Design Table Podcast

Every new product design AI tool feels like a deadline. You have to use it or you're left behind. That's what you read on social media at least.

In this episode, Tyler and Nick have perhaps their most important talk of the Design Table Podcast so far: the anxiety of constant updates, managers demanding you become a '10x product designer', and how the product design community's mental health under a lot of pressure.

They discuss what's causing burnout for product designers on the job hunt, comparison culture, the disappearing joy of problem-solving, and why "you're not behind" might be the most important sentence a designer hears all year.

What we cover in this episode:
🔸 Why chasing every AI update is partly self-inflicted (and social media's role in it)
🔸 How to reset your baseline instead of just shipping faster
🔸 Why constant context-switching between AI tasks is spiking anxiety
🔸 What gets lost when problem-solving disappears from the job
🔸 Why "just prompt it" misunderstands what AI can actually replace
🔸 How to say 'no' to unrealistic AI mandates without losing your job
🔸 The catch-22 of job hunting as an "AI-first" designer
🔸 Why 'build it and they will come' fails regardless of how you use AI
🔸 A real message of hope if you're burned out or stuck right now

You don't have to master every tool the moment it drops. You have to solve the right problem, ship something people actually use, and give yourself permission to take a break. That's the product design job. Always has been.

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MORE ABOUT TYLER AND NICK
Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white
Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

What is Design Table Podcast?

Get a seat at the table and build the design career you want. This podcast is for designers looking to break in, level up, and take control of their careers—whether you're freelancing, climbing the corporate ladder, or just trying to get noticed. Every two weeks, we dive into career fundamentals, design best practices, and the hottest topics in the design community.

Tyler:

But it's hard sometimes to keep up with, like, this update here, this update there. It feels like you have to, as a designer, be in the know of every new update because you have to jump on it right away because you if you don't use it, then you're gonna be falling behind.

Nick:

Yeah. That's a feeling we we all have. Right? I I think that's also a bit self inflicted as a community because whenever we found a way forward, like, we're also we're all bragging about it. You know, look at this thing.

Nick:

I don't need this anymore. Look how fast I am. You know, and that's something that makes someone.

Tyler:

And we're officially live.

Nick:

We're officially live. Exactly. I mean, this is just an experiment. You know, I'm concerned about the design community and its mental well-being, to be honest. So before I really dive in, Tyler, how are you doing?

Nick:

How are you really doing?

Tyler:

I'm doing alright. I guess on that note, yeah, there's a lot going like, things are moving fast in general, so it's I said it before, creating more than I remember. So I guess stress levels are a bit elevated more than normal, just trying to navigate what the new normal is. So well, the ever changing new normal. But overall, doing doing okay.

Nick:

Nice. Well, so that's that's that's great to hear because, you know, if I look at the design community, the designers I'm coaching and just, you know, posts on LinkedIn and Reddit, like, the the whole thing, I see a couple of things. You know, people being tired, you know, from job hunting, not getting responses Mhmm. And being overwhelmed by AI changes, not knowing what to do, but also people on a job and just having managers and CEOs be like, we just use AI now. Everything has to be 10 or 15 times as fast, and here are the 50 new things we want you to do this week.

Nick:

And people are just overwhelmed and quitting, and, you know, it's it's a battlefield out there. So I really think we should should talk about that, the mental health of a a designer in 2026. You know? Maybe tips, important. That kind of thing.

Nick:

Yeah. It's I mean, it's very important. You have to enjoy your work. You have to be happy to to go in. It shouldn't be a struggle.

Nick:

And I feel like it's a struggle for many people.

Tyler:

Yeah. I think they're I I agree. It's very like, the elephant in the room or the big elephant over the last, like, year is, like, AI AI this, AI that. And the it's a it's a couple of things. It's like mandates from most companies is like, how can we leverage AI to do work faster or do this thing, or how can AI replace this function, that function, etcetera.

