What if the things we build are actually building us?

In this episode of Gab Design with Gabi, I’m joined by Austin Dunbar, Founder & CEO of Durham Studio and Co-Founder of Wenzel Distillery.

Austin has spent the past twelve years branding companies across sport, hospitality, spirits, real estate, community development and more. But his real interest isn’t simply what we create. It’s what the process of creating it asks of us, and who we become along the way.

We talk about the relationship between ambition and responsibility, the realities of building something of your own, and why the most important work we do may not be the work we produce, but the person we become while doing it.

Austin’s forthcoming book, Building in the Black, explores this same idea: what you build is quietly building you.

It’s a conversation about leadership, creativity, ambition, and the choices that shape both what we build and who we become.

Pre-purchase his Book: Building in the Black: https://www.buildingintheblack.com/

Find Austin:
Instagram: @austindurhamdunbar
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-dunbar/

Building Brands: Durham Studio: https://www.durhamstudio.com/
Building Bourbon: Wenzel Distillery https://www.wenzeldistillery.com/

When professionals decide it’s time to make a career move, the reflex is almost universal: go into full creation mode. You start tweaking resume fonts, updating portfolio artifacts, and obsessing over your LinkedIn header.

It feels productive. It feels like momentum.

However, this rush to touch up design and bullet points ignores two critical realities: the macro-rhythms of the job market and the fundamental shift in how mid-to-senior-level talent gets evaluated.

If you want to land your next step, your job hunt doesn’t start when you see a job posting you want to apply for—it starts right now.

Navigating the Ebbs and Flows of the Job Market

The job market operates on predictable seasonal cycles. Understanding these swings is the difference between shouting into an empty void and riding a wave of active hiring:

• The Summer Slump (June – August): As decision-makers take time off, corporate momentum slows down. HR pipelines freeze, interviews get pushed back, and budget approvals stall.

• The September Surge (September – November): Once Labor Day passes, companies return with renewed urgency. Decision-makers have a hard window before Q4 wraps to spend remaining annual budgets, fill critical headcount gaps, and push key initiatives over the finish line.

August is the ultimate strategic runway. While your peers are taking a complete break or blindly firing off resumes into the summer void, quiet preparation in August positions you to hit the market right as the September Surge explodes.

This is why I am opening a couple Design Career Strategy Sessions. These will be FREE sessions where I cover some real truths you need to know if you are planning on entering the job market, OR maybe you’re already navigating it.

I'm hosting two different sessions—register for whichever time works best for you:

🗓️ Friday, Aug 14 @ 11:00 AM: https://luma.com/2xo6wtnc
🗓️ Thursday, Aug 20 @ 7:00 PM: https://luma.com/tgushfor

About the Author

Gabi Gonzalez is a Career Strategist and Coach for Designers with over 20 years of experience leading design teams across Fortune 500 brands. After hiring, mentoring, and developing designers throughout her career, she now helps design professionals position themselves for their next role with more clarity, confidence, and strategy.

Through coaching, workshops, and The Design Cohort, Gabi teaches designers how to stand out in a competitive market by focusing on positioning, leadership, and career growth—not just portfolios and resumes.

Learn more at by visiting my website HERE

Some of the best conversations about design happen after the meeting is over.

In this episode of Gab Design with Gabi, I’m joined by Gwendolyne Echenagucia(Gwen/Gwennie), an accomplished Creative Director, designer, and artist, for a candid conversation about the realities of building a creative career.

We dive into design leadership, career growth, creativity, navigating change, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. We also talk about Gwen’s passion for creating beyond the workplace proving that creativity doesn’t start at work.

Whether you’re navigating your next career move, leading a creative team, or simply love talking shop with other designers, this episode is packed with honest insights, practical takeaways, a little rock and a few laughs along the way.

Learn more about Gwen and her work:

• 🌐 www.gwenniespace.com

• 🛍️ Guennie Etsy Shop

• linkedin.com/in/gwenechenagucia

• Instagram: @gwenniee

It feels productive. It feels like momentum. But standard job-search advice skips the single most important question you need to answer before touching a single bullet point:

“What do you actually want to be hired for?”

If you don’t know the answer, no amount of reformatting or buzzword-polishing is going to fix your job search.

Earlier in your design career, the playbook was simple and predictable:

• Craft gets you hired.

• Portfolio gets you attention.

• Execution is the main differentiator.

But as you move into senior, lead, and director territory, the rules quietly change. Tactical execution becomes table stakes. Suddenly:

• Judgment matters more than speed.

• Strategy matters more than artifacts.

• Leadership matters more than solo output.

Here is where most senior professionals hit a wall: your work has become exponentially more complex, but your story hasn't evolved. You're trying to sell high-level strategic impact using the same framing mechanism you used when you were junior—a laundry list of tools, tasks, and deliverables.

What Positioning Actually Means

Before you rewrite a single line of your resume, you need clear positioning.

Here is a simple 3-part framework that clearly defines your value:

1. I help... (Who do you serve and solve problems for?)

2. By... (What unique method, strategy, or craft do you use?)

3. So that... (What business outcome or tangible value do you create?)

To see the difference, look at how the exact same career transforms when you apply this formula:

❌ BEFORE (Task-Focused):

Program Manager & Event Experience Designer

“I’ve honed my skills in program management and design operations while crafting events that spark collaboration among creatives.”

✅ AFTER (Value-Focused):

• I help Fortune 500 companies and creative organizations elevate employee engagement and community participation.

• By designing and scaling internal events, conferences, and creative programs that blend systems thinking, storytelling, and cross-functional collaboration.

• So that teams feel more connected, creativity thrives, and organizations see measurable gains in satisfaction, retention, and performance.

The first statement tells someone what you've spent time doing. The second statement tells a hiring manager the exact strategic impact you will deliver for them.

The Materials Come After

Once you nail your positioning, every piece of your job search toolkit falls into place effortlessly. Instead of treating your materials like a dumping ground for everything you’ve ever done, clear positioning gives each touchpoint its own distinct job:

• LinkedIn: Acts as your public profile—designed to draw interest from the right parts of the industry by signaling your high-level focus.

