Coffee Hour 4 December 2025 Recap

Yesterday’s Coffee Hour surfaced two big themes that I think many of us are feeling right now.

1. The rise of the “team of one”We spoke about how AI is accelerating the convergence of roles: UX, product, UI, even front-end dev. In smaller teams and startups, one person can now realistically take a product from idea → design → prototype → build → customer feedback with AI as a co-pilot.

That’s exciting… but it also raises questions:

How do we position our value when we’re being asked to “do it all”?
What do we stop doing, so we don’t burn out trying to be designer, PM, dev and support at once?

2. Changing UX maturity without saying “UX maturity”We also dug into the reality of working in low-maturity environments where UX is still seen as “making things look nice”.A key insight: sometimes the most effective way to shift an organisation is to do the work under a language they already accept – things like:

“Let’s map the roles so we can write better user stories” (→ personas)
“Let’s walk through the end-to-end flow” (→ journey mapping)

You don’t always have to fight for the label “UX” to start changing how people think and work. Showing the value first, naming it later, can be a powerful strategy.

Over to you:

Where are you feeling the “team of one” pressure right now?
Have you ever smuggled good UX practice into a low-maturity environment under a different label? What worked (or didn’t)?

Drop your stories and reflections below – this is exactly why Lead by Design exists. 👇

0 comments

Lead by Design

skool.com/lead-by-design-2160

A community for design leaders (and aspiring design leaders) mastering user-centered innovation, strategic leadership & driving impact at scale.

Leaderboard (30-day)