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Hi there,
This week is about why you'd hire a product designer at all in 2026, when the
tools can already do a lot of what the job used to be. I'm not going to pretend
the market isn't shrinking. A third of teams cut design staff last year, and UK
job ads have UI designer salaries down 20% year on year against 7% for product
designers. Same market, two very different jobs, and the one being repriced is
the one AI genuinely does now.
Thursday's video walks five reasons, and none of them are about AI skills. To
understand the pain your users have stopped noticing. To know what good looks
like rather than what's popular. To hold the whole product together instead of
just the screens. To argue with you and own the call. And to do the innovating,
with AI as the paintbrush. I put the counter-case up first, including the bloke
who sold Base44 to Wix with no design team, then answer it.
The full detail is in a free PDF, one reason per page, with the evidence behind
each one. There's also a write-up on the fifth reason, which is the one I'd
defend hardest.
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