Tyler:

And then it's also just like, how do you how do you work faster? And then a lot of that is is growing pains, people not knowing what to do with this new tool that we have. Like, it's like a a hammer that sees a nail. It's like it's just use AI in everything. Like, that's that's the solution when we're gonna slowly figure out that it's it can't be used for everything.

Tyler:

There's still some human in the loop that's needed. So I think I've I'm very empathetic of, like, how everyone feels right now because it's it seems like just like just shoot AI at it and it'll fix it when the human in the loop, at least at the discovery and, like, that research phase or or or or or actually multiple different places, like, it's still required. But it's hard sometimes to keep up with, like, this update here, this update there. It feels like you have to, as a designer, be in the know of every new update because you have to jump on it right away because you if you don't use it, then you're gonna be falling behind.

Nick:

Yeah. That's a feeling we we all have. Right? I I think that's also a bit self inflicted as a community because whenever we found a way forward, like, we're also we're all bragging about it. You know, look at this thing.

Nick:

I don't need this anymore. Look how fast I am. You know? And that's something that makes someone, you know, confused and concerned. Like, I should do this too.

Nick:

I should do the same thing and maybe even faster. You know? So I I think that's really a problem. Like, maybe it's it's also like, social media is also at play here.

Tyler:

I think it's probably it's like a majority of it is social media. So, like, typically, like, in tech in general, I think we have to be like, part of our job is being up to date or historically has been. Like, it's it was from HTML to HTML five and CSS to sys three. It was switching from Sketch to Figma. It's like it was improvements or tool changes that happened over time, but they were gradual.

Tyler:

It was like you could've you could've stuck with Sketch for a good five years and and would've been fine. And so people use it today. But it Yeah. And and you would be rewarded by kind of switching and and adopting a thing and posting, hey, I tried this new skill and this new tool. It's great.

Tyler:

You should just kinda follow me. But like, those are, like, small dopamine hits that were great to kind of have everyone kinda level up at the same time. But, like, those incremental changes are having too quickly. And, like, that same pattern that we were following was like, oh, let me try this new thing and it came out before I get behind. I can be I can be the head of the frontier.

Tyler:

Like, that is we're at a point where we need to, like, pump the brakes ever so slightly and again become a bit more pragmatic. Like, choose like, there's still jobs to be done, and you can do it however you want. You don't have to just be cut like, to hark back to another episode. It whatever tool you have, if it's a seven out of five, not a eight out of five, use the seven out of five to get it done. Yeah.

Nick:

Yeah. That's true. I think I think you have two groups, and I can think for the first group, that helps what you're saying. So, you know, you don't have to use all the shiny tools. It helps when you are an individual, you know, small clients, you know, working with, let's say, your local bakery or the, you know, the regional tennis tennis club or whatever.

Nick:

They don't really care. They just want the thing. Like, you know, help me build our app to help help us build an app to reserve a court for Saturday or help us build our marketing website. But you also have the group of people, designers, you know, on a job, you know, larger company, multiple designers. And then from the higher ups, they are like, well, now we're just using AI.

Nick:

From from this quarter forward, we're fast. You know, I think just saying no puts your job at risk, I think. But I also don't have a great grasp of the American job market where I feel like you can just lose your job, like, instantly.

Tyler:

Yeah. Like, there there's something there with, like, the moving fast. There's also a consequence to moving fast. Like, we've like, we've seen it. Like, you're moving yes.

Tyler:

You can move fast, but also the error rate has elevated as well. So, like, you are

Nick:

Yeah.

Tyler:

We are shipping more things, but the amount of bugs we're shipping is increasing disproportionately to the to to the baseline that it was before. So, like, yes, we're creating more, but there's still there's a there's a processes or or things that has to be put in place to make sure that we're not it's not a volume. Mean, it's a quality game at the end. Like, yes, you can ship more, but, like, still, there's the the QA like, the role of the QA or whoever that is, like, needs to do their job because, like, you're we're shipping more than we can we can see. Yeah.

Nick:

That's true. Do you think that means that there will be some sort of correction at some point, like a big market correction?

