Captain, Core, Future: How to Restructure Design Teams Around Focus Instead of Burnout

In my last article, I wrote about becoming a "Super IC"—a senior designer expected to handle strategy, execution, and innovation simultaneously with zero support. It's the new version of the "unicorn designer," and it's designed for burnout, not effectiveness.

After four years in that role, I realized something: The problem isn't that senior designers need to do more. The problem is trying to be three different people at once.

Design roles shouldn't scale by seniority. They should scale by focus.

The Captain/Core/Future Framework

Instead of expecting every senior designer to juggle everything, what if teams were structured around three distinct focus areas:

Captain: Leadership & Strategy

Handles stakeholder management, presentations, high-level vision, and organizational navigation. This is the "show horse" role—the person who excels at polished decks, executive communication, and strategic positioning. They translate design work into business language and create space for other designers to do deep work.

Core: Execution & Craft

Lives in the sprint cycle, shipping features consistently. This designer focuses on the actual design work—the craft that requires deep concentration. They communicate informally, iterate quickly, think out loud in files. They're not performing; they're making. They're the workhorse that keeps products moving forward.

Future: Innovation & Systems

Thinks in quarters and years, not sprints. Works on design systems, explores new patterns, innovates on long-term product vision. They need extended time to think deeply without the pressure of immediate deadlines.

Here's the critical part: Not every designer needs to be all three.

Most designers naturally excel at one or two of these. Forcing everyone to do all three simultaneously is what creates Super ICs—and Super IC roles are designed for burnout, not effectiveness.

How This Solves the Real Problems

This framework directly addresses the Super IC trap:

If I'd been hired as a Core designer, I could have focused on craft and execution without guilt about not being visible enough in leadership meetings. The Captain would handle the presentations. The Future designer would handle the long-term systems work.

Instead, I was expected to be all three—which meant I was mediocre at all of them and exhausted constantly.

This structure also dismantles "Always On" culture:

• Core designers can work in half-finished files and think out loud without needing everything presentation-ready

• Captains handle the performance expectations, freeing others from constant visibility theater

• Future designers get protected time for deep thinking without sprint pressure

• Everyone can actually focus instead of context-switching between seven different jobs

Why This Isn't About Seniority

Matt Ström-Awn's recent documentation of the product design talent crisis confirms what many of us already knew: companies are demanding "Super ICs" who can "sink or swim" with zero support. His proposed solution includes building talent gradients—teams with multiple experience levels from junior through principal—and investing in structured mentorship programs.

I assumed most corporations already worked this way. They don't.

But here's where I diverge: Talent gradients don't solve the Super IC problem if everyone at every level is still expected to do everything.

A junior designer doing Captain + Core + Future work burns out just as fast as a senior designer doing the same. Stacking experience levels doesn't fix the role structure problem.

My framework isn't about hiring more people or creating traditional career ladders. It's about restructuring the roles we already have.

A senior designer doesn't need to be simultaneously Captain, Core, AND Future. They could be an excellent Core designer who mentors on craft execution. Or a Future designer who guides systems thinking. Or a Captain who teaches stakeholder management.

The difference is focus. You're doing one thing well instead of seven things poorly.

This works with existing teams, right now, without waiting for companies to hire junior designers or build apprenticeship programs.

Is it a complete solution to the industry-wide talent pipeline crisis? No.

Is it a way to stop burning out the designers we already have while we figure out the bigger problem? Yes.

What Happens If This Continues

I'm already exploring ways not to return to another corporate role knowing full well I'll most likely fall into the same pattern and explore consulting again or a way to fast track my way to a leadership role instead, because full-time corporate feels unsustainable.

Other burnt-out designers are probably doing the same, or leaving for leadership roles, going independent, or just leaving design entirely.

Meanwhile, there's no one coming up behind us. Companies will either pay premium rates for contractors or rely on AI to fill the gaps.

What Comes Next

I'm looking for what I call "the unicorn job"—not the unicorn designer role.

A place where:

• Roles have clear focus (Captain, Core, OR Future—not all three)

• Research is a partnership, not solo work dumped on designers

• Leadership values craft over constant presentation performance

• Deep work is rewarded more than looking busy

I spent 25 years in design—from building custom WordPress sites as a freelancer to founding designer at startups to corporate product designer. I don't want to spend the next decade becoming mediocre at seven different jobs.

The companies that figure this out—that structure roles around focus instead of seniority—will have a massive competitive advantage. The ones that keep demanding Super ICs in an unsustainable framework will just keep burning people out.

← Read Part 1: "I Was a 'Unicorn Designer' at a Enterprise Company. Here's Why Senior Designers Are Burning Out"