In product teams, the most meaningful work often doesn’t show up in your portfolio. It’s the invisible work: aligning stakeholders, building trust, and influencing outcomes.
Designers today face more complexity than ever. Roles are shifting, tools are changing, expectations keep growing, and many designers find themselves in leadership positions without the title.
So how do you lead when the path isn’t clear?
1. Growing beyond the work
Design used to be about crafting solutions, whereas now it’s also about shaping the problem. Transitioning from execution to influence requires a real mindset shift, going from “how do I make this look good?” to “how do I help the team make better decisions?”
This evolution is about impact, not titles. Are you helping your team move forward? Are you asking the questions no one else is asking?
“Start asking better questions. That’s the key” - Monica Vecchiato, Lead product designer at The Stepstone Group
2. Feedback, ego, and the art of letting go
Designers are taught to care, but caring too much about your own ideas can block collaboration. The ability to give and receive feedback without ego is what transforms good designers into trusted partners.
The challenge? Letting go of perfection, control, and of being right.
“Great design is about influence, not ownership. Let go of the need to be right, and start focusing on being useful.”
3. Designing trust
Trust is the most valuable asset a designer can build, but it’s the hardest to earn. It’s built in the small moments: the way you receive feedback, how you navigate tensions, how you show up in cross-functional decisions…
4. Leading without authority
In modern product teams, few designers manage people directly. But influence doesn’t require a reporting line. As Monica Vecchiato says, good design is intentional, humble, and human. So is good leadership.
“Real leadership is helping others do their best work, not having all the answers.”
5. Working across perspectives
Designers often find themselves between worlds: business, tech, and user. Each domain comes with its own language, priorities, and pressure. Designers who can translate across these boundaries and help others see the bigger picture are the ones who shape change.
A helpful metaphor: some people design like potters (shaping, adapting, iterating); others like sculptors (chiselling away with a clear vision). Neither is better, but understanding who you’re working with and how they see the world is key to great collaboration.
6. Staying relevant in a shifting role
Design today is not what it was 5 years ago, and it won’t be what it is now in 2 years. The rise of AI, new interaction patterns, and evolving team structures are reshaping the craft every day.
To grow, you need to:
- Be curious, not defensive.
- Adapt your skills to new challenges.
- Stay close to real problems, not just pixels.
- Lead through influence, not control.
7. The invisible work is the work
The meetings, the alignment, the tension, the coaching, the honest feedback, the dead ends, the restarts. The late-night Figma sessions that get thrown out. The real work is hard to measure, but it’s what moves teams forward.
“If it’s not in the slides but made everything possible, that’s the invisible work, and it’s everything.”
Final thoughts
There’s no playbook for becoming the kind of designer who leads with influence. But here’s where you can start:
- Let go of ego.
- Ask better questions.
- Build trust, moment by moment.
- Step into ambiguity with courage.
- Help others shine.
The future of product design isn’t just about better tools. It’s about better designers, the ones who lead, adapt, and shape impact from wherever they sit.
If that’s you, keep designing the invisible!
