For over a decade, product managers, designers, and engineers have been playing a game of corporate musical chairs, blurring the lines until nobody knows who is responsible for writing the ticket, wireframing the button, or defining the acceptance criteria and KPIs. Now, AI has sped up the music, and some people are wondering whether the game will end or if all the chairs, rather than just one, will be taken away.

I believe AI is only targeting decision-makers who fail to understand the true power of multidisciplinary product teams. The same folks who have long reduced designers to "the people who color the glass" are responsible for creating attractive interfaces and enduring that stressful, sweaty-palmed "leap of faith" handoff where a Figma link is thrown into the engineering abyss. AI will close that execution gap entirely. To be clear: it is absolutely NOT good riddance to the design engineer. Instead, it’s a definite, joyful, champagne-popping good riddance to that old, broken handoff.

Genuine product design has never been about pushing pixels; it’s about the messy, human stuff that silicon can't easily replicate:

• Deeply understanding people: Figuring out what users truly need, even when they can't say it themselves.

• Surviving the market: Solving human problems without bankrupting the company.

• The reality check: Measuring data to see if your masterpiece is a viral hit, a total dumpster fire needing a pivot, or a solution that has gracefully plateaued.

I'm hopeful designers will be freed from trivial tasks and that we’ll keep creating meaningful solutions for real people—both on, and far beyond, the glass.

Subscribe now

I think and write about:

• Product Design from Human-Centered Design to Design Systems

• AI-Driven Product Strategy & Agentic UX (HAII)

• Scaling Product Operations & Design Engineering (CI/CD)

• Transforming Legacy Applications into PaaS & Enterprise Systems

• Dual-Track Agile & Lean UX in High-Stakes Environments

• Building Resilient, High-Trust Product Cultures