Alright, I’ve wanted to share this for a while, so bear with me. It’s a bit long and is not written as a story but more like a collection of thoughts. You'll have to let me know if you think it’s worth anything.
My goal is to explain why I became a generalist a few years ago and may offer you a way out of a hyperspecialisation mindset or an excuse. I'll let you figure out the details.

Design is everywhere, but as designers, sometimes, it feels like we’re nowhere. We’ve become so wrapped up in the latest tools and frameworks [the new Mac, Figma tokens, auto-layouts, design systems] that we’ve lost our seat at the table and lost sight of something much bigger: the why behind what we create.

This word salad is another love letter to everyone designing products and services ready to step away from micro-details and embrace a broader, more impactful view of our work.

Every product starts as an idea shaped by technology, trends, an organisation’s creativity, and culture. But let’s be honest: ideas are useless until they solve an actual problem. As designers, we play a critical role in uncovering and turning these problems into opportunities to create meaningful solutions.

Here’s the bigger picture:

1. Value is Created Inside the Organization

Companies [read, organised people] generate value through their unique blend of creativity, technology, and processes. In this context, designers are not just interface creators; we contribute to this value. We shape how problems are framed and how solutions are imagined.

2. The Product as the Vehicle

Products are vehicles that deliver the organisation’s value to the market. Every feature we design isn’t just a feature; it’s part of a system meant to communicate and deliver value. Our job is to ensure the product’s features and interactions stay true to that value while making it functional and, hopefully, delightful.

3. The Market Connection

Once the product leaves our hands, its success depends on how well it connects with customers’ needs and wants. But those needs and wants are deeply rooted in something more fundamental: culture, tradition, and human necessities.

We need to stop thinking of “users” as just personas with pain points and start seeing them as people with histories, emotions, and lives. Their values and principles matter more than we know, and sometimes, they don’t even realise it until they face a dilemma.

At the core of all this is a simple truth: design exists to solve problems, and problems aren’t always obvious. They’re messy, hidden, or disguised as something else entirely. Sometimes, we uncover them through careful research; others’ contexts change, and they reveal themselves in unexpected ways.

Our responsibility is to articulate these problems clearly. Why? Because only then can we craft a solution that genuinely resonates. But the articulation doesn’t stop there—it extends to the solution. A solution that isn’t communicated will miss the mark, no matter how elegant or innovative.

Context matters; it matters a lot. The market is a child of context, articulated wants and needs in time and space [oversimplified to make my point].

If your solution doesn’t fit the market’s context, whether because the timing is off or the value is disarticulated, it will struggle. I’m not just saying words here. Look at well-funded projects like the Metaverse, Apple VisionPro, Apple Titan, and my hobby horse, the AI Pin from Humane AI.

Successful products don’t just solve problems; they make sense in their time, place, and culture—something neither of my examples did/does.

Let’s talk about competition, not as the villain in your product’s story but as an unlikely ally. Every competitor solving a similar problem isn’t just a rival; they’re helping validate the problem you’re trying to solve. They’re using their resources to train the market, set expectations, and consolidate demand. They keep you from resting on your laurels.

Competitors create patterns that customers begin to recognise and trust. So when you step into the ring, you’re not just competing — you’re building on a foundation they’ve helped lay. They’re validating your solution just as you’re validating theirs. The challenge isn’t to obliterate the competition; it’s to figure out how to do it better, smarter, or with a perspective only your team can bring.

Why should you look at a competition like this? Because the markets are f/cking hard [read expensive] to uncover and build. They are hard to build as an articulated set of wants and needs, not an imaginary pie in a pitch deck. And you need all the help you can get.

So, your competition is a gift. Study them, and you’ll learn what they’re doing, what the market expects, and where its boundaries are. And when you can meet those expectations—and exceed them in a fresh and differentiated way—everybody wins.

Here’s where the magic happens: perception. What we design doesn’t just meet needs—it shapes how customers feel about what they’re getting. Perceived value determines whether customers love a product or walk away from it.

That perception is influenced by everything—from the clarity of our design choices to the value your product delivers to how the solution fits into cultural or emotional contexts.

As designers, we don’t just create visuals; we craft stories and signals that communicate value in ways people can see, feel, and trust.

Right now, too many designers are caught in the weeds. We applaud at design conferences and pat ourselves on the back while tweaking tokens, debating pixels, and perfecting systems for tools that might fade away in a few years. While those details matter, they’re just that—details. What’s missing is a broader perspective, an understanding of where we fit in delivering value to the world.

Design isn’t just about making things pretty or usable; it’s about connecting the dots between what organisations create and what markets need. It’s about shaping products that resonate with human needs, honour cultural context, and create emotional connections.

To do that, we need to ask bigger questions:

• What problem does this product solve, and why does it matter? When and where?

• How does the solution address human needs and fit into a cultural narrative?

• What story is this product telling, and how does our contribution enhance that story?

As design generalists, we can see the big picture to the smallest detail. But to do that, we must let go of the mindset that roles, tools or trends define our work.

We're laying the foundation for something bigger whenever we solve a problem, design a pattern, or show the world how a solution should work. We are helping build a foundation for the whole organisation, for Design as a function and a domain. This is why we’ve got to stay away and ahead - at all times.

Trends are born from the collective work of designers like you and me. We set them in motion through research, experimentation, and the deliberate design solution. I’ll get back to this in a minute.

Your tools like your Mac and Figma... They’re like a knife in the kitchen: sharp, essential, meant to help us think and execute, but ultimately just a means to an end. Every shiny new feature and upgrade risks distracting us from the cooking. If the knife is sharp enough, that’s all that matters. The quality of your design isn’t determined by the complexity of your tools but by the clarity of your ideas and your ability to solve real problems. That’s it.

Trends and tools should serve us, not distract us. Our job isn’t to obsess over them but to recognise what’s behind them, what they reveal about human needs, cultural shifts, and opportunities to create meaningful change.

We, the designers, don’t just ride the wave; we create it. We dig into the roots of the problems we solve, the systems we design, and the value we bring to the table.

All while keeping context, culture, tradition, and other influences in mind.

This strange categorisation needs to die. It’s just a [not so subtle] way some organisations diminish the importance of design.

I’m not just saying this; read the job descriptions. If none of the bullet points mentions that you’re going to shape the product through thinking, acting, and strategy, then the product you’re hired to “improve” was already designed by non-designers. You are not representing the design function in that organisation. Your work will be forever guided and questioned by department heads with strong opinions about everything from your workflow to your colour palette.

Real designers have a stake in the P&L and don’t work to please the head of a department or, worse, themselves.

So, think of your work as part of a system, a flow from internal value creation to external delivery and perception. You should own a big chunk of that.

As designers, we shape patterns and build frameworks that don’t just follow trends; they make them inevitable. But to do that, we need to step back, study nature, study human beings, culture, history, traditions, and ideologies, study the market, and articulate the problems and solutions that will save or waste resources and eventually define the future. Huh, that was a long one... I’ll stop soon.

Jobs, tools, and trends will come and go, but the need for thoughtful, problem-solving, big-picture design thinkers will never disappear. Our world is complicated, and its future depends on generalists.

Don’t corner yourself; stand up, stand tall, stay true.
Honour the craft.
Look further, look deeper. Stay curious, stay vulnerable.
This is your purpose and the result of it all: your legacy.

With love,

A.