Tyler:

Yeah. And part of that will be, like, the cost of the cost of AI being too high relative to the ROI. So, like, yes, you could now have AI create a thing, but, like, it'll probably cost more than the headcount. So you're like, there's there's a balance there. So it's like, you can use AI, but, like, there is, like there's a way of prompting so you're giving it an accurate thing so that, like, the cut like, the tokens that you're eating up is lower than it than it that it needs to be.

Tyler:

Like, there's there's gonna be a correction that that happens. Like, we're I think right now, the strategy is, like, just, like, balls to the wall. Let's figure it out. And then there's gonna be a correction of, like, what Yeah. What are the things that we should delegate AI to, and what are the things that humans need still need to be still in the loop for?

Nick:

Yeah. Which will be enough to, you know, fill your work week with, I would say. You know? Because that's that's a few a fear many people have. I have it from time to time as well.

Nick:

Not as much, luckily. But whenever something gets replaced regardless of the quality, you're like, oof. This is just a start. You know? If they can replace this, maybe next week or next year, it will become good they will become good enough to also take away this chunk of my work.

Nick:

Mhmm. But I think, you know, that's that's also a a a, you know, bias. I think they call it the straight line bias where you think if something moves this way in this angle, you can just extend that line because it will always move that same way. But usually things even out in the future. So I think that's a good good thing to keep in mind.

Nick:

It's just, you know, again, just for your own mental health because it's you you need to survive that time until the correction happens.

Tyler:

Yeah. Like and also, like, we don't we don't get as much of a break. Like, we are there's there's this momentum, like, these new tools have given us. It's like, it's it's go go go go go go go. Like, yes, we're giving we have more work just because, like, there is no there is no, like, break.

Tyler:

Just like I can Yeah. Go as I'm working on this thing, it's processing. Let me jump on the next thing in parallel because there's that waiting. Like, there's this new like, I gotta wait for AI to finish my task, like, space that's happening. Like Yeah.

Tyler:

It's it's a break that we get, but then we our urge is to fill it with something else. So it's like Yeah. Okay, this thing is doing my SEO audit. Let me jump on to this other task in parallel and then I'm working and then I'm I'm spinning it. Now I'm waiting for that.

Tyler:

Did my other thing finish? No. It's still working. Let me go into a third thing. And then you're you're you're creating this mountain of different things where you're you're you're context switching more than ever, which has a which is increasing the level of, like, anxiety that you're it's like you're you're spinning too many plates for for yourself to handle.

Tyler:

Like Yeah. So I think it's important to to just assess, like, what the baseline was before any of these tools. So understand, like, if it took you terrible example. If it took you maybe half a day to create this landing page and now it takes you an hour, Just understand that like the baseline half a day what is is still okay. So if you do it in an hour, just take take half of like, take half of a half a day.

Tyler:

So take like three hours just to make sure you have that focus time on that task so you're not just shipping out something quickly. You're doing you have more time. We've we've been wanting more time to do more granular kind of high fidelity kind of, like, polished stuff. These these tools have now allowed us to kind of double down on, like, the things that were really important. So it's Mhmm.

Tyler:

I wouldn't rush to kind of raise the flag this thing is done. Like, it used to take us half a day, now it takes us an hour. Take two or three hours on that thing.

Nick:

Yeah. I think that's a very mature thing to do, and it also hurts because I am doing it the way you just recommend not to do. You know? I have multiple things open, and I feel like a superhuman when I have AI running at one spot. I'm like, oh, I I have five minutes now.

Nick:

Let's let's get started on this new thing. Mhmm. So I probably shouldn't do that as much, you know. I should probably just sit back or, you know, have a drink or do laundry, maybe.

Tyler:

Maybe. Also, I think there's I'm curious on your thoughts on this, how it might relate to the design world or how or the things that you're doing now. Mhmm. We're speaking to a developer about, like, how AI has changed their work. And an interesting insight came out of that conversation was, like, a bit a bit depressing.

