Change it. Or stay where you are until you’re fired.
Feel familiar? I help you go from being an order taker → to trusted design partner.
You know how to approach the problem. The room nods along. Then the work ships looking nothing like what you proposed, and you're the one who ends up paying the price for the stupidity.
It's not because you’re not good at “designing things.” It's that nobody taught you the invisible layer of being a leader; business acumen, influence, politics, and how to train your stakeholders to treat you like an expert, not a decorator.
Design's value is being compressed in real time. AI is the cover story.
Let’s fucking face it, no one joined corporate because it was their “dream.” I mean, maybe I’m the only one that feels that way. The fact of the matter is, it’s a game, and you’re a cast member on it. You joined an season of game of thrones, and you didn’t even realize it.
AI being thrown into the mix is making every exec think “hm, do we even need these designers anymore?” That question ends disastrously for all of us. In a world where labor is cheap, and intelligence cost only as much as the electricity to run it, labor is almost worthless. A robot will work longer, faster, and with more intelligence than you ever could.
So what? The only opportunity left is to take risk. I mean having a fucking opinion, and then being able to convince others to follow along with it. This is influence, and this is organizational politics. I teach designers to read the lines of power, understand stakeholders wishes and desires, and communicate them in a way that gets them to actually look to you like the subject matter expert. Not because of your title, but because they actually fucking trust you.
What’s in it for you? Respect. Trust. Job Security (well as much of the idea of job security as actually exists). The ability to convince others to buy, not just into you, but also your ideas, which comes along with money and fame, but only if you want it.
I'm James Hsu.
I spent 18 years inside design orgs at Disney, Live Nation, FabFitFun, and most recently Crunchyroll, (the world's largest anime streaming business) where I ran design as an exec of a Sony company. I’ve led design at the highest levels for global audiences and teams.
In every one of those rooms, I watched the same thing happen.