• Resume: Serves as the deep dive—organizing your in-depth skills, technical expertise, and career background.

• Portfolio: Proves your capability—showcasing your storytelling, process, and tangible output.

• Interview: Functions like a date—shifting the dynamic from a one-sided interrogation to an open conversation about mutual fit.

The Bottom Line

Your career isn’t stuck because you lack experience. It’s stuck because your experience isn’t positioned correctly.

Stop tweaking fonts and reorganizing bullet points on a resume that represents where you’ve been instead of where you’re going. Step back, define your value, and lead with your story.

💡 Ready to clarify your next step?

If you’re struggling to articulate your value or feel like your career story isn’t landing, this is exactly the work we do inside my Get Unstuck! & Step Into Your Next Level Role. Learn more HERE

It’s hard to figure out what gets you promoted in Design. That leap from Senior Lead to Design Director can be notoriously difficult to navigate.

As a career coach for design leaders, I encounter Senior-level design leads, managers, and designers operating at the Director level—but without the matching pay, title, and accolades—all the time.

If you suspect you’re doing the work of a Director without the corporate recognition, you need to audit your role. Use this quick, 7-question self-assessment to evaluate your true seniority, impact, and leadership scope to see exactly where you calibrate.

1. Are you guiding multi-functional partners?

• The Voice of Design: Operating at a Director level means you are the primary voice for design in the executive room. You aren’t just receiving requirements; you are actively defining the vision for the creative solution and bridging the gap between core business needs and design output.

2. Do you have direct reports?

• Managing a Creative Team: True leadership means managing beyond your own individual deliverables. A Director has a clear vision and excels at getting others excited to be part of the creation. They give space for others’ creativity to shine and remain actively open to new possibilities.

3. What environments have you worked in?

• Cross-Environment Breadth: Have you worked across in-house teams, agencies, or consultancies? Depending on your breadth of experiences, you may be primed for top-tier leadership roles. This context calibrates your understanding of the scope across the design industry, bringing a broad range of knowledge on how to manage work, external vendors, and strategic partners.

4. Are you scoping design initiatives?

• Strategic Planning: Leaders don’t just execute tasks; they define what tasks need to be executed based on overarching organizational goals. If you are collaborating directly with business leads to map out upcoming design work and explicitly linking design goals with core business metrics, you are operating at a Director level.

5. Are you still designing?

• The 50% Hands-On Rule: Spending half your time or less on execution is the primary way to calibrate whether you are transitioning into the Management Lane or operating as a Principal IC. Plain and simple: you can’t operate at an executive leadership level if you’re spending most of your time executing. If you do, you won’t be seen as a leader.

6. What are your direct duties?

• Culture & Process: At the Director level, you are directly responsible for the design team’s priorities and process—the why and the how. You establish design standards, documentation practices, and frameworks that elevate the entire department’s output. Furthermore, you proactively audit the product ecosystem to uncover, pitch, and scope new high-impact initiatives.

7. What is your salary range?

• Compensation Alignment: Believe it or not, current and historic salary ranges help calibrate your true marketplace seniority level. Evaluating your relevant design experience alongside your compensation ensures you aren’t under-titled—or underpaid—for the real impact you deliver.

Where Did You Calibrate?

Take a look at your answers. Are you sitting comfortably at the Senior Lead tier, or are you actually operating as a Design Director without the title and compensation to match?

If you find yourself calibrating higher, you shouldn’t navigate this career leap alone. Let’s talk and get you aligned with the title, pay, and respect you’ve already earned.

Schedule your FREE Career Strategy Call with me ASAP!

Enjoyed this breakdown? Don’t forget to Subscribe to the newsletter for weekly insights on navigating design leadership, and share this post with a peer who might be under-leveled.

Link to PDF to check off your calibration

LINK

What actually moves you forward?

Many designers believe the path to growth is simple: do great work, work harder, and eventually you’ll get promoted.

But what gets you to Mid-Level, Senior, Lead, or even Director often isn’t what gets you to the next stage of your career.

As you move up, the game changes.

During our conversation, we explored why so many talented designers feel stuck despite consistently delivering great work and the three shifts that create real career momentum.

Stop waiting for the promotion.

Start:

1. Communicating your value.

2. Learning how decisions are made.

3. Taking action toward your goals.

1. Communicate your value

For designers, communicating your value isn’t just about showing the work. You have to play the long game.

That means:

• Earn your stripes through consistent results.

• Speak up instead of waiting to be asked.

• Be willing to step up under pressure.

• Own your contributions while recognizing the team.

• Be someone people enjoy working with.

The more senior you become, the more people evaluate how you contribute beyond the work itself.

2. Learn how decisions are made

One of the most overlooked career skills is understanding how decisions actually get made inside an organization.

Many talented designers stay stuck because they focus only on the work, not the decision dynamics surrounding the work.

Focus on learning how to:

• Move from presenting to persuading.

• Identify who really influences decisions.

• Understand the business goals and motivations.

• Speak the language of your stakeholders.

• Influence outcomes instead of trying to win every conversation.

Understanding the business is what turns a great designer into a strategic leader.

3. Take action toward your goals

Most people wait until they feel completely ready—or until someone hands them the next opportunity.

That’s one of the fastest ways to stay stuck.

Trying something new, speaking up in a meeting, or volunteering for a challenging project teaches you far more than thinking about it.

Instead:

• Ask for high-profile opportunities instead of waiting to be chosen.

• Find a mentor or coach who will challenge your thinking.

• Get clear on your vision for your career.

• Raise your hand for work that’s bigger than your current role or outside your comfort zone.

• Map out your goals, the actions you’ll take, and the results you’re working toward.

Career growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because you consistently take intentional action.

Final Thoughts

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that career growth isn’t something that’s handed to you. It isn’t the reward for working the hardest or quietly producing exceptional work.

Growth comes from intentionally positioning yourself for what’s next. It comes from communicating your value, understanding how decisions are made, and taking action long before you feel completely ready.

If you missed this month’s Design Cohort, I’ve included the full recording below. I hope it gives you a few practical ideas—and the confidence—to take the next step in your own design leadership journey.

