The conversation surrounding the topic Product Designers/UX Designers who should be generalists in their craft has been picking up some attention more recently, courtesy of a few blogs (People Nerds from dScout for instance). This topic has, in my opinion, been gathering more momentum because AI’s strides in terms of automation, content creation, and generally speaking, improving task output has been on everyone’s mind. And as such, the conversation around the future of Design and its practitioners eventually comes around. Here’s my impression on the topic of Generalists and why they particularly play a great role in Organizations where the Design practice isn’t well established.

What Defines a Product Design/UX Designer Generalist. As I mentioned in the introductory statement, the discussion of Generalists versus Specialists has been ongoing for quite some time. In retrospect, I remember interviewing for roles in 2012 and already being asked how I defined myself in the spectrum of the Design world, and what had influenced my chosen career path. The Nielsen Norman Group has an interesting video on this topic, which you can see here. Personally, I’ve always seen myself more as a Product Design Generalist, even though when I started my professional career, I was very specifically trained in Interaction and Visual Design (in addition to Education and Business Management). However as the years have passed and I have continued to enroll in additional training, partnered with the professional experience one accrues, my skillset has also diversified to other areas of the Product Design/UX world. I’d define a Product Design/UX Design Generalist, as a professional who is able to not only understand, but also tackle any of the domains that shape the discipline/practice to be what it is. Meaning, these are professionals who can tackle a variety of solutioning challenges, and understand the roles (and outputs) that disciplines such as Research, Information Architecture, Visual Design, Content Writing, Motion Design, play in that process, and how they can make effective contributions in those domains. Layered with all these disciplines there are also skills which includes Workshop Facilitation, Business Case edification, to name but a few. Suffice to say, a Generalist can cover a wide variety of requests. On the other side of the spectrum, there are specialists, who opt to become experts in the field of their choice. During my career I’ve noticed many Generalists transition to specialists, some from UX Design to Research, and many from UX Design to Product Management. This allows for these professionals, much like a consulting entity, to have a weight of expertise to their opinion (and deliverables), one that makes them bearers of significant impact (and I’m in no way indicating Generalists don’t bear impact in their recommendations either). The demands that meet Generalists and Specialists are in a lot of ways, very similar. Being constantly up to date on their skills, on the understanding of Technology, Trends, and the ebbs and flows of everything that surrounds the Design ecosystem.

Why Generalists Work in Emerging Design Practices. Refreshing the topic of the various stages of Design maturity in organizations, it’s worth reminding that there are the following stages: Absent, Limited, Emergent, Structured, Integrated, and Design (or User) Driven. For professionals who have worked for startups or organizations that are rather small, and where Design as a practice is still emerging, Generalists invariably find a fertile ground in which to flourish and expand their impact. And I say this based on my experience, where I’ve worked with organizations big and small, with different levels of Maturity, including that of the Design practice itself. For startups for instance, the need to hire professionals in the Design field who can tackle multiple types of challenges and requests is always something that those teams look for. The same goes for organizations who are going through considerable Digital Transformation processes, where the need to bridge the legacy with what lies ahead, requires professionals with a wide array of professional experiences, but also that can holistically understand the problems that are being faced, and ensure strategic solutions. Typically as organizations solidify their processes, their point of view on deliverability, market positioning, messaging and so on, the more opportunities appear for specialists to appear and truly expand what these processes are all about. And at times correct some of the paths and choices that have been made.

Where does AI fit in all this. There’s a considerable level of excitement and uncertainty on everything pertaining to AI. It’s constantly on the news, on social media, and invariably there’s articles stating software companies are laying off talented professionals, to divert their investment into AI. At the same time, economists, academics and investors, individuals such as Professor Scott Galloway, have an interesting take on the topic, and warn of the investment levels and return on that investment that is still pending. What does all this mean for Designers and the topic of Generalists and Specialists? AI is a powerful resource that is undeniably useful and that will only continue to make strides in the way most people work. Not just in content writing or in the case of Developers for instance, in terms of code generation (and review), but in a wide variety of subjects. The creative world for instance is well aware of this, with all the imagery, deep fakes and the list goes on, that are constantly being created representing the enormous advances of these solutions. This does bear an impact on the Design world, particularly when one starts to consider some production related aspects of the profession, which can and in all likelihood will be impacted by AI (imagine for instance having a prompt in Figma that allows for a Product Designer to define a template for a section of an application, and allow for the AI to expand some of its interactions in subsequent screens or prototypes). Does this mean Specialists are going to be more impacted by AI than Generalists? Not at all. What this does indeed mean, is that professionals need to keep in mind what their skill sets are, where they have opportunities for growth, and be aware of how and where AI positions itself in what they do. I recently tested a software package in the Research domain, Dovetail to be exact, and was pleasantly surprised to realize on how much that tool and its AI functionality assists on the synthesis process. Does it take away the role of the researcher? Not at all, but it does assist in the clustering, finding repeatable patterns on the materials captured, and allows for insights to be retrieved that much faster. If some of our goals as professionals is to provide meaningful insights and actionable recommendations/outputs, taking into consideration costs, these tools are powerful partners for this to become a reality. The challenge lies in better understanding what these tools do, removing their negative onus, and uncover how it can be incorporated into Designer’s lives.

Is Design coming to an end? I recently listened in on a conversation taking place with a junior professional who was confessing why she became a Designer. Invariably Designers will say “Because I love to Problem-Solve”. Typically as professionals evolve/mature in their careers, they start expanding more on that statement, and articulate expressions such as: “I like to problem solve but also deliver impactful solutions that benefit users and the business generating that solution”. Suffice to say, Designers have a baseline aspect to their professional DNA which is tied with their ability to solve issues, and to do so considering a rather complex set of variables. That is something that either a Generalist or Specialist have to contemplate and weigh as they go through the Design process itself. The fundamental aspect of problem solving, taking into account a wide array of variables will never cease to exist. Tools which leverage AI will have an impact on the process and outputs, but the role performed by these professionals will still be needed. Will it be the same as it was before? Of course not, the world is ever changing, and the way we worked a few years ago, is not even the way we work currently, no matter how many attempts at bringing back the past some organizations force individuals upon. The biggest challenge for Generalists and Specialists, is indeed to be in the moment, understand the ebbs and flows, invest in themselves, and instead of fearing the unknown, be secure in their skills and capabilities to keep evolving.

Reality Check. Choosing a career path is never an easy decision. People want the certainty that their choices won’t bankrupt them, or make them laughable to others. When you’re a child, you’re fearless because everything is a first time, everything is a discovery. As we mature, we know the consequences that come with some of our choices, and the preciousness of time, and how we risk devoting it to something that may be wrong, something that we will never get back. I’ve always been an advocate that finding something you are really good at, and keep getting better at it, is the way to craft a career path that evolves in a good direction (something that Professor Galloway also mentioned in one of his videos/speaking engagements). For Design Generalists and Specialists, at this juncture in time, where the world feels so dangerously close to an abyss of our own creation, it bears to keep in mind that investing in yourself is always the best way to move forward, that knowledge is a reward in itself, and that self-awareness and self-worth are qualities that you need to continue to develop and build upon.

I’m finishing this article with a quote from Alvin Toffler.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Why Product Design/UX Generalists are a Great Solution for Emerging Design Practices was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.