Designers! Designers! Designers!

Why everyone’s hiring (and no one can find talent)

Spend five minutes on Design Twitter™ and you’ll feel the whiplash. Half of the feed is “we’re so cooked” gallows humor after each new AI model release as designers panic about disappearing jobs; the other is founders posting open roles, dangling referral bonuses, and asking how to land a great designer.

Last week, Julie Zhuo wrote that the market for startup design talent “has never been more competitive,” sparking hundreds of replies and more than 250k views.

So which is it—peak demand or mass extinction? The answer reveals a market drowning in candidates who can rearrange design system components, and starving for designers who can actually ship outcomes in an AI-driven world.

A bifurcated market

The past year has been a bloodbath at the execution layer. Layoffs have hit big tech companies like Autodesk, Intel, Google, Salesforce, as well as agencies and studios. Full-time roles have been swapped for contract work. Budget-strapped teams are outsourcing basic visuals to AI or overseas shops.

That’s hollowed out the bottom rungs of the ladder. Junior designers have lost the entry-level production work where they used to build craft. Mid-level designers who focus narrowly on execution have seen their value collapse. The result is a glut of people competing for fewer production roles, with no clear path upward.

Strip out the production work, and what’s left is the part AI doesn’t touch: understanding users, framing the right problems, and translating complexity into experiences people trust. As Preston Attebery put it, “Once everyone can make an app, we will remember that the hard part about apps isn’t making the app.”

Preston Attebery on X

The new design brief

That’s the layer companies are competing for now. Shopify Chief Design Officer Carl Rivera predicts how this will play out:

“We’re heading into the most disruptive and expansive period of all times, but most of us will build on top of the same models, differentiating in how we bring them to life and give them a UI. Second to research, expression will define this period.”

“Design used to be cheap, at the end of a service line,” explains Sebastian Speier*. “A PM and strategist would make wireframes and a designer would polish them. Now, MVPs are made by designers.” It’s a shift from decoration to foundation, and the talent pool for that kind of work is thin.

“People are finally starting to realize how few truly great designers there are,” Benji Taylor wrote, “and how disproportionately valuable they are.” AI turned every software engineer into a software designer, the “same way the microwave turned everyone into a chef,” tweeted Mike Rundle. Companies desperately seeking design talent aren’t looking for someone to reheat nachos, they need actual cooking.

Benji Taylor on X

The rise of the Super IC

What companies want isn’t just a designer, but someone who can own outcomes end-to-end: set direction, make decisions without committee drag, and ship. They want “Super ICs,” senior individual contributors who can think through product strategy, design, and engineering—and build when needed.

Lean teams raise the bar. Designers are expected not only to arrange design system components but to produce working prototypes, ship them to production, and measure results. Hybrid skill sets that combine UX, motion, front-end, AI fluency, and business acumen are prized. Tools make execution easier, so designers are expected to go further, work faster, all while bringing a higher level of craft.

“Designers are very valuable now,” says Sebastian. “But with more power comes more responsibility. Someone in a narrow UX role before will struggle now if they can’t also be a product manager, prototyper, and engineer.”

“I don’t want to do all that”

I already hear the chorus: “But, I just want to design.” I hear you. But as I type, there are already designers succeeding in this brave new world by embracing this expanded scope. For years, designers have asked for earlier influence, a seat at the table, and more ownership. This is what that looks like: hybrid designers who can prototype in Cursor, push to production, speak product strategy, and measure business impact. This is the new bar for design hiring.

We’ve been here before. Ten years ago, many designers resisted when UX and visual design merged into “product design,” arguing it would dilute craft. The same consolidation is happening now—this time across design, product, engineering, and AI.

The great reset

There’s a reset happening for everyone—junior and senior alike. The field is level for those ready to learn fast. Tools, design systems, and shared UX patterns now let one designer carry what used to take a team. That’s fewer seats at big companies—and more pressure to expand your scope into code, product, or even founding your own company.

The design market isn’t short on candidates. It’s short on designers who can navigate the blurred boundaries between product, design, engineering, and marketing—and deliver results at all of them. Execution is abundant. Strategic, hybrid execution is rare. The future belongs to the companies that can tell the difference, and to the designers who can prove they do, too.

—Carly

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*NB: Sebastian is a designer at Perplexity, but also my beautiful husband.