The video is raw, no edits so the real content starts at about minute 4:32 getting past the intro :)

Enjoy and hope to see you all at the July cohort, date still TBD. The plan is to do more of a round robin with breakout rooms for people to get to know each other better and cross pollinate.

More to come.

AND as always if you are looking for coaching and guidance I am continuing to grow my offerings.

Get Unstuck! Is still going strong with 12 active clients right now and over 20+ having gone through the program. Clients are seeing GREAT results landing interviews and jobs. Check out the details!

Get Unstuck Coaching Program

AND I am now working with a handful of clients under my Next Level Design Leaders Accelerator coaching program helping design leaders or aspiring design leaders in role to elevate, manage their careers and progress.

If you are interested in either program you can set up your FREE strategy call with me to chat details and explore if coaching is the right next step.

Your FREE Strategy Call

You’re working harder than ever. So why does it feel like your career is stuck in neutral?

We had over 50 live attendees join our call this month, which tells me this is a real tension point for our industry. If you’ve been following me, you’ve heard me preach that the industry has shifted—not just in design, but everywhere.

We can no longer rely on a “sherpa” boss or our employer to provide a career map for us.

The industry has shifted from being an upward ladder to more like a subway map, with different lines we can take to get to where we want to go.

The onus is on us more than ever to lead our own careers.

In our call, we explored the current state of the design industry and why so many creatives are feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or uncertain right now.

The reality is that we’re at an inflection point.

It’s not just that the job market is difficult or that companies are restructuring. Multiple forces are converging at the same time, creating a level of uncertainty many designers haven’t experienced before.

The rules have changed. The industry is shifting.

A few key themes emerged:

1- UPSKILLING: The skills that got you here may not be the skills that get you where you want to go next. Continuous learning is becoming a requirement, not an advantage. The industry is shifting to a new value equation for design.

2- AI INTEGRATION: AI is rapidly changing how creative work gets done. Designers are being asked to understand, leverage, and lead through these changes in real time.

3- VOLATILITY: Layoffs, reorganizations, shifting priorities, and changing business models have made many career paths feel less predictable than they once did.

4- STAGFLATION: Expectations continue to rise while compensation and advancement opportunities often fail to keep pace.

5- DEVALUATION OF DESIGN: The commoditization of design through AI and tools like Canva has made execution more accessible than ever. As creating assets becomes easier, the true value of design must evolve beyond production and toward strategy, systems thinking, and solving the right problems.

6- ROLE CONSOLIDATION AND SCOPE CREEP: Designers are increasingly being asked to wear multiple hats, take on broader responsibilities, and deliver more with fewer resources.

None of these challenges exist in isolation. Together, they are reshaping what it means to build a successful creative career.

The cohort recording breaks each of these forces down in greater detail and explores what they mean for designers, design managers, and creative leaders today.

But perhaps the most important question isn’t what’s happening to the industry.

It’s what you’re going to do about it.

How do you stay relevant?
How do you create opportunities when traditional career paths are disappearing?
How do you continue growing when nobody else is actively managing your career?

That’s where the conversation shifted—from understanding the problem to building a plan.

And that’s where things started to get interesting.

The answer isn’t to work harder.

It’s to become more intentional.

The designers who are thriving in today’s market are focusing on five key areas:

1. Clarity – Get clear on what you want and what you are good at doing. Too many creatives are operating in reaction mode, chasing opportunities without a defined destination. Clarity creates direction, confidence, and better decision-making.

2. Upskill – The market is evolving quickly. Investing in new skills, technologies, leadership capabilities, and business acumen is no longer optional for those who want to stay competitive.

3. Reinvent Yourself – The career that got you here may not be the career that gets you where you want to go next. Be willing to evolve your identity, expand your expertise, and adapt to changing market demands.

4. Positioning – Great work alone is often not enough. You need to be intentional about how you communicate your value, build visibility, and differentiate yourself in an increasingly crowded market.

5. Don’t Do It Alone – One of the biggest advantages you can have is guidance from someone who has already navigated the challenges you're facing. A coach can help you gain clarity, avoid costly mistakes, identify opportunities you may not see on your own, and accelerate your growth with objective perspective and accountability.

The good news is that while the rules may be changing, there is still a path forward.

The designers who take ownership of their careers, invest in their growth, and surround themselves with the right people will continue to create opportunities—even in uncertain times.

That’s exactly what we unpacked in this session.

Watch the full recording to dive deeper into each of these areas and learn how to apply them to your own career.

Become a TDC Insider EXTRA member to watch the full Managing Your Design Career recording and access our growing library of career development resources, cohorts, and discussions.

Read more

The gap between Senior Designer and Design Director is bigger than most people expect, especially in interviews. Designers often walk in prepared to talk about the work. But leadership interviews are usually trying to understand how you influence change.

The questions become less about execution and more about:

• How you think

• How you influence others

• How you drive outcomes across the org

To successfully make the transition, you have to master three distinct mental shifts.

3 Shifts That Signal You’re Ready for Design Leadership

1️⃣ From Output → Impact

At the Director level, nobody’s asking how many projects you launched. They want to understand what changed because of your work. You have to connect your design metrics directly to business outcomes.

2️⃣ From Doing → Enabling

You’re not being hired to be the hero designer anymore. Your job is to build the teams, the systems, and the organizational clarity that allow others to do the best work of their careers.

3️⃣ From Design Thinking → Business Thinking

Stop explaining decisions like designers. Start connecting them to business priorities, trade-offs, and revenue. If you can’t speak the language of your executive stakeholders, you won’t get a seat at their table.

The Design Leadership Interview Cheat Sheet

To help you navigate these shifts, I put together a cheat sheet featuring 12 of the hardest leadership interview questions, the exact strategic focus you need for each, and example answers to help you structure your thoughts.

Over to You

Stepping into a Director role requires a shift from talking about the design details to shaping the ecosystem surrounding design. The sooner this shift happens, the sooner stakeholders will see design as a peer rather than a means to executional solutions.

