AI didn’t fail design. The bar did.

"Design is the LEAST AI-productive function in most product orgs!"

The uncomfortable truth is that’s NOT a tooling problem.

In Lenny Rachitsky's AI productivity survey, design reported the weakest gains.

My take:

Design is typically <10% of the overall product cost,

poorly understood,

and lightly measured.

So it flies under the radar 😊

When scrutiny is low, urgency is low.

And when urgency is low, leverage doesn’t get built.

As a result, AI is often under-leveraged where it actually creates value:

Decision and craft.

Instead, it’s used safely:

– Basic prototypes

– Quick summaries

– More options

That’s convenience, not productivity.

For our team this year, the focus is on:

- Speed

- (And) Sharper decisions

– (And) Higher craft

If AI doesn’t change how we decide or what we ship, it doesn’t count.

AI didn’t fail design.

Design hasn’t been held to the same bar.

What happens when you don’t start with a PM

AI-native, hyper-growth companies like Cursor, Lovable, and Linear have one thing in common. They didn’t start with a product manager!

In their early days, founders have publicly shared how teams were set up (links in comments):

• Design and engineering at the center,

• Strong product judgment, with designers holding a high bar for quality and craft,

• And ownership sitting with the people closest to the work.

PMs came later —

when the challenge shifted from what to build to how to align at scale.

What’s interesting isn’t the absence of a role.

It’s what filled the space instead.

As playbooks shift and roles blur in an AI-First world,

design (finally) stops being merely the execution of strategy, and starts leading with having a point of view on what should exist at all!

Worth sitting with that.

Linear — Founder-led product built around taste, craft, and distributed product judgment rather than early PM roles.

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-linear-building-with-taste

Lovable — Early team deliberately collapsed roles so senior builders could make fast, high-judgment product decisions.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/elenaverna_this-1000-this-at-lovable-we-shortcut-activity-7357095943877369856-_mIm/

Cursor — Rapid growth driven by small, senior teams keeping product judgment close to builders before formal structure.

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell?utm_source=chatgpt.com

What 2025 taught us. What 2026 demands

2025 was a strong year for us at Zenoti Design. But nowhere close to a complete one.

2026 resolutions are about finishing the job—at a much bigger scale.

The gaps below didn’t just reveal problems.

They helped set the agenda—across the org, the team, and personally

————————————

Org

Learning: You can shape the product in fundamental ways and still fly under the radar :). Not because the work lacks impact, but because it isn’t always made visible beyond the immediate team.

2026 Resolution: Make authorship clearer, outcomes more visible, and quality unmistakable.

/* Win top-tier industry accolades and awards for design excellence—so the work speaks far beyond the product itself.  */

————————————

Team

Learning: I was at times, too … chill. I prioritized creating space—time to absorb culture, adopt AI, and grow into the work. The intent was always right. The intensity sometimes slipped.

2026 Resolution: Don’t diffuse founders’ energy—amplify it. Keep trust high and standards higher.

/* Transform ourselves to an AI-native design team that leads the industry rather than react to it. */

————————————

Personal

Learning: Team growth matters—but not at the cost of personal growth. There were periods where my leadership became a blur of meetings, reviews, and plans. Busy is not the same as building.

2026 Resolution: Protect deep work ruthlessly.

/* Shift from designer to builder—someone who can spot a real need, design the solution, build it, and take it to market. */

==

We’re rarely all in the same room—so this is the best snapshot of the team that made 2025 count. Grateful for the work we did together and what comes next in 2026.

Speed ships. Quality sticks

“Let’s solve P0 bugs and ship it for now. We can polish it ‘later’.”

Still considered a reasonable plan in some review meetings today.

When that happens, and designers push on spacing, alignment, consistency, interaction, performance, and edge cases, it’s not ego, perfectionism or boredom.


It’s because that last “polish” is the difference between “it works” and “customers actually love it”.

That same 10% which helps PMs and Devs ship something customers respond to — and, in turn, look stronger with leadership :)

My friends - there’s no hidden agenda here.

Our “personal goals” were met the moment the polished Figma and demo video went into the portfolio.

Everything after that is just us doing our job:

protecting the experience users not only expect, but deserve.

So yes, you’re welcome :)

And while AI makes speed cheap, quality still isn’t - so we’ll just need to be pushing for this even harder

“Can they stay” Vs “Do they want to”

A teammate resigned last week.
The first time that’s happened to me in nearly four years — so it put me straight into introspection mode.

It reminded me of something a mentor once told me:
“It’s not your job to motivate people.”

At first, it sounded almost irresponsible.
But over time, I’ve realised it’s actually the point.

A manager’s job isn’t to manufacture motivation.
It’s to create an environment where motivation doesn’t need constant fixing.

