Designers often focus on selling their craft to design managers, but the final hiring decision frequently lies with product leaders. To succeed, designers must frame their value as a business investment, emphasizing the ROI and metric impact that resonates with the ultimate approver.

Difficulty in the design job market stems not from increased competition, but from companies seeking a perfect "puzzle piece" fit. They are over-filtering for extremely narrow, rigid profiles, often rejecting highly qualified but non-matching candidates.

Designers once felt like imposters, but the profession grew rapidly, championed by figures like Steve Jobs. Now, design has a "seat at the table" and is recognized as a critical differentiator and a core business process for problem-solving, not just aesthetics.

Don't just show creatives a summary report from the marketing team. Giving designers, copywriters, and video editors raw access to performance data allows them to spot non-obvious patterns and make intuitive leaps that analytical minds might miss, leading to better creative.

A visually basic website can generate massive revenue if the user experience (UX) is flawless. Focus on clarity of messaging, value props, and social proof first. Aesthetics (UI) are secondary; a pretty site that confuses users won't convert. UX is for the customer, UI is for you.

Before scaling paid acquisition, invest in a robust brand system. A well-defined brand DNA (art direction, voice, tone) is not a vanity project; it's the necessary infrastructure to efficiently generate the thousands of cohesive creative assets required to test and scale performance marketing campaigns successfully.

Stop treating content as a purely artistic endeavor. The most successful creators apply rigorous scientific testing and investment to creative elements like thumbnails. They understand 'the science of the art,' using data to ensure creative work performs, rather than relying on trends or intuition.

Agencies are optimized for efficiency, stifling the creative experimentation needed for platforms like Meta. Top-performing brands employ an in-house strategist whose sole job is generating a high volume of diverse, "wacky" ad concepts—a function that can't be effectively outsourced.

Perplexity's VP of Design, Henry Modiset, states that when hiring, he values product intuition above all else. AI can generate options, but the essential, irreplaceable skill for designers is the ability to choose what to build, how it fits the market, and why users will care.