💬 Join the Conversation

Which part of leadership interviews do you think designers are the least prepared for? What have you learned from a “bad” interview you’ve had in the past? Let me know in the comments!

If you’re wondering what the next step is in your current role, or unsure of how to navigate it, you can find my Design Career Map HERE.

Take Action: Audit Your Career

Before you step into your next interview, you need an honest assessment of where you stand today. Why might you be feeling stuck? Feeling like it’s time to move on? And move on to what?

To help you figure out exactly where you should focus your next move I created a Get Unstuck! Career Audit. Use it to pinpoint exactly what you need to develop to confidently position yourself for a Director role, or whatever might be next for you.

Get Your Audit Today

We’re led to believe that if we just win enough awards, master enough tools, and develop a legendary eye for detail, someone will eventually hand us the keys to the studio. We do all the “right things” but then stall out.

The transition needed is going from being the person who does the work to the person who enables the work. If you’re looking to make the shift from the designer path to a design leadership path you’ll want to keep this map handy!

My roadmap lays out the skill progression in a typical design leadership capacity. The jump from Senior Designer to Design Leader isn’t a step up a ladder; it’s a jump onto a completely different building.

It can feel like a lonely journey because you’ll spend more time with multi-functional partners and the business than you do with your design team. And because this is often the road less traveled in design, there aren’t many people walking it beside you.

What makes it harder is that the expectations shift before the guidance does. You’re suddenly expected to think in systems, influence without authority, and translate design into business outcomes—without ever being explicitly taught how to do it. So most designers lean in “doing the role” long before they’re recognized for it.

The result is a gap between capability and title that can stretch for years if you’re navigating it alone.

That’s exactly why I built my Get Unstuck & Step Into Your Next Level Role coaching program—to help designers bridge that gap with clarity, structure, and momentum getting the credit they deserve.

My clients are landing leadership roles in about a third of the time it typically takes when going solo (4 months or less vs 8+ months), and many are stepping into titles that come with an average 10%+ salary increase because they’re finally positioning themselves as leaders, not just strong executors.

If you’re ready to make the shift into design leadership—or strengthen the path you’re already on—this is where we focus on turning that invisible work into visible progression.

Schedule your FREE 30-min Strategy Call and let’s chat.

YOUR NEXT ROLE STARTS HERE

Related posts:

Junior. Mid-level. Senior.

It feels structured. Predictable. Like if you keep doing good work, the next step will naturally reveal itself.

You learn tools, build craft, and develop taste. Each promotion feels like forward motion. Progress is easy to recognize because the system is designed to reward execution.

And for a while, that’s true.

But something shifts at the senior level.

And most design leaders don’t talk about it enough.

When was the last time anyone laid out a clear path for a designer’s career choices?

I wish I had understood this earlier in my career, which is why I created a simplified ‘Subway Map’ of ways to think about the different tracks in a design career. And yes you can jump from one track to another, but you need to know the skills that will connect you to another path.

The moment the path stops being obvious

“Senior Designer” is often treated like a milestone. A point where you’ve arrived. And it is a big milestone, but after 3 years, 5 years and more it starts feeling like a trap.

It’s a transition point where the clarity of earlier career stages starts to dissolve.

Part of the challenge is structural.

The traditional creative agency model once offered a relatively clear path: junior designer to senior designer to art director to creative director. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave designers a shared language for progression.

That model still exists, but it no longer reflects the full reality of the design industry.

Today, the landscape is far more fragmented.

Designers move between multiple tracks that didn’t previously exist in a formal way: design leadership, people management, product strategy, systems design, operations, and cross-functional roles that blend business and creative responsibility.

Even within the same title, expectations vary widely from company to company. Two “Senior Designers” can be doing completely different work depending on the environment they’re in.

So instead of one clear path forward, there are many.

And that’s where things get complicated.

Why so many senior designers feel stuck

At this stage, many designers start asking the same questions:

• How do I become a design director?

• Should I move into design management?

• Is my path still in IC work, or something else entirely?

• What does a real career strategy for creatives even look like?

But there’s rarely a clear answer.

And the default assumption is usually wrong.

When designers feel stuck at the senior level, the conclusion is often that they need to improve their skills.

In reality, most already have strong, well-developed capabilities.

They can execute at a high level. They can lead projects. They can collaborate across teams and navigate complexity. Many are already operating at a level that exceeds their title.

The issue isn’t skill.

It’s direction.

Most designers have never been taught how to define a career path, or how to evaluate which direction actually fits them. So instead, they stay in motion.

They take on more work. More responsibility. More visibility.

It looks like progress. But often, it just reinforces where they already are.

The trap of “more”

When there’s no clear direction, “more” becomes the default strategy.

More projects.
More ownership.
More responsibility.

On the surface, it makes sense. It’s how many designers got promoted in the first place.

But at the senior level, this strategy starts to plateau.

Because additional responsibility doesn’t automatically create movement. It usually strengthens your current role rather than opening a new one.

You become highly valuable where you are, but still unclear on how to move forward.

Even something like refining a portfolio for senior designer roles doesn’t solve this on its own. Without a clear direction, a portfolio becomes a record of past work rather than a signal of where you’re going next.

The missing link: career direction

At some point, the nature of the work changes.

Early career success is about execution. You are rewarded for how well you do the work.

Senior-level success is about something different.

It’s about direction.

It’s about deciding where you’re going and aligning your experience, energy, and narrative toward that path.

This is the missing skill: knowing how to navigate your career, not just perform in it.

That shift requires two things most designers are never explicitly taught:

First, how to evaluate multiple possible career paths and choose between them. IC work, design management, leadership, specialization. All valid, all different.

Second, how to translate your existing experience into a clear narrative that supports the direction you want to move toward.

For example, becoming a design director isn’t just a larger version of being a designer. It requires developing a point of view, influencing stakeholders, and shaping vision at a higher level.

Similarly, transitioning from IC to design manager requires a shift from individual output to team performance, coaching, and organizational impact.

These are not incremental steps. They are directional shifts in how you work and how you define success.

