Design Your Next Move
A 9-part series on building a career that works in the age of AI — for designers who are done waiting for the ground to stop shifting.
The design job market hasn’t bounced back the way PM and engineering have. AI is compressing the craft skills that got most of us into this field, companies are restructuring faster than anyone can keep up with, and the old career ladder — the one with clear rungs and predictable titles — isn’t there anymore.
Most of us know this. What we don’t have is a framework for what to do about it.
Design Your Next Move is a 9-part series about building that framework. Not a motivational playbook or a list of tips for updating your portfolio — this is about fundamentally rethinking how you approach your career as a designer, using the same systems thinking you already apply to the products you build every day.
What the series covers
Over nine issues, we’ll work through the full arc — from understanding why the old model broke, to building something more resilient in its place:
Issue 1 — Why Designers Need a Career OS Now
The market data, the forces reshaping the field, and why treating your career as a system you actively design is no longer optional.
Issue 2 — Think Like a Designer, Act Like a Strategist
You already know how to spot patterns, trace cause and effect, and find leverage points — you’ve just never turned that lens on yourself.
Issue 3 — From Craftsperson to Conductor
The skills that got you here won’t keep you here. What it actually looks like to shift from producing artifacts to shaping outcomes.
Issue 4 — The New Skill Stack
Gen UI, non-deterministic systems, and the hard skills that are changing — alongside the soft skills that are about to matter more than ever.
Issue 5 — Make the Invisible Visible
Most of the work that makes you valuable is invisible to the people who decide your career trajectory. That has to change.
Issue 6 — The Career Lattice
The ladder is gone, but what replaced it is actually more interesting — four paths forward that don’t require climbing.
Issue 7 — Write Your Career Vision
Not a five-year plan. A living document that keeps you honest about what you actually want and why.
Issue 8 — Filters, Skills, and Your Influence Network
The tactical layer — how to evaluate opportunities, invest in the right skills, and build the relationships that create real leverage.
Issue 9 — Your Career OS Is a Living System
Bringing it full circle. Your career isn’t a destination, it’s an ongoing design problem, and now you have the system to treat it like one.
Who this is for
This series is for designers at any level who’ve felt the ground shift and want to do something more intentional than just reacting to it. Whether you’re a senior IC wondering what’s next, a design leader navigating AI disruption and organizational volatility, or someone mid-career who’s starting to realize that working harder isn’t the same as working smarter — this is the framework I wish I’d had twenty years ago.
What you’ll walk away with
Each issue includes a practical exercise designed to help you actually build your Career OS as you read, not just think about it in the abstract. By the end of the series, you’ll have mapped your current career system, identified the leverage points that matter most, and built a living framework for making intentional decisions about your work and your growth — even when everything around you is shifting.