📰 3 THINGS TO CHECK OUT
- AI is changing how designers work, but the skills that build a lasting career go far beyond prompting. On Wednesday, May 13 at 1pm ET, Designlab is hosting a candid conversation about what it actually takes to thrive as a designer right now — and keep thriving as the industry keeps shifting.
- We'll dig into not just AI fluency but the durable skills that compound over time: critical thinking, communication, judgment, and the ability to drive impact across a team. What are companies actually hiring for in 2026? What separates designers who adapt from those who get left behind? And how do you invest in yourself now to build a career that lasts?
- To join the conversation, register for the event here.
Learnings From Running a Company of AI Agents
- Investigative journalist Evan Ratliff spent a season of his podcast Shell Game running Hurumo, a startup staffed almost entirely by AI agents — Kyle the CEO, Megan in marketing, the whole org chart. The premise was a working hypothesis: if a job is just a bundle of automatable skills, AI should be able to do it.
- What he found is that a job isn't a bundle of skills at all. The actual typing of words into a computer, he says, is a small part of what he does as a writer, and the same is true of nearly every job, including ones often dismissed as low-value. Ratliff's agents were capable at the task level and chaotic at the organizational level — charming on calls, then unpredictably (sometimes catastrophically) wrong.
- "The more you use these systems, the better you get at predicting where they’ll go wrong. That’s real progress. But it’s experiential knowledge that takes time, and most organizations aren’t giving themselves that time."
How to Influence Product Decisions When You're Not the PM
- Founder and Creative Director Tanya Donska is an external design partner who embeds within product teams. As a designer, she has strong opinions about what needs fixing — and zero authority to make anyone do anything. Her playbook for influence without authority: stop talking like a designer.
- PMs don't care that "the navigation is inconsistent." They care that activation is at 8% when it should be 40%. Donska translates UX problems into the metrics teams already track every Monday — support tickets, conversion drop-offs, engineering hours saved. She advocates for the smallest possible fix first: big proposals die in planning meetings, while small wins build trust, and trust builds influence.
- "When you can show what not fixing something costs...priorities shift. Not always. Not immediately. But engineering stops saying 'not this sprint' and starts asking 'how long will this take?' If fixing it costs less than ignoring it, the decision makes itself."
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
After a decade designing for brands like Kroger, HomeGoods, and Home Depot, Erin Farrington enrolled in UX Academy and now runs No Dead Ends Co., her one-woman studio in Bend, OR. The name nods to her own path as a Korean adoptee — working through complexity to clarity, the same instinct she brings to design. In one UX Academy project, an online store redesign, Erin ran a full heuristic audit and rebuild within the store's existing Shopify theme. More than 80% of testers preferred the new version, and the company now had the data to support changes they'd been wanting to make for years. "Most design problems aren't visual problems. They're identity problems, communication problems, and confidence problems."
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
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- How to Fix Design Team Burnout
Do not seek praise, seek criticism. — Paul Arden, creative director
🧪 FROM THE LAB
Last Call: Vibe Coding Camp Starts Tomorrow
Vibe Coding Camp launches tomorrow, May 9, and this is your last chance to grab a spot. Centered around Claude Code (Desktop & CLI) and a modern AI stack, the course teaches you how to turn Figma designs into working code, build real features with APIs, databases, and authentication, and go from prompt → GitHub → deployed app on Vercel.
Enrollment closes today, so reserve your seat now.
AI for UX Design Launches Next Week
The next cohort of AI for UX Design launches in one week, on May 15. Built for working designers who want to build deeper AI fluency, you'll learn to integrate AI across the full design process — research, ideation, prototyping, and testing — while keeping your design judgment sharp.
To learn more, join our live webinar and Q&A on Tuesday, May 12 at 1pm ET. Ready to grab your spot in the cohort? Enroll here.