Why this feels harder now than it used to

There was a time when career guidance came more naturally through bosses, managers, creative directors, and structured org ladders.

That’s less true today.

Many bosses & managers are operating under intense delivery pressure. Teams are leaner, timelines are shorter, and expectations are higher. There is often little space left for long-term career coaching or structured development conversations.

So increasingly, designers are left to figure it out themselves.

Which is why so many reach senior level feeling capable, but uncertain.

Not because they aren’t good enough.

But because no one ever showed them how to navigate what comes next.

And in some cases the manager needs you right where you are because you’re filling all the gaps.

Redefining what career growth actually looks like

The ladder metaphor is still everywhere because it’s simple.

It suggests there is one path. One direction. One definition of progress.

But that’s no longer how design careers work.

At the senior level, careers are not linear. They are multidirectional.

Progress is no longer about climbing.

It’s about choosing a direction, understanding what it requires, and aligning your work accordingly.

The designers who move forward aren’t necessarily the ones doing the most work.

They’re the ones making the most intentional choices about where that work is leading.

And over time, those decisions compound.

A final thought

If you’re at this stage in your career and something about this feels familiar, the challenge usually isn’t effort.

It’s clarity.

The missing skill isn’t design execution.

It’s knowing how to map your career and position your skill set externally to align with the job you want next.

I’m coaching designers on how to do exactly this, providing that coaching that isn’t there to guide your career to the next level.

Book your discovery call today to learn more.

BOOK YOUR CALL TODAY

You can read more on design leadership, design careers and how to manage your career here:

READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE

About the Gabi, Design Career Coach and founder of The Design Cohort:

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to leadership; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 8-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and Senior Design Leads the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention.

Let’s make it happen together.

Not ready for a call but want to learn more: check it out HERE.

This was the topic of the month inside The Design Cohort—something we unpacked together at our peer gathering this morning.

And it’s one of the biggest gaps in the design industry. As a member said in today’s cohort, they don’t teach us this in design school.

You can do great work and see it go nowhere if you lose the room during a review.

Not because the work isn’t good—
but because the way you present it leaves too much open to interpretation.

Design reviews aren’t just about sharing work.
They’re about driving alignment, building confidence, and getting to a decision.

If you’ve ever walked out of a review with vague feedback, endless opinions, or no clear next step—this is for you.

Here are 8 tips to help you take control of the room and get what you actually need out of your presentations.

And you won’t just hear from me (Gabi). We had other great design leaders sharing their first hand experiences.

1. Start From a Place of Agreement

Before you show a single design, align on the goal.

Literally say:
“We can all agree that our goal is to…”

Start with something that’s already been decided.
Because when people agree with you upfront, they’re far more likely to stay aligned as you walk through your work.

2. State Your Objectives

Don’t make people guess what “good” looks like.

Before you show anything, tell them what the work is meant to do:
“This direction is designed to…”

Now your audience has a clear lens to evaluate what they’re seeing—
instead of reacting based on personal preference.

3. Lead With the Strongest Work

Don’t build up to your best idea. Lead with it.

Your strongest direction sets the tone, builds confidence, and positions you as the one guiding the room—not reacting to it.

4. Limit How Many Solutions You Share

More options don’t create clarity—they create confusion.

3–5 options is the sweet spot.
Enough to show range, but not so many that you overwhelm the room.

Your job isn’t to show everything you explored.
It’s to curate and guide the decision.

🔒 Want the rest + the full breakdown?

Inside The Design Cohort, I go deeper into:

• How to structure your presentation in real time

• What to say (and not say) in the room

• Real examples and frameworks you can immediately apply

🎥 Gain access to the full session recording from today’s peer gathering.

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Read more

I love hearing different people’s journeys into becoming a designer. Every single journey is unique. And Jamie’s story does not disappoint.

And if you can count up all his moves and keep up with him, then you’re an amazing listener!

And yes this was recorded during the snowpocalypse, but better late than never.

Find more of my Podcast at Gab Design with Gabi YouTube channel:

MORE Gab Design with Gabi

Find more on Jamie at the links below:

linkedin.com/in/jcosta1123

https://torqmtb.com/

About Gabi - Career Coach for Design Professionals

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to the C-suite; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 7-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and senior designers the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention. My webinar is a preview of what we can do.

Let’s make it happen together.

And all of a sudden, you’re no longer the one in charge of the presentation—you’re the one defending your design choices.

At this point, the mood has shifted from collaboration to taking orders like, “Make it blue.”

We’re going to share tactics on how to set up and manage a design presentation for success—and how to handle it when the conversation starts drifting into design tactics instead of objectives.

OUR TOPIC THIS MONTH:
Leading 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀.

Come ready to share you stories and tactics with your peers. But don’t worry, I always have some ready to go!

Can’t make the meeting live???
Subscribe for $15 to unlock past and future recordings, plus fresh design leadership resources every month.

ACCESS RECORDINGS

Never miss out again on career changing conversation like our last call’s topic:

Design ROI: How to connect design value so the business cares about design.

👇Find it here and access the full presentation with your subscription.

Hope to see you at our next cohort!

–Gabi G.
Founder of The Design Cohort
Career Coach for Design Professionals

You’re no longer junior.
You’ve built real experience.
You’re doing more, owning more, contributing at a higher level.

And yet… something doesn’t click.

You’re not moving forward the way you expected.

That’s what I call the mid-career trap—and it’s where a lot of talented designers get stuck. Not because they aren’t capable, but because the path forward isn’t obvious anymore.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling drained, it’s often not burnout—it’s overload.

At this stage, you’ve been told that doing more proves you’re ready for the next level. So you step up—shaping strategy, influencing decisions, mentoring others.

But the title doesn’t change. The recognition doesn’t come. And the work keeps piling on.

So you hit a wall—and call it burnout.

But more often than not, it’s misalignment.

You’re not tired of design.
You’re tired of operating at a higher level without a clear role, path, or definition of success.

That’s the mid-career trap.

And getting out of it requires a different approach.

