My Uncomfortable Confession

I’m 40 years old. I’ve been designing digital products for 15 years.

I can talk design systems architecture, research and accessibility standards all day long.
But office politics? I actively avoided them.
For years, I told myself that good design should speak for itself. That if I just made better products, the politics would take care of themselves. That focusing on stakeholder management was somehow… beneath me.

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I was wrong. Embarrassingly wrong.

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Why I Resisted (And Why You Probably Do Too)

Let me be honest about why I avoided office politics for so long.‍

- It felt manipulative. Politics seemed like corporate game-playing instead of honest collaboration. I wanted my work judged on merit, not who I had lunch with.
- It seemed inefficient. Every hour spent in relationship-building felt like an hour stolen from actual design work. I measured productivity in deliverables, not conversations.
- It contradicted my self-image. I saw myself as a self-taught designer who succeeded through skill and determination. Politics felt like cheating.
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I didn’t think I needed it. My portfolio was strong. Surely that would be enough.

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The research from UX Playbook paints a different picture:

“Design skills alone won’t save you anymore… The ones who level up fastest don’t just design pixels—they design influence. They navigate politics, speak business, and get buy-in without breaking a sweat.”

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What Changed: The Cost of Ignorance

The breaking point came during a major product redesign. I’d led the user testing, some research, defined the strategy, and created a good solution. I was confident. Prepared. Ready to change minds.
The Product Owner killed it in five minutes.
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Not because the design was wrong. Because I hadn’t consulted him early enough. Because I’d positioned it as a design decision when it was actually a business decision. Because I’d ignored the political reality that he needed to feel like a contributor, not just an approver.

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McKinsey research shows that companies excelling at design “grow revenues at nearly twice the rate of their peers”—but only when design leaders operate strategically, not just aesthetically.

My tactical brilliance meant nothing without strategic positioning.
That hurt. A lot.

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The Political Skills I’m Finally (starting to) Learn at 40

Here’s what I’m building now, two decades late but better than never.

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Stakeholder Mapping Is Strategy

I used to think stakeholder mapping was bureaucratic busywork. Now I understand it’s strategic intelligence.
Who has decision power? Who influences the decision makers? What are their real concerns beyond what they say in meetings? Which battles matter and which are distractions?

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Research identifies essential non-design skills including stakeholder management, negotiation, and “managing up”. These aren’t soft skills—they’re survival skills.
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Pre-Meeting Alignment Beats Perfect Presentations

I spent years crafting flawless presentations, only to have them derailed by surprise objections I could have addressed beforehand.
Now I -I try- do the work before the meeting. One-on-one conversations where stakeholders can voice concerns privately.

Pre-reads that let people process and form opinions without public pressure. Building consensus before the formal presentation.‍

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The formal meeting becomes a ceremony confirming decisions already made collaboratively.

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Speaking Business Language Matters More Than Design Language

For years, I presented design decisions in design terms: user flows, information architecture, interaction patterns. I wondered why executives looked bored.
Now I am learning to translate everything to business impact: conversion rates, support cost reduction, user lifetime value.

‍As I explored in whether UX design is still worth pursuing, companies increasingly value business outcomes over aesthetic excellence.
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The design is the same. The framing makes all the difference.
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Reading the Room Is a Designable Skill

I used to think reading organizational dynamics was something you either had or didn’t. Turns out, it’s a skill you can develop systematically.

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- Who speaks first in meetings and who waits?

- Whose opinion shifts the room?

- When does the real decision-maker check their phone versus lean forward?

- What topics create tension and which create alignment?

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Political design research emphasizes “soft skills of humanity: communication, open-minded approaches to conflicts, being present, and how others engage around us”. These skills are learnable.

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Senior Roles

Here’s what nobody tells you when you’re focused purely on craft: senior design roles are fundamentally political roles.
As a junior or mid-level designer, execution excellence matters most. You can succeed by being brilliant at your craft.

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But senior roles? Staff designer? Design director? Principal designer? The job is influence, not execution. It’s navigating organizational complexity, building coalitions, managing conflicting priorities, and getting buy-in for strategic direction.

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The State of UX 2025 report confirms this shift: “We’re shifting our focus from good design to organizational politics”. It’s not that design quality doesn’t matter—it’s that quality without political navigation gets ignored.

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What I’m Doing Differently Now (or starting to learn how to do that)

- I schedule relationship-building time. Fifteen minutes weekly with key stakeholder. No agenda, just building rapport and understanding their world.
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- I study power dynamics. Who influences whom? What are the unspoken alliances? Where are the organizational fault lines?
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- I practice managing up. Managers might needs me to make them successful, not just deliver good work. What are their goals? How can my work support their priorities?
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- I embrace conflict as information. Resistance isn’t opposition—it’s feedback about misaligned incentives or miscommunication. Politics is the art of finding alignment.

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The Bottom Line: It’s Not Too Late

At 40, I’m finally learning skills I should have developed at 25. That’s embarrassing to admit. But it’s also liberating.
Because the honest truth is this: I can’t change the past, but I can change my trajectory.

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Every senior designer I admire navigates politics brilliantly. They build coalitions. They manage stakeholders. They position their work strategically. They understand that design impact requires political skill.
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I used to judge them for it. Now I’m learning from them.

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If you’re where I was—resistant, skeptical, convinced your work should speak for itself—I get it. I lived there for 20 years.
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But the research is clear, the data is overwhelming, and my own experience confirms it: office politics isn’t optional anymore. It’s the difference between designing screens and driving actual change.

Even at 40, even after decades of avoiding it, even if it feels uncomfortable—it’s worth learning.
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Because the best design doesn’t win. The best-positioned design wins.

And I’m finally ready to learn how to win.

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References:
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- Potvin, P. (2025, March 4). Office politics: the skill they never taught us. UX Design Collective.
- UX Playbook. (2025, April 16). 9 Non-Design Skills Every UX Designer Needs in 2025.
- McKinsey & Company. (2020, February 18). Are you asking enough from your design leaders?
- World Usability Congress. (2025, October 14). Political Design.
- UX Design Collective. (2024, September 11). The State of UX in 2025.

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