I'm looking for a way out of UX.

For quite some time, I think I’ve owed you an explanation.

If you’ve followed me on different social media, you know that for years I advocated for product design, UX and UI design.

And then I kind of stopped doing that.

The reason is that in all my 17-year career, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen changes of this scale.

And I also don’t know if I like them.

Right now, I work as a principal product designer in a big tech company. I’ve been there for five years and, generally, I’ve been satisfied with my role.

Of course, there are things I would like to change. There are people I don’t always get along with. There are the usual challenges of working in a large organisation.

But these problems are relatively minor.

And it took me almost half a year to separate what was unique to my company from what was happening in the industry overall.

Was I unhappy because I needed another job?

Or would I have the same experience somewhere else?

After talking to people in other companies, former colleagues and designers from my Instagram, I came to the conclusion that most of the things I don’t enjoy are not unique to my workplace.

They are industry trends.

For context, I really love AI.

I embraced it quite early, and I’m also privileged to work at a company that invests in giving employees access to good tools.

I can now realise many things on my own that previously would have required an engineer, a PM or a full team.

So, surprisingly, I think AI is an improvement to our tooling and, in many ways, to the experience of the craft.

Unfortunately, it also changes how we work with other people.

And this is what I find more concerning.

The first change is obvious: everybody can now create prototypes.

PMs can create them. Engineers can create them. Pretty much anyone in a team can code something, influence the roadmap and show what an idea might look like.

Overall, this is probably positive for the business.

But it raises the question of why you need a product designer in the process, and what role designers are going to take moving forward.

For a while, I predicted that the profession would split.

Some designers would move closer to PM work, defining problems and deciding what to build.

Others would move closer to frontend development, focusing more on UI, code and design systems.

What I didn’t predict was that we might not get to choose.

In my mind, somebody would eventually have a conversation with me.

I would weigh my options and decide which direction suited me better.

Because I’m already a principal designer and work a lot in the early stages, I assumed I would probably gravitate towards the PM side.

But that conversation never happened.

Instead, I’m now doing both.

When a project is in its early stages, I help define the problem, discuss the roadmap and consult people who are already making prototypes.

When the project moves into execution, I work with code, create pull requests and make smaller design changes directly in the product.

At first, this was fun.

It was new, and I have an amazing team of engineers who helped me become more familiar with the code environment.

And there is an obvious benefit. If I notice that something is off, I don’t always need to wait for an engineer. I can correct it myself.

The quality of the product can increase.

But I also feel stretched thin across the entire product development process.

And I don’t know if, at any point, my contribution is large enough that it couldn’t be replaced by a better PM or a better frontend engineer.

Previously, I owned one unique part of the process.

UX and UI design was where my experience was. It was where I had been developing my skills for 17 years, and it was where I could really shine.

Now that work is scattered across everything.

A PM might create the first prototype with our design system before I’ve even properly joined the project.

My role is then to find it, course-correct it and explain which components should or shouldn’t be used.

I become more of a consultant.

After that, I might redesign parts of the prototype in Figma because the AI still hasn’t used our library correctly.

But I’m almost certain this interim Figma step will disappear soon.

For smaller improvements, it is already disappearing. We work directly with the existing product and send changes towards production.

And when the awkward transition period is gone, I’m not sure what will be left that I fully own.

Even if product designers remain involved as consultants, I don’t yet know if I enjoy this role.

Over the last year, and especially the last six months, I’ve heard more people question why designers are needed.

We see something being built and ask for a review.

We ask teams to check the components, speak to content design or validate the idea with users.

Sometimes people say that they tested something with users, but when we review the interview script or the recordings, we can see that the questions were leading them towards the answer.

So we ask the team to check again.

And you can feel how much this annoys people.

Design has always had a problem proving its value. It isn’t easy to connect business KPIs, product KPIs and the quality of an experience.

But now there is also this idea that designers are slowing everything down.

And I don’t know if I want to prove the value of my work constantly until I retire.

For now, I’m giving the situation some time.

I’m not prepared to leave immediately, and I’ve also spoken with other companies that seem to offer more or less the same role under the same circumstances.

They name the same challenges.

So I’m interested to see where everything develops, and whether I can find joy in this version of the profession again.

The industry has changed enormously since I started as a designer 17 years ago.

I’ve also changed as a person.

Maybe this new role will eventually suit me.

But right now, it is an open question.

And while I’m waiting for things to unfold and maybe stabilise, I’m starting to look for another way to create.

👉 Watch the full video I explain what I’m experimenting with outside UX, why I became interested in physical businesses, and the slightly unexpected idea I’m trying next.

I’m genuinely curious whether you’ve felt something similar.
Comment below.