Here are three shifts that help:

I broke all of this down in a
FREE MASTERCLASS

🎥 3 Ways to Get Unstuck in Your Design Career (The Mid-Career Trap)

Want more content like this?
Watch this + related videos on YouTube:

Gabi at The Design Cohort YouTube

Over the past few days, I’ve been breaking down three shifts that help designers move through this stage. Here they are, together:

Bringing It All Together

Individually, these shifts matter.

But together, they’re what actually unlock movement.

Because getting unstuck isn’t about working harder.
It’s about changing how you show up, where you focus, and how you position yourself.

💡1 Shift Your Mindset

The next level isn’t about doing more—it’s about thinking differently.

A lot of designers try to “earn” their way into the next role by taking on more work, more projects, more responsibility. But that’s not what gets you there.

What actually changes things is how you think.

You have to start operating like a leader before you’re given the title—thinking more strategically, zooming out, and understanding how your work connects to the bigger picture.

💡 2 Gain Clarity

Most designers stay stuck because they haven’t chosen a direction.

At this stage, it’s easy to keep exploring—new roles, different paths, multiple options. But that constant exploration is what creates friction.

Clarity creates momentum.

You don’t need 10 options. You need one path you can start moving toward—whether that’s Design Director, a more strategic IC role, or something else entirely.

💡 3 Exposure & Visibility

You can’t move into the next level if no one sees you operating at that level.

A lot of senior designers are doing strong work—but it’s happening in rooms that don’t influence promotion decisions. Or it’s invisible to the people who matter most.

At this stage, growth isn’t just about getting better at design. It’s about being in the right conversations, on the right projects, and in front of the right people.

That doesn’t happen by waiting.

You have to ask.

Ask to be part of the high-visibility project
Ask to sit in on the stakeholder meeting
Ask to shadow a Director or join a strategic conversation
Ask to present the work instead of just making it

Because the designers who move up aren’t just doing great work—they’re seen leading it.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, uncertain, or like you’re doing more but not moving forward—this will help you see what’s really going on and what to do next.

Schedule your FREE 30-Min Discovery Call

Let's Chat

💡 Tip 3: Exposure & Visibility

Define the opportunities you need to seek exposure to and ASK to join, shadow, lead.

You can’t move into the next level if no one sees you operating at that level.

A lot of senior designers are doing strong work—but it’s happening in rooms that don’t influence promotion decisions. Or worse, it’s invisible to the people who matter most.

This is where exposure comes in.

At this stage, growth isn’t just about getting better at design. It’s about being in the right conversations, on the right projects, and in front of the right people.

Because the designers who get promoted aren’t just doing great work
They’re seen leading it

They’re presenting to stakeholders
Shaping direction early
Driving conversations, not just responding to them

That doesn’t happen by waiting.

You have to ask.

Ask to be part of the high-visibility project
Ask to sit in on the stakeholder meeting
Ask to shadow a Director or join a strategic conversation
Ask to present the work instead of just making it

A lot of designers are waiting to be handed the “keys to the castle.”

But those opportunities usually go to the people who raise their hand first.

So instead of asking, “Am I ready?”
Start asking, “Where do I need to be seen?”

That’s how you start creating visibility—and momentum—toward your next level.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling stuck, unsure, burnout, and overwhelm without clarity to what’s next for you — book your complimentary 30-min discovery call with me today.

BOOK YOUR CLARITY CALL TODAY

PREVIOUS TWO TIPS

💡 Tip 2: Gain Clarity

To know where you’re going, you first need to decide where you want to go.

This sounds simple, but it’s one of the hardest things for creatives to do.

Because as designers, we’re wired to explore. We’re trained to think in possibilities, to brainstorm, to see multiple directions at once. And the truth is, many senior designers could succeed in several different paths.

But that ability to see everything is also what keeps you stuck.

When every path feels viable, it becomes difficult to commit to just one. You stay in exploration mode instead of moving into action.

And the reality is, clarity doesn’t come from more thinking.
It comes from choosing.

At a certain point in your career, you need to pick a direction — not forever, but for the season you’re in right now.

That path might look like going deep into your craft and becoming a Principal Designer. It might mean stepping into Design Leadership and managing teams. Or it could be moving toward strategy, where you’re shaping direction and influencing at a higher level.

There’s no single “right” path. But not choosing is what slows everything down.

A helpful way to think about this is through the lens of college. You choose a major not because it defines the rest of your life, but because it gives you focus. It creates structure. It allows you to make progress.

Your career works the same way.

Just like in any design project, without a clear vision, execution becomes scattered. Energy gets spread too thin. Progress feels inconsistent.

I see this often with my clients. The moment they commit to a path, things begin to shift. Decisions become easier. Opportunities start to align. Their energy is no longer divided across too many directions.

Clarity creates momentum.

And momentum is what moves you forward.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling stuck, unsure, burnout, and overwhelm without clarity to what’s next for you — book your complimentary 30-min discovery call with me today.

💡 TIP 1: Don’t do it alone — no one can!

Here’s the reality: today’s management structures often don’t support your growth or advancement. You have to advocate for yourself — something no one ever really teaches us how to do. Here are ways to get the support you need:

1) Find a mentor – someone who’s been where you want to go.
2) Ask for guidance – advice, help, mentorship, perspective.
3) Invest in yourself – a career coach is an investment MANY senior leads are making because the system just doesn’t support growth like it used to.

Coaches are different than mentors because they will always have you at the center of the equation — where as a mentor is showing you how to follow in their footsteps.

One isn’t right or wrong, but they are different. So don’t expect your mentor to be your full on coach.

Your career is worth the investment. Don’t wait for the system to do it for you. The Design Industry, especially at mid-level, becomes very foggy. Titles aren't calibrated and it becomes easy to stay stuck at level — especially if you don't have an advocate, boss or coach that has your back.

📩 Full Masterclass dropping on Thursday.
🚩 Save this so you don’t lose it.

About Gabi - Career Coach for Design Professionals

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to leadership; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 8-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and Senior Design Leads the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention.

Let’s make it happen together.

💡 Tip 2: Gain Clarity

To know where you’re going, you first need to decide where you want to go.

This sounds simple, but it’s one of the hardest things for creatives to do.

