The deep work versus all the work

With AI tools there's more software shipping more than ever. The thread across my talks with other leaders are consistently being told to scale beyond adding headcount. The model of the trifecta and design being embedded in every piece of work on a single roadmap just isn't scaling for this new world. If we don't adapt we end up being either overwhelmed with work or only overseeing part of the product. Watch enough work go out without design and you notice what's slipping: quality. Not some abstract version of it, the standard you've held for years, now leaving the building in your name without your hands ever having touched it. Hope and a design system alone cannot hold your design strategy together. What quality actually is The easy mistake is to think quality is how something looks or interacts. But looking good, and even working well, are mostly table stakes once you have a mature design system. The system carries a lot of this for you. Real quality is fluffier than that. Whether…