Stock the lifeboat

In my 15+ years as a product designer, I’ve seen multiple layoffs and re-orgs hit hard. I once worked for a startup that shuttered its doors suddenly on a Monday morning, and all of us took the same train home at 11am: half angry, the other half despondent.

It hits when you least expect it. Comfortable times are exactly when you should be preparing. The ones who stayed sane in a sudden layoff didn’t scramble because they were already prepped. When your head is swirling with discussions about severance packages and what to do for health insurance (COBRA anyone?), it’s hard to be calculated and make the right decisions.

Preparation is insurance: you don’t buy it expecting to use it, you buy it so you can stop thinking about the risk and actually enjoy what you have.

As companies around us restructure, here’s how to stock your lifeboat:

You can tell the story of your heroic all-nighters, but what needs to be told is how you moved the needle. Did you ship something that had a positive effect on revenue or retention? Did DAU go up based on your work? How did your work improve BOFU metrics? What was your department’s XPN score? (okay this one I made up).

Document your progress now while you’re still there. Not your job title or the projects you worked on - the impact. What did the metric look like when you started, and where is it now? That’s the story you want to tell, and the one we all want to hear.

Skills are your most portable asset, and the time to build them is when you have space and energy - not when you’re scrambling. Every skill you build now is one less thing to figure out under pressure. Watch those tutorial videos, take that course (especially if your current employer will foot the bill), or build something with Claude Code like you’ve been meaning to.

Update it now. It doesn’t have to be perfect (all good design is iterative, right?). For designers your portfolio is the visual proof of what you built and what you moved. Iterate on it, make sure it’s current, make sure it tells the story of your impact.

You don’t want to be starting a site from scratch or digging through old work under pressure. That’s work you do right now, while you have space. By the time you need it, it should be ready to send.

I know this sounds obvious, but it’s worth saying. Once your mind starts racing about how to pay your bills, that’s exactly when you get the surprise medical expense. Stress clouds your thinking.

A financial buffer is about protecting your clarity. Six months of runway means you can take time to find the right role instead of taking the first one. It means you’re not negotiating from desperation. Build it now, while you have steady paychecks.

Don’t stay current just to chase trends; do it to see what’s coming before it hits. Make time to read, listen, talk to people in your field. Don’t just watch your role - know what’s shifting across your industry. It’s your earliest warning system.

Once you’ve been in a role for a while, it’s easy to think staying connected to your coworkers is enough. But that’s exactly when you should be reaching out to your network beyond your day job. Check in with a former colleague, a recruiter you trust, or someone who knows your work. Be genuine about it too.

Relationships are key. When things shift and you need a job, advice, or just someone who gets it, it’s too late to build those bonds if you’re already spinning. Invest now, while there’s no pressure: a text, a call, coffee. The cost of maintenance is nothing next to the payoff.

All of this asks you to prepare while everything feels fine. You don’t have to be paranoid - you just want to be ready.