Chris Armstrong

“Everything is design and design is everything.” - Emily Campbell Today, Kim Lenox, Emily and I had a conversation with a thousand people to discuss Figma’s new study exploring how work is changing for 7 roles involved in product development. The quote above sums it up. Roles are blurring. And, more people than ever see design as an integral part of their work. The full story is longer and even more interesting: - 64% of respondents identified with two or more roles, and over a third said their responsibilities span three or more roles. - 56% of non-designers say design tasks like prototyping are a major part of their work, up 12 percentage points in a year - 19% of time is now spent with AI tools, expecting to increase to 27% in the next 12 months. This time is taken from solo work time rather than work with colleagues. And, 57% say they’re spending more time on work that’s higher value and strategic. - 53% say deep knowledge is still needed to do a task well, less than a quarter believe AI reduces the need for expertise. Matt Walker and team built the study of 1200 respondents and 50 interviews, covering 67 tasks. Alia Fite, Emma Webster, and Alex Praeger created an amazing report from the findings. Chad Bergman and Greg Huntoon answered so many questions in today's discussion. The key here is it’s not just design. It’s not just product development. And, I would guess this trend is actually is bigger than just this field. I think at the heart of these changes are a strong desire to communicate intent from one expertise to another. From marketing to design. From design to development. From PM to development. And, I think we’ll see even more of this blurring moving forward.

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Great design isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters most. When you prioritise right: Products improve faster. Users feel the difference. When you don’t: Time is wasted. Teams feel stuck. And here’s the perfect example. Most people think design progress comes from: Adding more features. Endless visual tweaks. Chasing “cool” ideas. But the truth is… None of that matters if: Usability blockers remain. Core flows stay broken. Business goals aren’t met. Here’s what prioritisation looks like when it works vs when it doesn’t: Clear priorities: - You fix what blocks users. - You design with impact. - Progress compounds daily. Scattered priorities: - You polish the wrong things. - You burn energy on low value. - Nothing meaningful ships. What changed? Not the number of hours. Not the size of the team. Not the tool you used. This is: Design prioritisation that works. Great founders ask: Am I investing in tasks that move the needle? Am I aligning design with business impact? Am I cutting noise instead of adding it? Because clarity in design isn’t about doing everything. It’s about choosing the right things. No wasted effort. No endless tweaks. No “busy work.” So ultimately:  If you want great design, prioritisation is the real superpower. ♻ Repost if you agree.

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UX costs nothing—until it costs everything. Every ignored friction point eventually resurfaces as support tickets, dropped leads, stalled onboarding, or lost renewals. We've seen this consistently across B2B platforms, member portals, and internal tools: → Poor navigation floods help desks → Inconsistent UI slows adoption and erodes trust → Bloated workflows quietly push users toward competitors Organizations often think they're avoiding UX costs, unaware they're already paying—through wasted time, constant patches, and staff burnout. High-performing teams don't see UX as a line-item luxury. They treat it as preventive ops. They measure it. Fund it. Protect it. Because solving root problems always costs less than endlessly triaging symptoms. If your support team is swamped or onboarding is stalled, it's probably not just a content issue. It's a UX issue—and you're already footing the bill.

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To designers who say “you can’t vibe-code a real product”: Check out anymark[.]co. I built it end-to-end with Replit (not affiliated). Is it beautiful? No. Is it bug-free? No. Does it have paying, happy customers? Yes. Many designers try a prototyping tool like Lovable, hit a wall, and conclude, “You can’t build a production-ready product with AI.” Here is the proof that you can. It’s likely a matter of time until you'll be pushing changes to production (as Intercom designers already do). Don’t let prototyping tools confuse you. Practice using heavier tools like Cursor and Claude Code (or even Replit).

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Might be a bit of a controversial one but worth sharing because a few people asked off the back of a recent post. Most designers obsess over their portfolio. They: - slave over it - redo it - polish it. - chuck it out and start again And don’t get me wrong, a folio is important. But it often doesn’t hold as much weight as people think. It’s a stepping stone to an interview. It won’t ever really get you the job on its own. Meanwhile, the CV, which can be just as, if not more important, often doesn’t get nearly the same care and attention. For context, in the last four roles I’ve hired for: Content + Marketing roles → 100% - CV, no folio Service Design → ~90% - CV, folio was more of a sense check Product Design → ~60/40 split - leaning more towards folio Even in the Product Design case, that CV was really important. It’s the thing that gets you through the first filter, frames your story and gives weight to the work that follows in the folio. So my advice: a) don’t kill yourself over the portfolio. b) put a decent level of care / thought into your CV. (FYI - please leave off those silly slider things … they’re not helping anyone 😬) #Design

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