Tyler:

It's like mentioned, the challenge has been removed from my job. Like, is no there is no challenge. Like, the the the the fun in, like, the development was, like, problem solving. Like, oh, there's this thing

Nick:

there's this component that I

Tyler:

have to I have to figure out. I've just a bit of research. I have to figure out how I can implement it, etcetera. Like, that piece has been completely removed. Like, there is no challenge big enough that can't be, like, facilitated with AI.

Tyler:

Like, they can you can it's it is turned into the volume game versus like a a problem solving challenge. So, like, removing that from your piece of your job, like, where the fun is like, the part of our job is problem solving, or the majority of our our job actually is problem solving. And if that has been removed, like, where's where's the enjoyment? And then I guess back to my question to you, like, has any any of that kinda is is any of that relatable to, like, your day

Nick:

to day? It is not to mine in all honesty, but it is a top three complaint easily in the what I see. The the I'm just prompting all day, and I'm depressed. That's something I see a lot. But I I I'm very lucky to, you know, to have mostly, like, startup clients, smaller clients where there's more time to do things.

Nick:

They hire me for my design knowledge and expertise. Mhmm. So they are not, you know, top down screaming from behind me like, hey. You would be faster. You know?

Nick:

Use this tool now. Like, because they don't they don't they don't know. They don't care. They just they just want the thing. But I know it's very common just when browsing design communities, you see it all the time.

Nick:

And I agree. I I would I would be very sad if the problem solving would be a way, like the exploring and the sketching and prototyping. Like, that's something I really enjoy. And then when it clicks, you know, figuratively speaking, like, when you feel like, oh, this this could be the one. This could be the solution.

Nick:

Like, moment, that's just that's the highlight of, you know, of your working day. You know, a puzzle seems to be solved.

Tyler:

Yeah. I think, like, to lean on the positive side, like, for me as a designer, I think for most people, it's like, yes, I'm prototyping all day, but, like, probably it's probably be more relevant for smaller smaller startups is that you get to create you get to bring your things to life. It's like I've I'm no longer isolated in Figma. I get to design my thing or then prompt my thing and then ship my thing, and I get to see it I I get to see it out in the world. And then what I love about it is that, like, yes, you're prompting all day, but, like, you are basically becoming the architect of the thing that you wanna build.

Tyler:

So you're not Mhmm. Isolated to, like, this week, I'm just gonna work on the landing page. Like, I get to Yeah. I get to then because my work is accelerated, I get to talk I get to look high level at the vision that I'm gonna create. So I get to not only work on the landing page.

Tyler:

I get to work on the email funnel. I get to work on the upsell package. I get to work on the whole vision of this thing that I can quickly see the results of or, like, I can quickly bring to life. I'm like, oh, yes. This whole thing I created, and I get to see I it's more tangible because it was quicker.

Tyler:

Yeah. Versus, like, this this this week landing page. Next week, this email thing, and then like a month down the line, get to see what the experience turns into.

Nick:

Before we continue, if you're feeling stuck in your design career or if you feel like you're doing solid work while no one really notices, we've got a bunch of extra stuff on our website.

Tyler:

We're building a community for product designers to actually learn, grow, and get hired, not just scroll and collect more inspiration.

Nick:

There's also articles, checklists, and courses.

Tyler:

All based on real world experience from both of us. No fluff, just what actually works.

Nick:

Check out designtablepodcast.com. The link is in the description. I mean, I think the glass half full way of looking at it makes a lot of sense. I spoke to someone recently, and they asked me about, you know, AI. Is it positive or negative?

Nick:

And, you know, thinking about it, I think, like all big changes in the world, discoveries and technology and that kind of stuff, there's positives and negatives to it. But overall, in most cases, I think it's positive. So I think that's the better way of looking at it. You know, what you're saying is, you know, glass half full and seeing things come to life, you know, not being stuck to just static mock ups. You know, for me, that's motivating, you know, to be able to click around and hand over something that actually does something.

