we will have more people, let's say people with better skills that inspire environments to become better and more mature. And also, if you think about your life as a designer on a daily basis, you know,
more inspiring environments only multiply the talent. And that means that you will be working in a more interesting team with new thinking, new angles, new way of kind of changing the perspective and working in the teams that are very mature in a way,
obviously with strong skill sets with strength as they have but also like soft skills etc having those more ux mature teens will impact so much better your mental health because obviously you'll have to fight the petty things and solve things that you felt always like oh my god this should be obvious they should be done already and
having those basic fights. So yeah, I personally feel like, again, high-level perspective. Every conflict or every crisis, it goes down, swings, goes down, lands in the middle. And after this market is recalibrated,
it brings us the best in the future, right? So yeah, rising bar also leaves us with better teams, with better work environment, and hopefully more UX mature teams. But also, in a way, thinking ahead in five years from now perspective, and again, also with the tools like AI today, I would imagine that our roles will start changing a little bit. And it's pretty good because we have to change. We cannot stay stagnant for years and forever.
It gives us an opportunity to reflect on where are we going? What are your strengths? Who you are as a designer? You constantly have to do this like reflection self-exercise to think where do you see yourself like as a designer in five years from now? Classic question in the interviews and everything. But indeed, like you would have to think
where are you what kind of designer you are where are your strengths and where do you see yourself growing and given the market today you can start seeing that there are trends for like merging roles for example we talked about it previously like designer maybe becoming PM or designing maybe becoming more focusing on the craft right so like where
Where are you going? Visionary, et cetera. Like, what's your direction? And that gives us a good boost to reflect on those skills and quickly adjust to the market trends and turbulence and figure out your own direction. Because under pressure, we always thrive, typically. Or we're not. But that's a different story. Anything else you wanted that you think we haven't touched based on yet in this topic? I think the last point I want to make, maybe something we kind of briefly touched on or teased,
but I think I want to make it more explicit. It's this idea of embracing technology, which I think by now it sounds like a cliche and we hate it, but I think the most talented design friends I have are now experimenting with Claude and Cursor to build their own things. So I think that's what the kind of attitude we need more of. Okay, now you don't need to know how to code. AI can help you build a product. Experiment with that as a designer. My
My point is this experimental mindset, this kind of really trying these technologies to see how they work, to see how they can help you as a designer, bring your vision to life better or maybe faster or maybe more. It's just interesting. This one design friend I have that always experiments with things like cursor and
building their own things. And I know we have another common friend who's very keen about building designers, the designers who build. That's really interesting because that's where you go in the trenches of technology and possibilities and unpack them and explore them firsthand and learn the limitations and learn the potential and just...
Right. And grow. And so I think this is one very important thing. I was looking at a LinkedIn post yesterday who said, why do you think you're more competitive if you say, I know how to use AI? Like literally everybody knows how to use AI. You just go and type a prompt and then AI will tell you how to use it.
You don't even have to think about how to use it. It will teach you how to use it. And that's one way to look at it. It's true. But then there are these more complex technologies like cursor and all the more technical things that you can start experimenting with. Like if you understand how to use those tools, if you understand how to use that technology, if you set aside time to just experiment with this new tool stack that we have, that's empowering. And that will really, in a way,
make you more competitive, but it will make you enjoy your job more and enjoy the design profession and then understand what is the future of it. Reflect more deeply and more informed if you want. You can personally reflect on, okay, now we can do this with this tool. What does it mean for me? What does it mean for what I'm going to like in two years from now or what I will be doing or what I can do and cannot do? And so embracing technology in a way that doesn't mean playing with chat GPD. Of course, I think that we're all doing that.
by now, but move further. How can I build a product? How can I, even for designers who want to create content, can I create an AI avatar? And how can I use my real voice to create content with the voice that I've trained an AI on? And so these kinds of experiments of combining these tools to make something,
just make things with these new technologies. I think that's really interesting. And it could be a hobby project. You don't have to think about it as a career skill that you need to hone. But if you have fun in this new age, then you're probably at the end going to be better positioned to understand the possibilities and opportunities. You're right. It's a very interesting angle. And you always have to think about going beyond what everybody else is doing as a competitive advantage. Because
Okay, well, everybody else is now adopted, whatever chat GPT and quote. What are the other deeper things that I can actually add that will be different that nobody else offers today, right? It's almost the same thinking of blue ocean, red ocean, right? Everybody is now, you know, swimming in the red ocean. Everybody's using chat GPT. You will not surprise anyone by using chat GPT, but will you be able to fascinate people by saying, I can actually build up out of this particular technology and
with the help of AI and while I've never, for example, even built up out of like traditional tech. It's this thing that will add you an extra edge and an extra unique selling value proposition. People will be surprised. And I feel like it's an interesting point, which I literally just mentioned to my mentee in a previous call that
surprise is this interesting thing that we never talked about it's not a skill but it really goes down to who you are and what you can offer like how will you surprise your hiring manager or whoever when you're looking for a job or when you're applying the skills in your day-to-day job how will you surprise the
the team, the company, the hiring manager, what will be your unique skill? And experimentation and going beyond the obvious is something that could make you this blue ocean thinker, right? It's inspiring, surprise people. And this way also obviously move the needle, raise even farther the quality bar. I don't want to overwhelm people by saying, yeah, you have to do everything, but figure out for yourself.
what is your in a way strategy on the market where do you stand what makes you different what's strong if you are more like experimental person go ahead and figure out your blue ocean if you are more like here's my vertical i'm gonna go all in there the rest skills i'll be just slowly growing with the opportunities
do that right but figure out your strategy i think in the turbulent markets we cannot just sit still and wait for things to sort out we really need to figure things out experiment trying things thinking reflecting that's just your wake-up call i hope and um call to action after listening to this episode i hope it inspired anyone please let us know in the ratings at least but yeah that's just like i want to leave you with this message that it's just not the right moment to sit and wait
I echo that and thank you for tuning in. Yeah, thank you so much for listening and bye-bye. Bye, everyone.