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Product Designer's Career Paths

How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and UX skills self-assessment matrix.

As the new year begins, I often find myself in a strange place — reflecting back at the previous year, or looking forward at the year ahead. And as I speak with colleagues and friends at the time, typically it doesn't take long until a conversation about career trajectory emerges. So I thought I'd share a few thoughts on how to shape your career path as we are looking ahead in 2026. Hopefully you'll find it useful.

Run A Retrospective For Last Year #

To be honest, for many years, I was mostly reacting. The life was happening to me, rather than me shaping the life that I was living. I was making progress reactively and I was looking out for all kinds of opportunities. It was easy and quite straightforward — I was floating and jumping between projects and calls and making things work as I was going along.

A flowchart titled

Career Decision Map for UX Designers, put together by Lily Yue.

Years ago, my wonderful wife introduced one little annual ritual which changed that dynamic entirely. By the end of each year, we sit with nothing but paper and pencil, and run a thorough retrospective of the past year — successes, mistakes, good moments, bad moments, things we loved and things we wanted to change. We look back at our memories, projects and events that stood out that year. And then we take notes for where we stand in terms of personal growth, professional work and social connections — and how we want to grow.

These are the questions I'm trying to answer there:

  • What did I find most rewarding and fulfilling last year?
  • What fears and concerns slowed me down the most?
  • What could I leave behind, give away or simplify?
  • What tasks would be good to delegate or automate?
  • What are my 3 priorities to grow this upcoming year?
  • What times do I block in my calendar for my priorities?

It probably sounds quite cliche, but these 4-5h of our time every year set a foundation for changes to introduce for the next year. This little exercise shapes the trajectory that I'll be designing and prioritizing next year. I can't recommend it enough.

UX Skills Self-Assessment Matrix #

Another little tool that I found helpful for professional growth is UX Skills Self-Assessment Matrix (Figma template) by Maigen Thomas. It's a neat little tool that's designed to help you understand what you'd like to do more of, what you'd prefer to do less, and where your current learning curve lies vs. where you feel confident in your expertise.

A 'Design Skills Self-Assessment Matrix' with a colorful header and a grid below plotting skills across 'Still Learning,' 'Want to Do More,' 'Expert at This,' and 'Want to Do Less' quadrants.

A neat little tool to identify where you stand, what you want to do less of, more of and what you'd like to learn.

The exercise typically takes around 20–30 minutes, and it helps identify the UX skills with a sweet spot – typically the upper half of the canvas. You'll also pinpoint areas where you're improving, and those where you are already pretty good at. It's a neat reality check — and a great reminder once you review it year after year. Highly recommended!

Find Your Product Design Career Path #

When we speak about career trajectory, it's almost always assumed that the career progression inevitably leads to management. However, this hasn't been a path I preferred, and it isn't always the ideal path for everyone. Personally, I prefer to work on intricate fine details of UX flows, and deep dive into complex UX challenges. However, eventually it might feel like you've stopped growing — perhaps you've hit a ceiling in your organization, or you have little room for exploration and learning. So where do you go from there?

A complex flowchart titled 'Product Design Career Paths: The Mirror Model' in blue, detailing two parallel career progression tracks: individual contributor and management.

The Mirror Model (PDF) is a helpful way to visualize creative and managerial paths with equivalent influence and compensation.

A helpful model to think about your next steps is to consider Ryan Ford's Mirror Model. It explores career paths and expectations that you might want to consider to advocate for a position or influence that you wish to achieve next. That's typically something you might want to study and decide on your own first, and then bring it up for discussion. Usually there are internal opportunities out there. So before changing the company, you can switch teams, or you could shape a more fulfilling role internally. You just need to find it first. Which brings us to the next point.

Proactively Shaping Your Role #

I think that one powerful, yet often overlooked, strategy is to establish new UX roles that align with business priorities. Many companies aren't aware they need a specific role until you discover a critical gap that needs to be addressed.

An overview of diverse career paths, from UX research to design lead, to senior designer and design consultant.

Diverse Career Paths For UX Designers, a helpful overview by Lili Yue.

Sometimes these roles might involve acting as a "translator" between design and engineering, specializing in UX and accessibility. They could also involve automating design processes with AI, improving workflow efficiency, or focusing on internal search UX or legacy system.

These roles are never advertised, but they have a tremendous impact on a business. If you spot such a gap and proactively bring it to senior management, you might be able shape a role that brings your strengths into spotlight, rather than trying to fit into a predefined position.

Wrapping Up #

The most important thing about all these little tools and activities is that they help you get more clarity. Clarity about where you currently stand, and where you actually want to grow towards.

These are wonderful conversation starters to find a path that you'd love to explore, on your own or with your manager. However, just one thing I'd love to emphasize: absolutely feel free to refine the role to amplify your strengths, rather than finding a way to match a particular role perfectly.

Don't forget: you bring incredible value to your team and to your company. Sometimes it just needs to be highlighted or guided to the right spot to bring it into spotlight. You've got this — and happy 2026! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾

Useful Resources #

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