Design isn’t dead. It just needs to split.

We keep trying to fit design into a role that no longer exists. Maybe the problem isn’t design. Maybe it’s our org chart.

Jul 02, 2025

Design doesn’t have a metrics problem; it has an identity crisis

Let’s be honest.

Design has always been hard to measure. Sure, we all feel that it matters. We know good design when we see it. Product points to growth. Engineering shows velocity. And design? We show a Figma prototype and a vague sense of “user delight.”

It’s no surprise that design keeps getting tucked under product recently. It’s not a demotion, it’s a survival tactic.

But here's the thing: I don’t think design is dying. I think it’s evolving. Or at least, it needs to.

Design’s middle-child syndrome

In the typical product org, design sits in the middle of product and engineering. We’re supposed to:

Understand the business like product,
Represent the user like research, success, and analytics teams,
And design something engineers can actually build.

That’s a lot. Too much. Especially when success gets measured by metrics we don’t fully own. We create artifacts that resemble the product but aren’t the product itself. And too often, they get thrown away.

Meanwhile, Figma makes it easy to design a happy path, but not the edge cases that real users hit. So, engineers rebuild everything from scratch. Handoff turns into a guessing game. And design becomes a bottleneck instead of an accelerator.

So, what if we stop forcing design to be one thing?

Hot take: Split design in two functions

Here’s the hypothesis:

Keep design — but divide it into two embedded roles. One in product. One in engineering.

Product Designers Become Growth Scientists

These are your analytical designers. They're not here to beautify. They're here to move metrics.

They live inside product squads.
They partner with analytics.
They talk to customers.
They run experiments.

Think of them as growth PMs with design intuition. They identify friction, redesign flows, launch A/B tests, and iterate. Their success isn’t subjective. It’s measurable.

These designers are closest to customer reality. They see the data. They shape the next test. They own outcomes.

Design Engineers Become the builders of delight

This is the part of design that lives inside engineering.

They own and obsess over the User Interface (UI).
They iterate over details: motion, spacing, component choices, feel.

Let’s admit it: most engineers don’t want to fuss with CSS variables, animation curves, or layout bugs across viewports. And they shouldn't have to.

But you know who should? Design engineers.

They’re not stuck making static mockups. They build real prototypes. They test them with PMs and users. They tune the experience before it ever hits the backlog.

Here’s what it looks like when this works

You stop handing off. You start building together.

A product designer sees users dropping off during sign-up → redesigns it → test shows 6% increase in completion.
A design engineer prototypes an interaction that cuts time-on-task by 40%.
The PM focuses on scope and value. The product designer focuses on UX outcomes. The design engineer makes it real.

You don’t get Figma mockups and Jira tickets (one for design and one for engineers).
You get velocity, insight, polish, and confidence.

Let’s kill the handoff. Not the craft.

Too many designers feel stuck doing work that gets overwritten in dev, advocating for polish that never ships, or reporting on metrics they don’t influence.

Splitting the design team doesn’t erase the role. It clarifies it.

Designers in product = strategic, metric-driven, experiment-focused.
Designers in engineering = executional, detail-obsessed, shippable.

Both are real. Both matter. Both make design measurable again.

What Happens Next?

You get less waste.
Less ambiguity.
Fewer cycles.
More impact.

Designing Forward with Jason Grant

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