🔍 When everything looks like a design problem, it’s tempting to feel responsible for… well, everything.

I was speaking with a design leader recently who felt like they had to own every single visual touchpoint their company was putting into the world. The core product UI, the marketing collateral, the slide decks. All of it.

That pressure to be the arbiter of every design decision is understandable. Design taste and judgment really do shape how a product shows up in the world. But trying to hold onto ALL of it is a fast path to overwhelm and burnout, especially in a startup with serious capacity constraints.

A move that can feel tough but can also instantly lighten your stress-levels, is to ~ loosen ~ your grip. Give away your legos. Be ok with (some) imperfections in the world.

If this sounds like you, here are some steps to try:

1️⃣ Write a short, clear set of priorities for the next 6 months

Include 3–5 max. Stack rank them if you can. Focus on where design can make the biggest impact during this time. Accept that some things will slip through your fingers. That’s okay.

2️⃣ Share and refine this with your manager

This creates accountability, improves transparency and generally helps alignment. It also gives your future self permission to say ‘no’ to things that aren’t on this list. Plus, if you and your manager have wildly different perspectives, this is a good way to own that, while also reducing the chance of difficult conversations in your near future.

3️⃣ Sense check your weekly plan against these priorities

They don’t need to perfectly match. They rarely will. But if you’re consistently spending time on things that aren’t what you’ve agreed are your priorities, something needs to change.

It can feel counterintuitive, even risky, to give away responsibility in areas where taste feels critical. But that clarity of focus is what enables design to create outsized impact. It enables you to move the needle where it counts, which unlocks the space for bigger, more exciting challenges ahead.

You’ve got this 🙌