?? How to survive as a designer in 2024

Welcome back. Nothing humbles me like the first week of the new year. Does anyone else feel like they went from a week of white noise to nonstop heavy metal at full volume? I can barely hear myself think, but I’m still so hyped for this year. I’ve got podcast episodes, new courses, and a great lineup of future editions of this revamped newsletter in the works.

—Tommy (@DesignerTom)

The Wireframe:

• How designers survive in 2024
• The best way to protect yourself against layoffs
• My hot take on unpaid candidate tests

What Will Design Survivorship Look Like in 2024?

Over the past two decades, software designers got too comfortable with the PM-designer-engineer tripod. In fact, many thought this would be the permanent way we developed software.

The truth is, nothing is permanent in software design. In 2023, AI shattered norms. Tech companies faced economic pullbacks. And industry leaders shifted their outlooks, focusing on collapsing the talent stack with hybrid roles:

• Both Adobe CPO Scott Belsky and Figma CPO Yuhki Yamashita have said that—even at large orgs like theirs—the product manager and designer should often share responsibilities or even be the same person.

This talent stack collapse resulted in tens of thousands of layoffs across the industry. It’s easy to be cynical about it all.

But if orgs can evolve, individuals can too. Here’s how you can do just that—and guarantee your survival—in 2024:

Adopt a growth mindset.

This isn’t going to be the last time you have to evolve. Accept that change is an integral part of any job.

Discover your multi-class.

Large tech companies are now embracing the “many hats” startup approach to talent. So find your multi-class to fit their hybrid needs. Last month, I asked 400 designers across my socials how they would multi-class:

What brings you energy? Do you enjoy solving complex problems? You might want to develop PM skills. Do you like getting a product from 0-1? Try marketing. Just like to build? Could be time to brush up on coding.

Learn as you go.

Don’t have a challenge like that just yet? Create one:

• Make a Rive animation, conduct some competitive research, or build your portfolio in Framer (I built mine in two days last week).
• Try this digital prototyping exercise—but take it one step further. Build the prototype with an AI tool like Uizard, then review it through the lens of your desired multi-class.

Forge your own path.

Social media has democratized distribution, enabling individual designers to become creators who can monetize their own endeavors (with major upside). Some inspiration for you to do the same:

• Brett Williams founded DesignJoy (which offers affordable design services as preset packages) while working a 9-5. Now, he makes $1.15M a year.
• Grace Ling is a product designer at Electronic Arts who also founded Design Buddies, the world’s largest Discord community for designers.
• Fons Mans founded 10xDesigners (side note: I’m giving a talk at the 10X Conference later this month, grab your ticket here).

Bottom line: In this new age of design, you have two options. “You can protect the past from the future, or protect the future from the past,” says Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media. The next time you come across a golden era design purist, I hope you can offer O’Reilly’s sage advice: “For heaven’s sake, let’s protect the future from the past.”

Poll: What best describes your current role?

1. Design team of one
2. Freelancer
3. Working on a design team
4. Entrepreneur
5. Student
6. In between roles
7. Other

Together with Notion: A designer’s must-have in your survival toolkit

I’m an avid Notion user—I use it to track case studies for my portfolio, manage design specs, conduct competitive analysis, and more.

It makes managing multiple projects clean and effective—and they’ve been launching tons of new features lately that have made it even more powerful.

The latest: Notion Q&A.

Simply input a question into Notion Q&A and it’ll sweep through your workspace to quickly get you the right answer. It’s like having your own executive assistant that you can bug 24/7 with questions.

If you’re already a Notion AI user, you can get started today with Q&A already in your Notion workspace. If you’re interested in trying it out, join the waitlist to get early access here.

News, Tools, and Resources: Design Survivorship Edition

• Layoffs can happen when you least expect them. Here’s how to protect yourself.
• Read this to learn how to achieve professional growth as a solo UX practitioner.
• Loved this podcast on the historical challenges between designers and engineers.
• Check out Ridd’s awesome insights on the role of designers in an AI future.
• Is the UX research discipline of the last 15 years dying? This podcast explores where UXR goes from here.
• “Removing the barriers of ‘role’ makes it easier to come to the table as a problem-solver,” says a designer at Spotify in this great read on being a generalist.

Got a great tool, podcast episode, idea, or something else? Comment below and tell me what’s up.

Hot Take: Gumroad vs. the designer army

Over the holidays, a post about a design role blew up on LinkedIn. Things got messy. Here’s my take on it—and what it says about design survivorship.

Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad, recently shared an insane job offer for a product designer:

Up to 80% equity? $200/hour, and only one meeting a quarter? That’s some sweet compensation. And the design world noticed.

But then…Lavingia shared some unsolicited advice on how he would apply to the job:

Four hours of unpaid work? “I’m presuming you don’t want to hire parents or those who don’t have 3 hours to dedicate to a spec-task?” said one comment. Others accused Lavingia of straight-up exploitation.

My take? It’s not black and white, as I explained on TikTok. Yes, companies shouldn’t mandate this kind of unpaid work. But Lavingia was only suggesting it—and that suggestion is an indicator of a much larger (and more important) trend:

• It’s a hirer’s market right now. While some companies are willing to pay (and pay well) for hybrid talent, these positions are competitive.
• Designers need to adapt their behaviors for benefits like this. That may require spending more time on an application. If you get it, sweet. If you don’t, you just gained some valuable experience addressing a PM-designer challenge.

At the end of the day, not everyone has the luxury to “fight the good fight” in the comments section. Many of us just need to make a living. So we adapt—our skill sets, our mindsets, our approaches to job applications.

The evolving designer always comes out on top.

Thanks for reading! What's been the best tool for surviving design industry shifts in your career? Comment below and tell me what's helped you survive (and thrive).

One more thing: Interested in partnering with UX Tools? Hit us up right here.

See you next week!