Harrison Wheeler’s Post

I couldn’t have said it better. Design and UX are often seen as nice-to-have resources, leading to their undervaluation and insufficient staffing on Product teams. As a result, we frequently find ourselves stretched thin, doing our best to keep up with demands. Instead of being recognized for our contributions, we’re often labeled as bottlenecks, with teams opting to go around us. Worse yet, we’re sometimes told to spend less time on solving problems and merely focus on making things "look pretty". To my fellow UXers: seek out organizations that genuinely value your work and the contributions you make. I understand that times are tough, and we’re all doing the best we can with limited budgets. However, if a company claims to prioritize user experience, they need to back that up with real investment.

100%, but. . . demonstrate how that equals ROI! As design leaders, we need to articulate better how the designer will deliver tangible outcomes for the business.

I wish we could chat, John Cutler. Because there must be some fundamental difference in what you have witnessed and how I have worked on SaaS apps for 30 years. I have issues with the entire premise of Felix's and the team's way of working at the outset. I am assuming a long-running, Saas web app, with plenty of (boring) features across a rich problem domain (say insurance, manufacturing, banking). My approach is to do >> just enough design up front << with Felix to create a common UX pattern for the bulk of the app. I want the app to feel consistent when they are doing similar things (creating, editing, deleting, viewing lists of domain objects). Yes, some UIs need more deep UX research than others, but they are a minority in the apps I have worked to create. Then all of the developers follow along with this beautiful UX design and UI templates of sorts, making it super easy to make progress with more developers, by design -- not accident. I only need Felix when we hit new areas that need novel designs. Or if we discover some tweak is needed to the existing UI pattern. And that tweak is easily accomplished because we made it super easy to change via configuration, not hard coding. If I needed Felix on every run-of-the-mill feature, I would be doing it wrong. Call me old-fashioned, but that is how I have successfully built dozens of multi-tenant SaaS apps since the mid-90s (my most recent one has mostly 9 and 10 NPS scores).

Designers are essential beyond just the product team, bridging the gap between theory and something tangible to create shared understanding. When you're short on designers, their focus shifts to keep the delivery team "fed" at the expense of discovery and clarification. This often leads to more shipped experiments that could have been validated earlier, costing more in the long run. With the right number of designers—or what some might see as “excess”—you can effectively bridge the gap between “theory” and “application.” This leads to a more focused, clarified product and fewer wasted cycles.

Current most in-demand design roles: (For what I am working on, might be different for others) - Design Engineers - Founding designers - "Craft-led"* product designers *What they mean by craft-led is visuals and strong product/design taste. Designers who I see in demand: - Understand business + product - High empathy for customers - Can handle ambiguity - Critical thinking ability - Lead through the work - Can work with Eng to ship work - "Deep generalists" - Impeccable visual skills Not a lot then? P.S. There is of course a need for specialists still.

Does your heart sink a little when your designer tells you they're leaving for 3 months? or worse forever! Especially when you have a roadmap to follow and a finish line to crush. What if you didn't have to worry about that at all? What if you had something to rely on when a situation like that arises? What if you had a remote extension of your very own team ready to take control exactly from where your designer left off?

Attention Designers! Before hitting 'Apply,' take a moment to thoroughly read the job description. Overlooking key details can cost you the perfect role! Let’s change that narrative—align your skills with the role's demands and stand out as the right fit. 🌟 Your dream job is just a thoughtful application away. #JobSearch #DesignCareers #Perxels

The ability to say no is an underrated Designer soft skill 🙃 Over the last few weeks, I've been one of the few designers on the team not currently on vacation. So, I became an obvious target for all sorts of design-related requests. And I have helped with several of these 😊 But also, said no to a few... I tend to say no to things that don't align with my role responsibilities, don't have any clear value for the business and our users, or are non-scalable deliverables that benefit only one team or person. For instance, I was asked to keep an engineer busy. A Designer's job is not keeping devs busy. The topic in question was opinion-based and of debatable value. Easy no 😜 It's harder to say no to your manager, or someone higher above you that can influence your career growth... My tip is to instead ask if that request is more important than the current tasks and what task can you postpone to make the new request happen. Not now is a more elegant way of saying no. In my experience, the road to burnout is paved more by low value yesses (attempting to be perceived as helpful), than by doing things your superiors believe are important (as long as you reshuffle priorities to accommodate these). Next time you get an iffy request, consider no or not now as 100% valid replies 🫡

(Most) Designers can't showcase their work period In the recent years I've seen over 500 portfolios for different design seniority roles from people from different locations. Most of the portfolios I've seen were just bad: - Nobody cares about your double diamond if you can't explain why you used it and what was the outcome. - Many don't show actual designs, it's difficult to talk design when all I am seeing is a miniature of a desktop screen one designed, over a screenshare. - No one wants to read a wall of text or hear you reading it. - Many talk about all activities around the project and can't clearly tell what their contributions to the projects were. Recruiting for a design role - especially when you're regular or early senior you will most often find yourself being evaluated by a person who goes over dozens of portfolios and cv`s daily. Believe me - it's not difficult to stand out. Interested to learn more about portfolios and how you can improve? #portfolio #productdesign #uidesign #uxdesign #designismypassion #product #work

Spent 65+ hours analyzing professional portfolios... Now I'm sharing my DESIGNER EVALUATION SYSTEM for FREE Why? Because last week a founder told me they wasted $11K hiring the wrong designer... I've created a comprehensive guide that helps non-technical founders spot professional designers in 30 SECONDS: → Typography Check: Instant red flags to spot → Color Usage: What separates pros from amateurs → Spacing Guide: The "silent" quality signal → Edge Cases: What most people miss Here's the truth about hiring designers: It's not about pretty portfolios. It's about spotting true expertise. What used to take: :: 2 hours per portfolio → now takes 30 seconds :: 10 interviews → now only 2-3 quality calls :: Weeks of searching → now days to hire This knowledge comes from: → 4.5+ years of product design → 100+ projects reviewed → Real hiring mistakes analyzed Comment "DOC" below to get access 👇