Burned out from proving design’s value? Let’s change the conversation
Neither I, you, nor anybody else can convince an executive to invest in user experience.
— Jared M. Spool, “Why I can’t convince executives to invest in UX (and neither can you),” Center Centre, accessed November 18, 2025.
Design in tech companies is a weird sport. With an undergraduate background in Architecture, I’ve spent my entire adulthood in an industry that struggled to attain business relevance. When I switched to tech in 2018 to become a UX designer, I was starry-eyed. It was refreshing to immerse myself in a world where it felt like design had won the battle for recognition — IDEO and the D-School’s Design Thinking framework defined what design means to businesses, and McKinsey’s report ( “The Business Value of Design” ) quantified design maturity, and correlated it with business performance. Design jobs were booming, and designers finally earned salaries on par with engineers.
Design wasn’t just decoration — it was the “secret sauce” that differentiated Silicon Valley products. At least that’s how the outside world saw it.