Coho

A frank conversation with a design leader about the realities of driving design impact https://lnkd.in/dqm4ifF3

"Lila’s career was a mess of tangled threads. A designer by day, a jazz musician by night, a weekend warrior poet scribbling verses on coffee shop napkins. She felt like a walking contradiction, a human Venn diagram of overlapping passions. Her LinkedIn profile read like a Jackson Pollock painting. Splatters of experience, no discernible pattern. Graphic design internship here, UX bootcamp there, sprinkled with odd jobs and passion projects." https://lnkd.in/di9X_s7e

"'Design leaders don't need strategy training - they'll figure it out as they go.' I hear this from designers all the time. They get promoted for their craft skills, then suddenly need to make complex business decisions without context. The leap from craft to leadership brings questions nobody prepares you for: - Should you fight for better quality or ship faster? - When do you push back on leadership vs adapt your team's approach? - How do you keep great designers challenged when projects get routine? Companies often think another workshop on 'leadership skills' will help. But design leaders need something different: real understanding of how businesses work. Not frameworks or theories but actual knowledge about what drives decisions, how strategy forms, why certain paths get chosen over others. You can't learn this from courses. You can't get it from training. You only get it from others who've been there. I'm building Coho to give design leaders that network of true peers - people who understand these challenges because they're facing them too. Small, deeply curated groups of 4-6. 14 new groups open in January specifically for Lead, Principal, Staff, Manager, Head of, and Director level designers. DM me if you want to learn more.

Had a conversation with a design leader last week: 'Everyone at work comes to me for answers now. About people management, project planning, team dynamics. What they don't know is that I'm wrestling with some stuff for the first time: - How to keep my best people challenged when projects are boring - Whether to push back on rushed deadlines or protect the team's morale - When to show conviction vs admit I'm not sure Where do you even talk about this?' She nailed something I've seen hundreds of times at this point. Design leadership can get isolating fast. Especially when everyone expects certainty from you about things you're dealing with for the first time. That's why I build small, curated groups of 4-6 design leaders who meet regularly to help each other navigate these challenges. In January, we're opening a few more spots in our groups specifically for Lead, Principal, Staff, Manager, Head of, and Director level designers. While we continue refining the product with our alpha access members, it's staying invite-only for now. DM me if you want to learn more.

Companies will dig for every hard-won lesson in interviews, then bristle when you apply that wisdom on the job. Experience required, but please don't use it. Designers, you know the paradox. Let's discuss. https://lnkd.in/dDMS88Yy

There's a painful rhythm to job searching in 2024: First month: Panic. Apply everywhere. Refresh inbox constantly. Second month: Rejections pile up. Confidence drops. Burnout hits. Third month: Finally slow down enough to actually think. That's when most people figure it out. They stop blasting resumes into the void. They reach out to people who can actually help. With the right asks. They look for problems they can solve. This market sucks. Rent needs paying. Healthcare matters. Time pressure is real. But if you can, try jumping straight to month three thinking. Even while sending those applications. Even while dealing with rejection. Those small strategic moves, made early, can change everything.

I keep noticing something weird about how companies treat design experience. They spend months searching for senior designers. They dig deep in interviews - 'tell me about a product that didn't work,' 'what lessons stuck with you,' 'how do you spot problems early.' But once these designers start working, something changes. Suddenly having seen the same flow fail fifty times becomes 'too negative.' Hard-earned lessons about user behaviour turn into 'pushing back for no reason.' Having solved this exact problem before gets labeled as 'being stuck in the past.' Then these same companies pay consultants $500k to tell them exactly what their designers have been saying for months. Makes you wonder why we interview for experience at all.

A design manager just laid out exactly why companies lose their best designers: 'We can't justify paying a Senior IC what they're worth, so they become managers. Then we lose them completely." https://lnkd.in/d8ZUj7cX

When they tell you design has a seat at the table, but the real decisions happen somewhere else.

The most interesting design opportunities in 2025 won't be at companies with big design teams. The traditional path of building a business has been obvious: raise money → grow team → become 'real' CEO → manage more people. But I'm seeing founders reject this. They'd rather stay close to product than learn to be CEOs and keep teams lean as long as possible. Me included. I think we'll see more of this: small teams building meaningful businesses. If you've only worked in large companies, with detailed specs and long design cycles, you might struggle in this new world. No more hiding in Figma for days. No more waiting for perfect specs. No more polished presentations. Instead, you'll be: Building live with founders Making decisions on the spot Thinking through business strategy, not just screens I'm not saying this is better or worse. This is about a completely different way of working. And if I'm right about where things are heading, a lot of designers aren't ready for it.