Nick:

And it also makes you a better designer because you always discover something new when you can click through something. You know, if you look at the step by step mock ups in Figma you'll always miss something. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's a plus. If you look at the mental health stuff and prompting all day.

Tyler:

Yeah. I think it's different. I think we need to take just look at our collaboration partners like the engineering and other like, probably the engineers get, like, the shitty end of the stick just because they if they're not interested into, like, UX or product, like, it seems like the challenge is removed. But, like, we've been unlocked to do a bunch of different things that we have we haven't historically had had access to. So we get to now we get to code.

Tyler:

Now we get to leverage research. So we do more product thinking. We're we had to do we do less of the pixel pushing. There still is that. But we get to access to these different tools that kind of for me, like, back to the glass half full analogy, like, this is exciting.

Nick:

Yes. Yeah. I mean, I you and I, we both have been around long enough to witness those projects where you design something, a developer takes a swing at it, and it's more or less the thing you designed, but not really. And then you try to explain to them, like, no. No.

Nick:

No. This needs to go to the left, and this needs to be blue, and there's not enough spacing there. And, you know, and then you are annoyed, they are annoyed, it's just annoying. Now you can just go in and just, you know, do the UI polish yourself. It saves you a whole lot of back and forth and headaches, basically.

Nick:

So that's not a positive. I think the main negative is, you know, nondesigners one layer higher than you within a company. Just thinking like, oh, well, you know, we can just prompt our way to something useful, You know? And they expect you to be a 10 x designer, like, instantly, not really realizing that things just take a bit of time and mentally also take time to wrap your head around and and, you know, just recharge. You know?

Nick:

So I think that's the main challenge or the main cause of, you know, the the fatigue that I see, you know, from your job, of course.

Tyler:

Yeah. Of course. But I think there's a solution there. Like, since it's so accessible, just have them do it also. So, like, they get a bit it's it's not like you have to learn up a you have to learn Figma, have to learn all the different keystrokes and all the different concepts, like, it's prompting.

Tyler:

So, like, there's expertise that, like, we design an engineering hold it's easier for us to prompt our way because we have the the context needed. But, like, if you kind of remove the shackles and let them try it out, they'll get an understanding of, like, it's not as easy. Like, they'll get to they'll pick they'll have that dopamine hit because they'll create something, that'll look terrible. But so they'll know but they'll know what the limitations are. So it's not just Yeah.

Tyler:

Prompt it.

Nick:

So what you're saying is let them, you know, try and fail. Let them just hit that wall and realize, like, I do need a design. Yep. Mhmm. That's a good thing.

Nick:

You know, I you know, it might be my, you know, Dutch upbringing, but I just tend to say no. Like, hey. You know, you need to do more prompting. You need to do this, and we're now an AI native company, and this is our new way of working, you know, and when it sucks, I'm just gonna tell them no. You know?

Nick:

I'm not sure if that works in, you know, in different markets where you can just get fired on the spot. Like, do you have a a view on that? Like like, can you just, you know, rebel against all of that? Like, or is it just a bit too easy to say, you know, let's just not do it?

Tyler:

You can only say no. It's just about having a bad like like, you can get fired on the spot if you don't have value. But if you've been continually contributing value to the company or to the project, like, your no had you can't just say no like a just like a little child, but like, no because of x and y reason.

Nick:

Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

Tyler:

Like, there there's there's there's reasoning behind, like, why we're not why you don't wanna do this thing or that thing.

Nick:

Mhmm. Yeah. Of course. Now you you don't have to be a stubborn two year old without, you know, knowledge of how the world works, but, you know, a nicely formulated no because, you know, dot dot dot. Of course, that's it.

Nick:

That makes sense. Of course. I I saw a a post on LinkedIn from a designer who's currently job hunting, and they were very frustrated by sort of a catch 22 situation they were in. You know, at first, during the phone interview, they asked this person, like, okay. But do you do you know all the current AI tools?

Nick:

Like, are you proficient with them? Do you know how to use them? And he was like, yes. Okay. And then the next thing is they gave him a, you know, take home task, you know, just to see how he does.

