From the blog

Design career insights

Practical advice for product designers who want to grow, get promoted, and build a career that lasts.

30 July 2026

How to Make Design Decisions When There's No Data

Data doesn't always exist, and waiting for it isn't always an option. Here's how to make confident design decisions when you're working without a safety net.

27 July 2026

How to Do User Research When You Have No Time or Budget

The ideal research setup rarely exists. Here's how to gather real signal fast when you're short on time, money, and access to users.

24 July 2026

Building Trust With a New Team as a Designer

The first 90 days in a new role set the tone for everything after. Here's how to build trust quickly without trying too hard.

21 July 2026

How to Work With a Designer Who Has a Very Different Style

Design teams are rarely full of people who think alike. Here's how to collaborate well with someone whose approach is nothing like yours.

18 July 2026

How to Disagree With a Senior Stakeholder (and Win)

Pushing back on someone more senior than you is one of the hardest things in product design. Here's how to do it in a way that lands.

15 July 2026

How to Handle a PM Who Keeps Changing Direction

Constant pivots make good design impossible. Here's how to work with a PM who changes their mind often, and how to protect the work without burning the relationship.

12 July 2026

How to Give Feedback to Engineers Without Damaging the Relationship

Design feedback to engineers lands differently than feedback between designers. Here's how to flag issues, push back on implementation, and keep the relationship solid.

11 July 2026

Will AI Replace Junior Product Designers?

Junior hiring has dried up and AI tools do the entry-level work faster than ever. Here's what's actually happening, and what's still worth building if you're trying to break in.

9 July 2026

How to Lead a Design Project When You're Not the Manager

You don't need a title to lead. Here's how to take ownership of a project, align the team, and drive it forward, without formal authority.

8 July 2026

How to Actually Use Figma's New AI Agent in Your Design Workflow

Figma's agent can generate variants, bulk-edit files, and pull in live web context. Here's where it earns a real place in a senior designer's process, and where it doesn't.

7 July 2026

Irish Product Design Market vs the US: Salaries, Career Progression, and What the Gap Means

A direct look at how product designer salaries and career paths in Ireland compare to the US, level by level, and what actually moves the needle on your earning potential here.

6 July 2026

How Senior Designers Think About Scope and Tradeoffs

Junior designers try to solve the full problem. Senior designers figure out which part of the problem is actually worth solving. Here's how that thinking develops.

3 July 2026

How to Go From Executor to Strategic Designer

Being handed a brief and executing it well is one skill. Shaping the brief before it's written is another. Here's how to make the shift.

30 June 2026

What It Means to Have Design Influence Without Direct Authority

Most designers don't manage anyone. But the best ones shape decisions across the whole organisation. Here's how to build that kind of influence.

27 June 2026

How to Run a Design Sprint That People Actually Buy Into

Design sprints fail when stakeholders check out on day two. Here's how to structure one that keeps everyone engaged and actually produces something useful.

25 June 2026

Figma Config 2026: What Actually Matters for Product Designers

Code layers, native motion, GPU shaders, AI Skills. Here's what Figma announced at Config 2026 and what it actually means for how you work.

24 June 2026

How to Build a Design Portfolio That Gets You to Senior

A portfolio for senior roles is completely different from one for your first job. Here's what hiring managers actually want to see, and what most designers get wrong.

23 June 2026

How Designers Should Actually Use Claude (And What Most People Get Wrong)

Claude is the most useful AI tool a product designer can have right now, but only if you know how to talk to it. Here's what actually works.

21 June 2026

What to Do If You've Been Stuck at the Same Level for 2+ Years

If you've been doing good work for two years and nothing's changed, the problem probably isn't your output. Here's how to diagnose what's actually going on.

19 June 2026

What Claude Fable 5 Means for Product Designers

Anthropic's most capable model yet understands design artifacts, checks implementations against your designs using vision, and can work on a single task for hours. Here's what's actually useful for designers right now.

18 June 2026

How to Write a Self-Review That Actually Gets You Promoted

Most designers undersell themselves in self-reviews. Here's how to write one that makes the case for your promotion without feeling like you're bragging.

15 June 2026

Why Good Designers Get Passed Over for Promotion

Doing great work is necessary but not sufficient. Here's the real reason strong designers stay stuck at the same level, and how to fix it.

12 June 2026

How to Ask for a Promotion as a Product Designer (Without It Being Awkward)

Most designers wait for someone to notice. The ones who get promoted learn to have the conversation first. Here's how to do it without it feeling uncomfortable.

9 June 2026

How to Measure Your Impact as a Product Designer

Design impact is hard to quantify, but not impossible. Here's how product designers connect their work to outcomes that matter, and why it changes everything.

8 June 2026

How to Develop Design Intuition (And Why It Matters More Than Tools)

Design intuition isn't something you're born with, it's a skill that's built deliberately. Here's how experienced designers develop and sharpen their judgment over time.

7 June 2026

How to Give and Receive Design Critique That Actually Makes Work Better

Most design critiques are either too polite to be useful or too harsh to be safe. Here's how to run and participate in critiques that genuinely improve the work.

6 June 2026

Stakeholder Management for Product Designers: What Nobody Teaches You

Managing stakeholders is one of the most important skills in product design, and almost no one learns it formally. Here's what actually works.

5 June 2026

How to Use AI in Your Design Workflow Without Losing What Makes You Good

AI is changing how product designers work. Here's how to actually integrate it into your workflow, without outsourcing the thinking that makes design valuable.

22 April 2026

How to Get Promoted as a Product Designer

Most designers wait to be noticed. The ones who get promoted make it impossible not to notice them. Here's exactly how.

20 April 2026

Intermediate to Senior Designer: What Actually Changes

Doing decent work but not moving up? The gap between intermediate and senior isn't about working harder. Here's what it's actually about.

18 April 2026

What Actually Helps Senior Product Designers Grow (Beyond Just Doing More Work)

Already leading end-to-end work and collaborating across teams? Here's what senior designers say genuinely moved the needle, and what didn't.

17 April 2026

How to Advance to Senior Designer Faster (With 3 Years Experience)

Three years in and ready for more? Here's what actually accelerates the jump to senior, and why working harder alone won't get you there.

15 April 2026

10 Habits That Separate Growing Designers from Stagnant Ones

Talent gets you in the door. Habits are what keep you moving. Here are the 10 that actually compound over a career.

14 April 2026

How to Actually Spend Your Professional Development Budget as a Designer

Got money set aside to level up? Here's how to make sure it goes somewhere that actually changes how you work, not just something that looks good on a to-do list.