Mentally stimulating work. Check.
Problems worth wrestling with. Check.
The right context, resources, and mentorship to do your best work. Check.
And genuine acknowledgment when the work is done well. Check.

Money matters, of course.
But pay tends to answer a different question.
Can I stay?

The environment answers another.
Do I want to?

So yes — resignations sting.
But they’re also invitations.

To reflect.
To recalibrate.
And to ask the harder question:

What kind of environment am I actually creating?

When “craft” is responsible, but not empowered

Steve Jobs said the best managers never wanted to be managers — they were just obsessed with the work.

He believed craft creates leaders.
In reality, power often goes to everyone but the people closest to the craft.

PMs and Engineering own the roadmap, the timelines, and in some cases even the outcome.

Meanwhile, the people shaping the experience from the vaguest specs — sweating the smallest details and fighting for taste when “good enough” usually ships — don’t ask for power.

They ask for space.


To push the craft, to raise the bar, to give the product a pulse.

And that’s the paradox.
The outcomes other stakeholders are held accountable for aren’t just experienced through features, roadmap, or delivery dates.

They’re experienced in seconds — through clarity, flow, emotion, and the subtle cues that make a product feel worth returning to.

Those moments are designed.

So perhaps the people shaping the experience should be empowered to shape the outcome too.

The (unsolicited) interview advice for Nikhil Kamath

If Nikhil Kamath actually lands Elon on WTF… here’s some unsolicited advice purely so we don’t accidentally out-flex the man who invented out-flexing.

1. Maybe skip the “I’m still not 40” bit.
We know. Internet knows. Everyone’s heard it enough times.
But Musk was already breaking into cars, rockets, and payments around that age — so the age flex won’t really hit here. Let the conversation do the heavy lifting.

2. Tone down the “formal education is overrated” punchlines.
Yes, the Kamaths built Zerodha without degrees.
But Musk bailed on a PhD program, and probably hires some of the brightest minds in science and tech who have gone through structured learning.
So maybe don’t roast the MBAs while he’s sitting right there.

3. Ease up on the “yesterday I was having coffee with XYZ” name drops.
They’re fun, they’re very Nikhil.
But the guest you’re calling in has half the planet on speed dial.
So the social flexes can take a day off.

4. And yes — keep the “I’m doing this for the 20-year-old building the next startup” energy… but with a little finesse.
Nothing wrong with using clout and money to build your brand :)

Team WTF — all of this comes from a good place.

This episode has a different kind of weight.

That’s why I’m nitpicking. Get this right, and it could genuinely push a whole generation of young Indians to think bigger and build bolder.

Hope you nail it.

The Renaissance mindset we’re missing in AI UX

A lot of us designers and PMs are really busy “shaping AI experiences” while knowing just enough about how AI works to sound convincing in a meeting… and not much more :)

We debate flows, nitpick patterns, obsess over screens — all while treating the model like a mysterious black box the engineers will figure out.

Reading about da Vinci was a gentle slap in the face.

In the Renaissance, imagination wasn’t separate from mechanics.
Vinci dove into anatomy, physics, materials, motion — because you couldn’t create anything meaningful without understanding how it worked.

Compare that to us:
We’re designing the most consequential technology of our time… while treating the underlying system like a magic trick we’d rather not learn.

I think we need some of that energy again.

Not to become engineers.
Not to pretend to be polymaths.

But to stop building blindly.

If we want to create meaningful AI products, we can’t just define the what.

We need to understand enough of the how — the constraints, the mechanics, the tradeoffs — to build with intention instead of assumption.

That Renaissance instinct to get your hands dirty, cross disciplines, and understand the machine?

We need it back — urgently.

Starting with me.

When 1/3rd of an AI team were designers …

When one of the the fastest-growing, most-loved AI products says 1/3rd of their early team were designers*… 

We, Should. Listen.

The most prevailing narrative in AI is still:

Hire engineers. Scale infra. Pray the model carries you.

Gamma flipped that on its head. 

For them design wasn’t downstream (once the model works).

But the first 4 of the 12 hires!

The message from their success is loud and clear for all “GPT wrappers”.

If you want to win in AI, don’t just out-model competitors.

Out-design them.

*Source in comments (And it’s on track for 100m ARR with 50 people)

A designer, a customer, and a conversation :)

One customer interaction a day.

That’s our stretch goal for next year.

The idea came from a quiet frustration.

As designers, we were always part of new product reviews — usually alongside PMs or CSMs — sometimes collaborating, sometimes just listening. But rarely driving.

And because of that, we rarely got to pick who we spoke to, build deeper relationships, craft a personalised narrative, or even go deep without the conversation drifting into other product issues. 

So we decided to fix that.