Nick:

And then the the feedback was, well, this looks very AI like. You know? And he was very frustrated like, hey. At one point, you asked me, you know, do you know AI? Yes.

Nick:

Right. And then they say, like, wait. But that's that's it. That that that that this looks like it's made by AI. You know?

Nick:

I think yeah. I I have some thoughts there. I think one party is at fault completely. But I do see the struggle and the annoyance people have there. Like, you know, I I everyone's telling me I have to be AI first.

Nick:

Now I am AI first, and now they tell me it's not good enough. You know? I mean, that's frustrating for them.

Tyler:

Yeah. That sounds like a yeah. I agree. That's probably both parties. It's not either or.

Tyler:

I think number one, from the employ employer, they don't know. It's so early on. I don't think we probably know how to test it. Like, how to probably test people. Their expectation was probably leverage an AI tool, but make it not look like AI.

Tyler:

So, like, use the tool, but, like, deploy your design technique to make sure it looks branded or unique or whatever their expectation was. And then from, the person that you were talking to, I need this is AI. Here's AI. Like, there there's a there's a disconnect there. Yeah.

Tyler:

So I think we're just like I think it's growing pains. It's just we're not we're not mature enough. Like, AI is not mature enough or, like, we haven't caught up to kind of properly test or communicate what we're our expectations are. Yeah. It's still too new.

Nick:

I think yeah. I think that makes sense. I mean, take home challenges don't don't really make sense anyway, I think. But, I mean, that's a different episode, I think. K.

Nick:

Disconnect there is true. I think this designer just took this, hey. Do you know AI tools as a as a given? Like, oh, but I have to use it. Well, they just were curious, I think, about this way of working.

Nick:

Mhmm. I don't know about you, but I myself use AI only, like, in an assistive in an assisting way. You know? I don't use it to create design output. But once I have the design thinking in place, I use it to, you know, clean things up.

Nick:

You know, if I decided to make something smaller or bigger, I can use AI to, you know, do that thing. So make it bigger or smaller across all boards. You know? Mhmm. But I'm I'm not going to tell it like, okay.

Nick:

I'm I'm a designer. I'm looking for a health tech landing. Yeah. It's generated. Done.

Nick:

You know? I think that's what happened there. But again, you know, didn't see the didn't didn't see the work. Yeah. You know, many designers are frustrated and that frustrates me because I think design is a wonderful profession to be in,

Tyler:

especially It is. And I think there's something to learn about everyone is shipping. Like, we are losing like, shipping and creating products wasn't the It was getting customers or solving the business problems. So, like, I think we're I think we're gonna discover or if if we haven't discovered that already, the prob like, you can build anything, but you have to solve the right problem and you have to market it so that people can use it. Yeah.

Tyler:

That's the challenging part. You can build whatever tool, put in whatever prompt, and it'll create the thing. But, like, you have to you have to make a product so good that people use it and keep using it. And, you have to make it discoverable and and and work on distribution so you have a user base constantly flowing in. Right.

Nick:

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I saw a a graph where you could see, like, when AI became as mainstream as this today, the number of apps on App Store or hosted somewhere, like, that line, like, exploded up. You know, like, everyone's creating something.

Nick:

But then there was a second line. I'm not sure whether it was, like, revenue or downloads or installs or something. Yeah. And that line was more or less equal. And I think that kinda speaks to what you're saying.

Nick:

You know, it's like everyone's building stuff, but it doesn't really hit with people because otherwise, that second line would have been going up as well. You know?

Tyler:

Yeah. Exactly. Because build a day will come is not has always failed.

Nick:

Yeah. True. And that makes it look to me as if it's, you know, it's useful AI, but then that become a 10 x designer or engineer. That's a lot of social media fluff, you know, that really impacts how people think. You know, we are all expecting the LinkedIn guru to be right, you know?

Nick:

Yeah. Especially for junior people who don't really have a grasp of how things are because they're just new, you know, that they are getting used it to what the world is, you know, as a designer. Like, they just think it's true because they have no frame of reference. And I think that's a big challenge for them.

