This is not your typical book on design

• Are you tired of doing great work that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves?
• Have you been stuck at the same level with few growth opportunities while others around you keep climbing?
• Do you wish you had more influence over the decisions that matter?
• Do you wish you had a mentor to help you unlock your next career move?

Are you feeling stuck in your UX career progression?

This book is for you: a digital designer far enough into your career that you’ve asked the critical question ‘What’s next?’ You’re talented, experienced and capable, but starting to feel that your career, which used to progress easily, is now treading water. Maybe you’re hitting resistance from stakeholders, getting caught in unproductive debates or feeling like your voice isn’t heard.

Maybe you’re sensing that being good at design isn’t enough to move forward any more.

It’s not just you.

Many of us will hit a ceiling in our careers, and to move forward we need to develop a new way to look at design.

We need to level up the skills you don’t learn in UX bootcamps.

This book is about value exchange that goes beyond face value: how to see the bigger picture of how organisations work, and how design fits into that picture. How to build influence, handle pushback, work with people (not against them) and shape your career with intention. It’s written for product designers, service designers, UXers: those of us working at the intersection of users, technology and business.

Let’s get you unstuck and into the next stage of your design career.

Get free, early access to the book.

Why did I write a book on UX career advice?

I’ve been in the UX design industry since 2007 and have been documenting it in writing since 2020. You can read my articles here or on Medium.

September 2023. Together with my dad, I’ve travelled to Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel. After a day of back-to-back exploring, I crash into my hotel bed and I’m soon fast asleep. The next morning, I’m woken before my alarm by an idea screaming for my attention: I’m going to write a book that summarises what I’ve learnt so far in my career.

New ideas are born out of combining existing, previously non-related things in novel ways. Apparently, mixing a father-son trip, a Channel island and a good night’s sleep was the recipe for this idea.

I don’t think we talk enough about the importance of soft skills in the design community. There’s s a strong focus on craft. I don’t mean to downplay craft: it is the foundation of any great designer. But soft skills combined with systems thinking can elevate our status in the workplace from design-doers to business strategists. And this can be done without sacrificing your passion for craft or customer-centric outcomes.

Love, always.
— Martin