another post about "ai will replace designers." another midjourney screenshot. another "look what i made in 2 minutes" flex. and you're sitting there wondering if your 8 years of design experience just became worthless.
using midjourney doesn't make you ai ready. prototyping in lovable doesn't either.
trust me, i spent the last week digging into this. spoke to heads of design at india’s best companies (a lot of them are growthx members). i asked how they hire. then i looked at how ai first companies like lovable, bolt, replit, cursor hire designers. everything from the job descriptions to the interview questions they are asking.
there are two types of proof of work in ai. but it depends on where you want to land.
this means getting 10x faster at your current job. most of you work at internet first companies. you need to show you can leverage ai to crush your existing metrics.
ai first is different. it's transitioning to an actual ai first company. the proof they want is completely different.
no no, i am not taking a dig at your 12th std math marks (i was quite mid too). i am talking about the core job to be done for a designer.
the reality is that we are hired for impact. correct? but what does impact mean? we know this in abstract terms but let me articulate it for all of us.
let’s assume that you’re a communication or a visual designer. (product designers just follow along, you’ll be able to tweak this for yourself.)
<aside>
input levers to impact.**
$$ impact = reach × Δmetric × quality × velocity
$$
each lever to impact mean.
reach:** total people who see your asset (creative, logo, landing page etc)
absolute lift in the business metric the creative targets (conversion, sign ups, etc.)
attention captured × clarity
creatives shipped per period ÷ planned cadence.
</aside>
but the point is to look at the input levers that impact how we create impact. are with me till here?
you actually don’t own all of them. you own only quality and velocity, right? reach is completely a marketing or a product lever, and **Δmetric is also a function of copy, price and users.
but quality and velocity? they’re definitely a lot under our control. so any improvements here will directly have a effect on “impact.”
now…the real question can ai help me with these 2 levers? because why the fuck would you want to learn random tools that don’t help here?
don't jump to random tools because some 99rs ai course told you to. tools are everywhere. understanding which lever to pull is what separates the employed from the unemployed.
this is what we’re going to do.** breakdown quality and velocity more. then look how we can use ai to improve those two levers. that’s what we will call being ai fluent.
then we'll go deeper into how to transition into an ai first company. that’s not the same as ai fluent.
impact = reach × Δ metric × quality × velocity
we will focus on quality & velocity let’s breakdown quality first.
quality = attention × clarity
attention breaks down to: visual hierarchy × cognitive load × emotional hook
clarity breaks down to: copy precision × visual metaphor × user context match
what you want to do is focus on any of these sub levers and use ai tools that help you with them. again tools DO NOT matter. you can legit just ask gpt what tools help you with “visual hierarchy”. it’ll tell you. that’s the best part about ai. if you ever get stuck, all the worlds content is in that chatbot. you can breakdown velocity the same way.
all you need is motivation. for motivation, i cannot stress enough how important it is to surround ourselves with smart and ambitious people. legit the core reason why growthx even exists.
one designer at a d2c brand told me she went from 10 hero banner variations per week to 250+ (insane, i know). conversion lift? 23%. same design sense. 25x output.