Tyler:

That's unfortunate. Yeah. Because they don't have a reference point. I would yeah. I would be careful because, like, that game that those social media people play is, like, first, like, first to show you that they can use a thing, which is, like, the algorithms.

Tyler:

Like, I used it first. Here's how to use it. But do you need to use that that new tool and technique? Probably not. You probably unders get a better understanding if you actually worked freelance with a company directly or worked in house.

Tyler:

Like, that's where you understand, like, what the the jobs to be done. The jobs to be done is not constantly using the new tool, just just to use it.

Nick:

Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, that's it. There's there's an interview that came out, I think, yesterday or today by some some VP at Spotify, I think, where they say, like, we have, 4,500 commits to the code base a day or a week, which makes me think like that like that doesn't really make sense. So many PRs and stuff.

Nick:

So I I have a hard time believing that, but there are some people who are like, woah. 4,500. I I should do that too. You know? The most technically advanced, most AI using client I have, they have just over 2,000 PRs since they started six years.

Nick:

Mhmm. You know? So that's also like one a day. I myself, as a designer slash, you know, wannabe developer, I have like two a week maybe. You know?

Nick:

Mhmm. Good week. So but when I when I create a post on social media, like, I'm a new type of designer. I can do two commits a week. Like, nobody's going to like it because it's not some sort of extreme number.

Nick:

Yeah. You know, another example of how social media really hurts the confidence and the mental health of, you know, designers and junior designers. So yeah. Yeah. I think at the end

Tyler:

of the day, what we all should be doing is well, social media is is good if you wanna just explore and get get ideas, but it I wouldn't hold it as, like, true in what you should be doing. You should be asked back to, like, first principles. You should be measuring if you're doing work, you should be measuring the baseline, measuring after you've launched the thing, and that's the loop that you should be tracking. It's like, did the thing that I create add value or what KPI did it drive? Was it a success or failure?

Tyler:

In both cases, there's a learning opportunity. If if it won, yay, pat yourself on the back. If it lost, there's something to learn there. Iterate, continue. That's that's the that's where you should be getting your dopamine hit is from, like, the tangible things that you work on, not be not, like, grasping at straws at the new thing that's coming out.

Tyler:

It's it's an it's a it's a losing game.

Nick:

Yeah. There's always someone claiming bigger things on social media. So if we wrap this up just as a a message of hope for designers feeling burned out and stuck either because they're without a job or sick of their job? Like, what's your one or two sentence help message for them?

Tyler:

Just take a look at the jobs to be done that you're where you're currently working and focus on that as the like, back to my point, like, focus on that work. There's always a new shiny new thing. Turn that off. Take a week, do the work, reflect on your week, and then see how that feels and then you can turn social media on. You'll see a big difference.

Tyler:

You'll you'll see what, like, you didn't miss anything. There's always a new thing. You're not behind.

Nick:

Yeah. You're not behind. That's a good sentence. Compare yourself to you from six months ago. That's I think it's my ambition to it.

Nick:

Yeah. Yeah. And if So I hope that's really helpful, you know. Wishing you as a listener who feels this way and good luck and it's okay to take a break. You know, it's summer over here.

Nick:

You know, it's okay to for a week, just to have a walk somewhere, have some ice cream, play with the dog, touch grass is what the cool kids are saying, you know. And then return refreshed because when you take a step away, you have tons of thoughts and new ideas. I mean, that's always really helpful. So, yeah, take a break.

Tyler:

Alright. That's another episode in the bag.

Nick:

Yeah. Great episode. By the way, if you're stuck second guessing your work or trying to figure out your next move, drop a question in the comments or leave a review. We might actually feature you in one of our future episodes.

Tyler:

And if you got any value from this episode, hit subscribe wherever you're listening. It helps more than you think.

Nick:

You can can find everything else, resources, articles, and more at designtablepodcast.com.

Tyler:

Thanks for being here.

Nick:

See you next time.