Hannah Hearth on Design Careers in the Age of AI: Adapting, Shipping, and Leading
In a recent episode of Dive Club, Hannah Hearth, Head of Product Design at Vercel, shared profound insights into the rapidly evolving landscape of design. With AI tools reshaping workflows and market expectations shifting, Hannah discusses what it means for designers—from individual contributors to leaders—to thrive in this dynamic new era.
The Evolving Design Interview: Embracing Practicality
Hannah's journey to Vercel began with a surprising, yet ultimately valuable, interview process that included a take-home assignment for a senior leadership role—a rarity she hadn't encountered in a decade. This experience underscores a shift in how companies assess design leaders:
"As a design leader, I think it's a phenomenal way to showcase how I actually break down problems and present that to try to get buy-in. These are things that I'm going to have to do on the job."
Unlike a portfolio review which highlights team achievements, a take-home assignment reveals individual problem-solving skills, highly relevant for today's hands-on leadership roles. For Hannah, it was also a "selling process" that reaffirmed her passion for developer tools.
A New Era for Design Leadership: Present & Outcome-Driven
The traditional management advice of "hire smart people and get out of their way" no longer holds true. Hannah emphasizes that design leaders must be "extremely present," offering significant support to even staff and principal designers who navigate massive ambiguity and organizational complexity.
This shift is partly due to "a course correction that is more permanent," where companies expect more from their teams with less. Leaders are now judged more on "shipping things to production and landing them with customers" rather than just producing beautiful designs. This requires a nuanced approach:
"We don't want to overstaff teams to the point where we put people at risk of being laid off... but we also can't run people into the ground."
Navigating AI Tool Adoption: A "Necessary Evil" for Growth
AI is disrupting every company, and Hannah believes "the best way for you to disrupt yourself is for your own teams to be using the tools." She acknowledges that forced AI adoption can be "annoying and frustrating," but also calls it a "necessary evil" for rapid learning and staying competitive.
Instead of resistance, designers should embrace it as an "opportunity to learn something new." The junior designers entering the industry today are adopting tools and learning faster than previous generations, setting a new benchmark. It's about seeing the "uncomfortable" as an exciting growth phase in one's career.
Redefining Design Process: The Compressed Sprint
Traditional design processes are being overhauled. The classic five-day Google Ventures design sprint, for example, is transforming. Hannah observes sprints morphing into:
"5 days but you're actually only doing 1 hour of synchronous time in the morning to kick off each day... spending the other seven hours doing independent work... I've seen design sprints run in a one-day process."
New tools and accelerated shipping expectations mean collapsing "design theater" and focusing on rapid prototyping and customer testing within hours, not days.
Upholding Craft While Moving Fast: Focus on the Right Problem
In this accelerated environment, Hannah worries less about craft getting cut and more about "are we solving the right problem? Are we solving it in the right way?" While craft is paramount at Vercel where "every single person... gives a damn about every pixel," aligning on the right problem is the most critical time investment.
The Art of Alignment: Share Early, Share Often
Effective alignment is crucial. Hannah advises designers to share their work "very often" and "the minute you have something to show," no matter how "half-baked." The fear of stakeholders commenting on pixels instead of flow is an outdated concern.
The rise of high-fidelity prototypes early in the process adds a new "wrench" to feedback. While prototypes offer "better feedback" on actual user flow, they also make visuals more concrete, requiring designers to learn a new "muscle" for managing visual feedback at early stages. The ideal future of design tooling, Hannah suggests, would combine the collaborative feedback features of Figma with advanced prototyping capabilities.
Designers Closer to Code: Vercel's Approach
At Vercel, designers are deeply integrated into the shipping process, utilizing tools like Claude and Cursor. While they don't ship "every single pixel," they contribute to "design polish in the final 1%" or "shipping a prototype that helps an engineer get started."
Hannah herself, within weeks of joining, shipped a bug fix:
"I think 10 to 20 years ago in the tech industry, you had to code to design... I sort of think we got away from that in a bad way. And I love that we're coming back to the material and the tools and having a more direct impact on what actually makes it out into the world."
This doesn't mean every designer must code every day, but having the skills is "really valuable" for tangible impact and influence.
Hiring for the Future: Showcasing Adaptability & Experiments
The hiring landscape has changed significantly. Today, it's "table stakes" to demonstrate that "you tried something new lately and you used a new tool or a new process." Portfolios should showcase side projects, experiments, or "playground folders" that highlight a designer's curiosity and ability to quickly move from "idea to solution."
"Cringe is in, right? So, like, make your portfolio a little cringe. It's fun."
The era of rigid, 100% process-driven case studies is over. Portfolios are now seen as a "sandbox" to display playfulness, personality, and an experimental mindset, especially for those with less conventional backgrounds.
For designers strong in product thinking but less confident in craft, Hannah offers two "spicy" options:
- Learn craft: It's a learnable skill, not just an innate talent. Invest time in acquiring it and showcase it through side projects.
- Consider a pivot to Product Management: If your passion truly lies in product thinking and persuasion, this could be a fulfilling career switch, often with better compensation.
Future-Proofing Your Design Career: Skills for a Blended World
To future-proof a design career, Hannah advises:
- Adaptability: Constantly learn new tools and approaches, but don't get "hooked on one thing because this is going to change."
- Forever Skills: Invest in skills that transcend specific roles or tools, such as "storytelling," "getting buy-in," and "persuasion." As designers advance, these skills become critical for navigating organizational complexity and influencing strategic direction.
Hannah identifies two poles for designers in this blended world:
- Design Engineer: Owning the front-end, coding, deeply embedded in development.
- Product Leader: Driving top-level impact through product thinking, strategy, and influence.
The most senior designers, like staff and principal, often lean "in both directions at the same time," combining technical hands-on skills with strategic vision to "see the forest for the trees."
Design systems are also experiencing a resurgence. While not a direct path for product thinking, robust design systems are crucial in the age of AI, as they provide the structured documentation necessary to train AI tools for efficient and consistent UI generation.
Broader Design Leadership Trends: IC Returns & Rapid Onboarding
Hannah shared insights from a dinner with other design leaders, revealing two significant trends:
- Leaders Returning to IC Roles: Many VPs of Design are moving back into principal individual contributor roles. The current excitement and rapid evolution of design tools make it "very hard to be a design leader... if you don't have hands-on experience with the tools." Some leaders are choosing to be "player-coaches" or even full-time ICs to stay connected and empathetic to the "folks in the trenches."
- Accelerated Onboarding: The traditional 30-60-90 day listening tour for new leaders is obsolete. The expectation is now for rapid outcomes: "My god, if I did a listening tour for 30 days, people would be like, 'How do you still work here?'... You need to actually do something." This pace reflects an industry-wide demand for leaders to demonstrate tangible results quickly.
In summary, the design world is undergoing a profound transformation. Adaptability, a willingness to engage with new tools, hands-on involvement, and strong "forever skills" like storytelling are paramount for designers looking to navigate and lead in this exciting, challenging, and fast-paced era.