This quarter, we laid the groundwork — got (very excited) customers to opt in, ran early sessions, and fine-tuned how we show up. 

After a dozen such interactions, it’s clear this hits differently.

No filters. No baggage. Just real people imagining how the new design might make their day a little easier, a little better.

The clarity, the empathy, the spark in their eyes — it’s been energizing.

A reminder that no tool or AI — can replace what happens when a designer sits across from a human and simply asks, “Tell me more.”

The quiet high performers you might be missing

The most revealing 1-1 check-ins aren’t with the loudest or the lowest performers. They’re with high performers who keep their spark low-key.

I just wrapped up quarterly 1:1s with my 14 direct reports — the last round before year-end reviews, so it carries more weight. People reflect harder, own their stories more, and you start to see where confidence and doubt really sit.

Fourteen is a solid enough base to notice patterns. And this time, three stood out clearly.

1️⃣ Some were genuinely excited — proud of what they’ve built, clear about their impact, and confident about what’s next.

2️⃣ Some admitted to a slower quarter — whether because of shifting priorities, blockers, or just burnout — and were already thinking about how to bounce back.

3️⃣ And then there were a few who’d put in solid effort, delivered strong results… but spoke about it almost casually.

As a manager, it’s easy to celebrate the excited ones or coach the struggling ones.

But the quiet high performers? They’re not disengaged. In fact they care deeply — you can tell. And if we’re not paying attention, they’re the ones who often slip through.

Because performance isn’t always loud.
And leadership is about noticing the ones who don’t need to be noticed — but deserve to be.

Not at the table? Even better!

Very few leaders give a f*ck about design. 

After all it’s an execution arm — the “make it look great” part after the “real” thinking’s done.

But you know what? Good.

Because, while the business-savvy product folks are busy selling roadmaps and seeking alignment…

We get to build the thing that actually creates attachment!

In a world where busyness has become a proxy for productivity, 

the stillness of being left alone is a designer’s biggest competitive edge!
We’re the weird ones who still get to go deep — 

Explore, sketch, obsess, refine — 

until something is truly good and moves people!

So don’t cry about not being “at the table.”

You’re in the lab.

And that’s where the future gets built.

—

Inspired by Richard Feynman,

the “Actively Irresponsible” scientist who refused meetings so he could keep doing the real work.

Compassion won’t make you a great leader!

If you watch leaders carefully — from those guiding ten-person teams to those commanding thousand-person town halls — a pattern starts to emerge.

The best ones don’t win because of compassion, empathy or competence. 

They have a deeper focus — the ability to make people see a version of the future that feels almost real.

And once people believe in that future, they forgive everything else — the bumpy ride, the impossible pace, the hard truths.

Steve Jobs wasn’t loved for his warmth. 

Elon Musk isn’t known for humility.
Yet both could paint a picture so vivid that people wanted to chase it — even when it seemed absurd.

Empathy, compassion, listening — they’re all good traits.
But belief is what moves people.

And the best leaders don’t just describe the future —they make you feel it.

Great teams don’t need heroes: Lessons from the Peloton

I don’t want to be the hero. 

I used to. And I’ve had my fair share of the plaque, the podium, and the spotlight of the “award winning designer”.

But chasing that spotlight came with a hidden message: you can’t do this without me.
And that chipped away trust before I even saw it.

I was lucky to have a mentor who called that out in me early — And recently, I discovered cycling has always had a better way.

In a peloton, riders take turns at the front, cutting the wind while everyone else conserves energy. Stay up front too long and you’ll burn out fast. Try to break away solo, and sooner or later, the pack reels you back in. The win doesn’t belong to the loudest rider. It belongs to the group that trusted each other enough to share the grind.

That’s how I see work.
Take your turn in the wind. Fall back when it’s time. Trust others to pull.

Yet too many companies still celebrate that lone wolf. 

The rockstar who “stood out.”.

The hero “who made it happen”. 

Here’s the truth most organizations don’t want to hear: Stop building podiums. Start building pelotons.

Timeless skills. Automated skills. New essentials.

Working closely with so many product builders, I’m seeing a clear shift: the strongest aren’t doubling down on process, specs and documentation—they’re rewriting the role with judgment, taste, and influence.

Some skills remain timeless. 

Some are being automated. 

And some new ones are already non-negotiable.

Still timeless

• Product taste → knowing what is right for users and business

• Ownership → driving outcomes end-to-end

• Stakeholder management → aligning engineers, designers, and leaders toward one vision

Disrupted by AI

• Research → surveys, and synthesis now automated

• Documentation → PRDs drafted instantly by AI

• Analysis → data crunching handled by algorithms

New essentials

• AI workflows → weaving AI into the product —deciding where to automate, where to augment, and where humans must stay in control.