Because as designers, we’re wired to explore. We’re trained to think in possibilities, to brainstorm, to see multiple directions at once. And the truth is, many senior designers could succeed in several different paths.

But that ability to see everything is also what keeps you stuck.

When every path feels viable, it becomes difficult to commit to just one. You stay in exploration mode instead of moving into action.

And the reality is, clarity doesn’t come from more thinking.
It comes from choosing.

At a certain point in your career, you need to pick a direction — not forever, but for the season you’re in right now.

That path might look like going deep into your craft and becoming a Principal Designer. It might mean stepping into Design Leadership and managing teams. Or it could be moving toward strategy, where you’re shaping direction and influencing at a higher level.

There’s no single “right” path. But not choosing is what slows everything down.

A helpful way to think about this is through the lens of college. You choose a major not because it defines the rest of your life, but because it gives you focus. It creates structure. It allows you to make progress.

Your career works the same way.

Just like in any design project, without a clear vision, execution becomes scattered. Energy gets spread too thin. Progress feels inconsistent.

I see this often with my clients. The moment they commit to a path, things begin to shift. Decisions become easier. Opportunities start to align. Their energy is no longer divided across too many directions.

Clarity creates momentum.

And momentum is what moves you forward.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling stuck, unsure, burnout, and overwhelm without clarity to what’s next for you — book your complimentary 30-min discovery call with me today.

BOOK YOUR CLARITY CALL TODAY

YESTERDAY’S TIP

💡 First tip: Don’t do it alone — no one can!

Here’s the reality: today’s management structures often don’t support your growth or advancement. You have to advocate for yourself — something no one ever really teaches us how to do. Here are ways to get the support you need:

1) Find a mentor – someone who’s been where you want to go.
2) Ask for guidance – advice, help, mentorship, perspective.
3) Invest in yourself – a career coach is an investment MANY senior leads are making because the system just doesn’t support growth like it used to.

Coaches are different than mentors because they will always have you at the center of the equation — where as a mentor is showing you how to follow in their footsteps.

One isn’t right or wrong, but they are different. So don’t expect your mentor to be your full on coach.

Your career is worth the investment. Don’t wait for the system to do it for you. The Design Industry, especially at mid-level, becomes very foggy. Titles aren't calibrated and it becomes easy to stay stuck at level — especially if you don't have an advocate, boss or coach that has your back.

📩 New Tip Wednesday with my Full Masterclass dropping on Thursday.
🚩 Save this so you don’t lose it.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling stuck, unsure, burnout, and overwhelm without clarity to what’s next for you — book your complimentary 30-min discovery call with me today.

Book your call

About Gabi - Career Coach for Design Professionals

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to leadership; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 8-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and Senior Design Leads the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention.

Let’s make it happen together.

💡 First tip: Don’t do it alone — no one can!

Here’s the reality: today’s management structures often don’t support your growth or advancement. You have to advocate for yourself — something no one ever really teaches us how to do. Here are ways to get the support you need:

1) Find a mentor – someone who’s been where you want to go.
2) Ask for guidance – advice, help, mentorship, perspective.
3) Invest in yourself – a career coach is an investment MANY senior leads are making because the system just doesn’t support growth like it used to.

Coaches are different than mentors because they will always have you at the center of the equation — where as a mentor is showing you how to follow in their footsteps.

One isn’t right or wrong, but they are different. So don’t expect your mentor to be your full on coach.

Your career is worth the investment. Don’t wait for the system to do it for you. The Design Industry, especially at mid-level, becomes very foggy. Titles aren't calibrated and it becomes easy to stay stuck at level — especially if you don't have an advocate, boss or coach that has your back.

📩 New Tip Tuesday, Wednesday with my Full Masterclass dropping on Thursday.
🚩 Save this so you don’t lose it.

If you’re a Senior Design Lead feeling stuck, unsure, burnout, and overwhelm without clarity to what’s next for you — book your complimentary 30-min discovery call with me today.

Book your call

About Gabi - Career Coach for Design Professionals

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to leadership; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 8-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and Senior Design Leads the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention.

Let’s make it happen together.

In the early days of a design career, the path is linear: Junior, Mid-weight, Senior. But once you hit the “Lead” threshold, the road forks. One path keeps you in the files; the other takes you into the boardroom. One focuses on the pixels; the other on the people and the “ecosystem.”

But that clean split is starting to blur.

In today’s volatile environment, companies are asking more from fewer people. Hybrid roles are becoming the norm, not the exception. Designers are expected to think like leaders earlier in their careers—owning not just the work, but the outcomes, the communication, and the influence around it. Design leadership is quickly becoming less of an option and more of a requirement.

Understanding these distinctions isn’t just about titles—it’s about knowing where your strengths lie and what kind of impact you want to have on an organization.

Here is the breakdown of three primary pillars of design leadership.

1. The Craft-Focused Roles

These leads are the “Guardians of Quality.” They are crafting and very much in the applications and files, focusing deeply on the how and the what of the creative output.

• Design Lead / Principal Designer: Usually a high-level Individual Contributor (IC). They own the creative direction and execution of a product or project. They lead by doing, setting the bar for what “great” looks like without the burden of direct reports.

• Creative Director: Most common in agencies or brand-heavy orgs. They are the keepers of the “vision” and storytelling. A great CD is a mentor who pushes the team’s conceptual boundaries while acting as the final gatekeeper for creative quality. They often lead creative teams, but can still teach by “doing” when needed. They are often seen a creative bridge to the execution delivering on the strategy.

• Design Manager: A strategic operational role. Unlike a people manager, this role focuses on unblocking the “multi-functional” machine. They handle timelines, scopes, and briefs to ensure the process remains healthy, even if they aren’t yet managing a team of creatives. They may eventually have a direct report or two, but seldom are they leading larger design teams.

2. The People & Strategy Roles

These roles represent a shift away from hands-on creation. Their job is to build the ecosystem where great design can actually happen. This involves stakeholder diplomacy, roadmapping, and team architecture.

