Last week, I caught myself scrolling through another “how I grew my newsletter to 10K subscribers” post while my coffee went cold. The enthusiasm was infectious, the screenshots impressive, the growth curve exponential. But something felt hollow watching someone else’s metrics while I sat with my own blank newsletter draft, wondering if anyone would care about my thoughts on design hiring.
The breakthrough came when I stopped asking “how do I get more people to read this?” and started asking “what do the right people actually need to know?”
The Invisible Conversations
Working as a design recruiter has given me front-row seats to conversations that never make it to LinkedIn. The frustrated design head who admits they’ve never hired anyone more senior than themselves. The startup founder who needs someone to build design systems but has zero clue how to evaluate that skill. The VP who confesses their design interview process is basically “do they seem nice and know Figma?”
These aren’t content opportunities—they’re the raw material for solving real problems. The kind of problems that make someone forward an email to their co-founder with a note saying “this is exactly what we’ve been talking about.”
“The most valuable conversations happen in rooms of five, not stadiums of five thousand.”
While everyone’s debating the latest algorithm changes, I’m collecting insights from hiring managers who can’t find good design talent, founders who don’t know what questions to ask in interviews, and design leaders trying to scale their teams without losing quality.
Building in the Margins
The design hiring space overflows with recycled advice. Same portfolio review templates. Same culture fit interview questions. Same “hire for potential” mantras that sound wise but offer zero practical guidance.
Meanwhile, the real insights live in the margins. In Slack channels where design leaders complain about bad hires. In coffee conversations where founders admit they promoted the wrong person to design lead. In those 2 AM emails where hiring managers confess they have no framework for evaluating senior design candidates.
This isn’t viral content material, but it’s the foundation for content that actually helps people make better decisions. The difference between entertainment and utility. Between engagement farming and problem solving.
The Authenticity Question
Professional authenticity doesn’t mean sharing personal drama or performing vulnerability for engagement. It means admitting when you’re still figuring things out. Writing about problems you’re currently solving instead of solutions you’ve already mastered. Showing the work, not just the outcomes.
My most insightful conversations happen when I admit uncertainty. When I share a hiring decision I’m not sure about, other recruiters feel safe discussing their own blind spots. When I write about misreading a candidate completely, hiring managers reach out to compare notes on similar experiences.
“Trust builds in the space between confidence and humility.”
The content that resonates doesn’t come from a position of expertise—it comes from a position of curiosity. From being willing to explore questions that don’t have clean answers, problems that don’t have perfect solutions.
Platform Agnostic Relationship Building
While creators panic about algorithm changes and platform shifts, the smartest people I know focus on conversations, not channels. They show up where the real work happens. Sometimes that’s in Figma comments during portfolio reviews. Sometimes it’s in GitHub discussions about design systems. Often it’s in direct messages that turn into phone calls that turn into business relationships.
The platform doesn’t matter. The relationship does.
I’m building something that doesn’t depend on any single channel, any algorithm, or any trending topic. Something that exists in the connections between people who actually hire designers, actually build design teams, actually make decisions about design investment.
The Long Game Philosophy
Every week, growth marketers pitch me services to “10x my audience” with better subject lines, optimal posting schedules, and viral content frameworks. They’re selling speed, but I’m building for sustainability.
Real expertise develops slowly. Trust accumulates through consistent value, not viral moments. The hiring managers who will eventually send me their hardest-to-fill roles won’t discover me through a trending post—they’ll have been following my thinking for months, seeing how I approach problems, watching how I handle challenges.
“Sustainable influence comes from being useful, not from being viral.”
My strategy is simple: help people solve real problems, share what I’m actually learning, admit when I don’t know something, and trust that the right people will find value in that approach.
Beyond the Numbers Game
Content that goes viral usually has a short shelf life. It generates excitement for a moment, then disappears into the algorithmic void. But content that solves real problems has staying power. It gets bookmarked, referenced, shared in private conversations, and applied in actual work situations.
I’d rather write something that five hiring managers save and use than something that five thousand people like and forget. I’d rather build relationships with people who actually make hiring decisions than chase vanity metrics that look impressive in screenshots.
The design leaders building the strongest teams aren’t the ones with the biggest personal brands or the most viral content. They’re the ones showing up consistently, sharing genuine insights, and helping people solve real problems. They understand that influence isn’t about impressions—it’s about impact.
Starting Before I’m Ready
The temptation is to wait. To study more successful newsletters, to perfect my content strategy, to build the ideal launch sequence. But the people who need better design hiring insights don’t need my content to be perfect—they need it to be useful.
So I’m starting messy. Starting with questions instead of answers. Starting with curiosity instead of expertise. Starting with the belief that the right people will find value in honest exploration of problems we’re all trying to solve.
The best content doesn’t chase audiences—it serves communities. Build for depth, not reach. Focus on utility, not virality. Trust that being genuinely helpful to the right people matters more than being entertaining to everyone.
Real growth happens when you stop trying to grow and start trying to help.
Everything else is just noise with better engagement metrics.
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