More ICs, Fewer Leaders: This Head of Design Is Feeling the Pressure

A Head of Design messaged me on LinkedIn after seeing one of my posts. We’d never spoken before, but she asked if we could chat, so we set up a call.

She got straight to the point.

Head of Design: “Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m reaching out. I’ve never felt this… uncertain about my role, and I keep thinking I must be missing something.”

Me: “Missing something in what way?”

Head of Design: “Well, I’ve been a Head of Design for a couple of years now, and I always thought the next step would be towards VP. It was clear to me before, but now... I’m not so sure it’s even the right move.”

Me: “What’s making you question it?”

Head of Design: "It’s a mix of things. Externally, there’s all this talk about the push for ICs over leadership roles. And internally I can feel the shift too. There’s this pressure for everyone to produce visible results, fast. Lately, they’re asking me to get more hands-on with specific design outcomes, to ‘step in’ on projects, even though I’m here to lead strategy. Half the time, I feel like I’m just bouncing between tasks I don’t actually have control over, while my role’s supposed to be setting the bigger direction. It's confusing."

Me: “That’s understandable. Has it come up with your manager?”

Head of Design: “Not directly. The timing feels off, with the market being so weird, all the layoffs, and headcount freezes. It’s hard to talk about something like this when promotions are out of the question. I worry it would sound like I’m backing out of leadership.”

Me: “Backing out?”

Head of Design: “Yeah, like I’d be admitting I’m not up for it. It’s just… there’s all this talk about design engineers, AI, leaner teams. The company wants results they can see, so it’s all about execution, showing what’s been built. And meanwhile, I’m here leading but also questioning if I’m actually contributing enough.”

Me: “Do you think other leaders are feeling this too?”

Head of Design: “I’ve started reaching out to a few people I trust to feel it out. They’re feeling similarly uneasy. Most are sticking it out, but I get the sense that a lot of us feel the ground shifting. And it’s subtle, like we’re all expected to do more with less, to fill gaps we didn’t expect. The path to the VP level, if it’s even there, is a lot less clear.”

Me: “Yeah, I’ve been hearing that quite a bit. And it sounds like you’re feeling a real tension between moving up and maybe… moving back to the work?”

Head of Design: “Exactly. Moving up would mean finding some way to hold onto a strategy role, but that feels so abstract right now. Then there’s going back to IC, which would be closer to what I love, designing and solving real problems. But how do I even bring that up? It’s like admitting I don’t belong in leadership.”

Me: “It sounds like there’s this pull both ways, with no obvious right answer.”

Head of Design: “Yeah. I think what bothers me most is that I used to feel like I was building towards something, you know? Moving forward. Now I’m not so sure if I’m going anywhere at all.”

I’ve been noticing this trend among senior design leaders signing up for our mastermind groups.

We ask a simple question in our sign-up form:

“What specific challenges are you looking to solve by joining a mastermind, and how important is it for you to find a solution right now?”

The responses are raw, telling, and often echo conversations like this one.

How are you navigating the push and pull of career progression?

What’s one decision you’re wrestling with right now?

Hi, I’m Mindaugas . I’m the founder of Coho building a product to help design leaders solve the problems no one talks about — through deeply curated private chat groups. Early access is closing soon, and folks from companies like Hubspot, Meta, and OpenTable are already in.

For the last 10 years I’ve been helping designers navigate their careers. First as a design recruiter, then design community builder at companies like InVision and On Deck and now as someone who creates deeply curated masterminds/peer groups.

I’m based in the Portuguese countryside with my two rescue dogs, Rina and Mya.

I sometimes host free layoff/career navigation support office hours. The format is small groups, max 5 people at a time to create a safe space for folks to help each other out and I share some learnings and tips from talking to a lot of professionals dealing with layoffs and extended job search periods. Book a spot here.