• Senior Design Lead / Senior Design Manager – These roles step away from hands-on creation to focus on building the environment where great design happens. They are about influence, structure, and scaling impact, typically at the project level.

• Team Lead / Director of Design – The bridge between the studio and the C-suite. They ensure design has a “seat at the table” by translating creative output into business KPIs that executives understand. Their primary KPI is the growth, well-being, and performance of the design team, while connecting the dots to business needs and setting priorities and focus. They operate at an organizational level, not just on projects—though they may lead large-scale initiatives if the team isn’t yet equipped to do so.

• Head of Design / VP of Design – The high-level executive. They are responsible for the organization’s overall impact, culture, and long-term integration into the company’s business model. They define team structure, determine headcount, and identify the capabilities needed to scale design effectively.

3. The Specialized Leads

As a design org matures, it needs specialists to manage the pillars that support the broader team. These roles are the “Force Multipliers.”

• Design Ops Lead: They focus on the “pipes”—the tools, workflows, and onboarding systems that make the team efficient and scalable.

• Design Systems Lead: They treat the component library and brand guidelines as a living product, providing the “building blocks” that allow everyone else to move faster.

• Research Lead: The voice of the “Why.” They lead the researchers to ensure the company isn’t just building beautiful things, but building the right things based on human-centric data.

• Design Strategist – Focused on the “big picture.” They connect design work to business goals, customer needs, and market opportunities, ensuring design decisions are aligned with long-term strategy.

Which Path Are You On?

Whether you are on the technical craft path of a Principal role or the organizational and people path of a VP of Design role, clarity on these definitions is the first step toward a focused career.

It’s also worth noting: these are baseline definitions. In reality, roles flex. Titles vary widely across companies, and with the current lack of industry calibration—combined with the rise of hybrid expectations—many responsibilities overlap or get compressed into a single role.

Understanding the spectrum still matters. Even if titles blur, the skills required don’t. And these skills can transfer to finding the right role fit at the right employer.

If any of this resonates—if you’re feeling stretched, unsure of your next move, or ready to step into leadership without losing your craft—let’s talk.

I offer a 30-minute complimentary “Get Unstuck” call to help you clarify your path and identify if career coaching is the next step in your design career.

Book your session here

Related articles:

At 24, I walked into boardrooms to manage Creative Directors with 30 years of experience.

As a Design Manager at P&G, I was leading global icons like Always and Tide. My mandate? Bring a massive creative vision to life—without creating the work myself. I didn’t even have a Mac computer anymore, I was handed a PC.

The transition was jarring. It required a total psychological and professional pivot from doing the work to directing it. If you’re a high-performing creative feeling the “craft ceiling,” you don’t need better tools; you need a new playbook.

Here are the three shifts I used to navigate the leap from maker > manager > director > leader.

1. Trade Your Craft for Clarity

In the “doing” phase, your value is your output. In the “directing” phase, your output is the vision.

I stopped focusing on the how and started obsessing over the why. I worked with multi-functional partners to dissect business objectives and figure out exactly how design could move the needle on the P&L.

The Shift: Mastering the business of design is what shapes a career. You aren’t losing your creative soul; you’re giving it a “seat at the table”. You start learning how to influence and craft an environment where your design team and the work can thrive.

2. Become the Translator (The Bridge)

Corporate boardrooms and creative studios speak two different languages. One speaks in “synergy” and “KPIs”; the other speaks in “white space” and “visual hierarchy.”

I realized my job wasn’t just to manage; it was to translate. I took the “corporate jargon” from the executive suite and distilled it into an actionable North Star for the creative team.

The Shift: When you become the bridge between these two worlds, you become indispensable to both.

3. Move from Execution to Influence

Your voice is now your primary tool. If you can’t persuade a room of stakeholders, your team’s best designs will die in a folder on a server.

To lead, I had to learn the language of the C-suite: Outcomes. Impact. Numbers. I stopped pitching “aesthetics” and started pitching “solutions.”

The Shift: Influence is power. Once you can quantify the value of a “gut feeling,” you become a leader people follow.

Conclusion: Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

The transition from doing to directing is rarely smooth. It feels vulnerable to put down the tools and pick up the microphone. But that discomfort is where your growth lives.

If you’re ready for your creative voice to be heard at a higher level, I can guide you through the shifts the industry won’t teach you. I coach designers to elevate their careers through the lens of influence and leadership.

Don’t just keep working—keep growing.

Ready to Lead?

If you’re stuck in the “doing” and ready to start “directing,” let’s build your roadmap to influence.

Schedule your Get Unstuck Discovery Call today and let’s chat about what’s possible.

Let's Chat

About Gabi - Career Coach for Design Professionals

I’m passionate about elevating designers because I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to thrive without the right support. Throughout my career—from pioneering design management at P&G in 2005 to leading teams at Kimberly-Clark and serving as Head of Design at Simple Mills—every move I made was a calculated step toward a specific purpose.

I didn’t just “find” my way to leadership; I decoded the signals required to get there.

I started The Design Cohort because our industry lacks professional support that truly translates the “business-speak” of the corporate world into a strategy creatives can use. I’ve turned my years of navigating layoffs, bad bosses, and rapid career acceleration into a formal system to help you find your footing. Coaching is one of the main pillars of The Design Cohort ecosystem.

Your next move shouldn’t be guesswork. It should be purposeful, strategic, and aligned with the life you want to live.

Ready to stop decoding the market alone? Get Unstuck is my 7-week coaching program designed to give mid-level and senior designers the strategy and confidence to step into their next role with intention. My webinar is a preview of what we can do.

Let’s make it happen together.

Tarah founded her company to fill the gap of account manager training, something she never really had and wish she did. So she's fixing that!

Tarah and I talk shop about how designers and design managers can work better with account managers. Often a design manager plays an account manager role. Tune in to hear all her tips, and mine too, on this topic.

Become a member of The Design Cohort to hear more podcasts like this one, delivered directly to your inbox. Because really who has time for social media anymore. Let the content come to you!

Find more of my Podcast at Gab Design with Gabi YouTube channel and follow it if you like:

More Gab Design with Gabi

Get in touch with Tarah! Extra Letters