• AI evals → building the discipline to measure accuracy, bias, and reliability of AI systems, and knowing when “good enough” is safe to ship.

• Context engineering → shaping prompts, framing data, and setting guardrails so AI delivers useful and relevant outputs.

The playbook has changed for all of us - whether in design, engineering, or product. 

Every builder will need to know which timeless instincts to protect, which skills to let AI take over, and which new ones to embrace.

Design just went presidential :)

I thought my weekend was set: another round of beers ranting about Trump’s new tariffs with some buddies.

But instead, he threw us all a curveball—by signing an executive order on… design.

Yep, you heard that right. The U.S. government now gets:
🎨 A Chief Design Officer
🏛 A National Design Studio
⚡ A mandate to make public services beautiful and efficient

As someone in India who’s spent most of his career wishing for stronger executive presence in design—so products could be intuitive, simple, and yes, actually beautiful—I’ll happily raise a glass to Trump on this one. 🍻

Stop starving the next generation of designers

I get a few messages every month from junior designers requesting for opportunities. Sadly, I have nowhere to send them.

The job boards and my conversations with other design leaders tell the same story: senior IC roles dominate while entry-level positions have nearly vanished.

What’s feeding this narrative? “Since AI can handle the foundational work, why invest in developing human talent?”

The real issue isn't that AI can do junior work—it's that we've forgotten what junior work actually is. 

Learning to think through problems. 

Building design judgment. 

Understanding how to collaborate. 

Developing the instincts that come from being in the room when decisions get made.

The energy, curiosity, and fresh thinking that juniors bring isn't just nice to have—it's essential for healthy design culture. And if you give them real, meaningful work, mentor them and connect them to the right people—they will deliver. Every. Single. Time.

Without juniors today, who replaces the seniors in 5 years? Time to build balanced teams before it’s too late!

Why my team thanks me for being inconsistent

I got so tired of my feed drowning in "AI will change everything" posts that I decided to write about something truly revolutionary: managing actual humans with feelings and stuff :)

(Almost) Wrapped up quarterly check-ins with my team—2 weeks of 1:1s that reminded me of a management principle that goes against conventional wisdom: Great managers must be inconsistent.

This sounds counterintuitive. We're taught to be fair, predictable, consistent. But here's what I've learned: treating everyone the same isn't actually fair at all.

During these 1-1s, I found myself playing completely different roles:

• “The challenger” for someone who gets energized by stretch goals

• “The sounding board” for someone who just needed to be heard

• “The influencer” for someone whose great work was flying under the radar

• “The straight talker” for someone who needed an honest reality check

• “The hard truth deliverer” for someone who simply wasn't cutting it

Each person walked into that room with different needs, different motivations, different circumstances. This "inconsistency" is actually the most consistent thing we can do—consistently meeting each person where they are and giving them what they need to succeed.

So here's my controversial take:

Stop trying to be "fair" to everyone. Your team will thank you for it.

Your edge in design might not be design

The design work that’s moved the needle most in my career… 

often hasn’t been the design itself.

(IRecently) It’s actually been the story around it—

why a product matters, what it changes, how it fits into people’s lives.

That’s where my background in advertising and consulting keeps showing up, 

not simply as an adjacent skill. But as THE edge.

It’s clearly NOT what my peers and bosses expected from design. 

But now? 

They see it.
They ask for it.
They rely on it.

And as AI continues to accelerate execution, this ability to connect the dots—across brand, narrative, craft,  interaction and user interface —isn’t just useful.

It might become essential.

IMHO, this is the  moment of creative generalists.

Not in the jack-of-all-trades mode. 

But … A translator. A taste-maker. A sense-maker.

So, if that’s your background: You're not on the edges of design. You're exactly where it might be headed.

Burnout is the tax on undervalued design

Lenny’s recent poll on burnout among product teams had a surprising result for many: Designers were the most burnt out.
But if you’re on a design team, this tracks.

While PMs and engineers are happily vibe-coding prototypes in hours (respect 👏)—design has quietly absorbed more work, not less. 

Because, while a prototype might be a replacement for PRD (which hardly any one reads anyway), it hardly covers for the intentionality and care great design brings. 

Most prototypes—while helpful—lack taste, hierarchy, narrative, and consistency. That’s not a dig, it’s a reflection of the mindset, skills, and doing right by the people we’re designing for. 

But that desire is constantly in tension with the business need to move fast and ship. 

Add to this:

• Low(er) influence on roadmaps

• Constant advocacy for value 

• Context switching between products with tight timelines 

…and you’ve got a team that’s perpetually catching up, always proving its worth, and rarely allowed to lead.

If you're a product or engineering leader reading this:
Empower design not just to respond, but to shape.

Because what looks like polish is often the very soul of the product experience.