đ€« The Silent Career Killer #36
The "Well-Rounded" Trap | Unmasking 50 hidden threats to your UX career | part 36 of 50
Youâve run high-stakes research with zero runway.
Youâve jumped in when product hit a wall.
Youâve designed flows no one else could untangleâŠ
And yet, when promotions come up?
When leadership looks around?
Youâre somehow not the one they see.
Not because you arenât good.
Because youâre too good at too many things.
Youâve made yourself useful in every roomâŠbut forgettable in the rooms that matter.
People like you.
They trust you.
But no oneâs betting their budget on you. No oneâs saying, âThis is her lane. Clear the path.â
Youâve become âsomeone who can help.â
Not someone they build around.
A Client Story âŽ
âIâm Good at Everything. Why Am I Still Overlooked?â
One of my coaching clients (a senior IC at a well-know tech company) told me this:
âIâve been the utility player on every team. Research, product thinking, systems design⊠Iâve done it all. But when a lead role opened up, they hired someone who only does service design. I donât get it.â
She was excellent.
But she was hard to place.
Her brand was breadth.
His was depth.
And in high-stakes decisions, depth lowers risk.
Decision-makers donât want to explore your range.
They want to trust your specialty.
The person they promoted had a narrow - but sharp - reputation.
People could explain his value in 7 words.
Hers took 3 paragraphs.
And when thereâs risk on the table?
People always pick the 7 words.
The Lesson âŽ
Being Known for Something Isnât a LimitationâŠ
Youâve been told that being well-rounded protects you.
That range = relevance.
But in the real world, the more boxes you check, the harder it is to put you in any.
Especially at the senior and higher levels, no one is hiring to âdesign swiss army knives.â
Theyâre hiring force multipliers.
And âversatilityâ with no edge is just a liability they donât know how to use.
If they canât say what youâre the best at, you donât get the mic.
You get the handoff đ©
I see this in smart, strategic UXers all the time.
Theyâre the teamâs scaffolding, but they never get their name ON the building (so to speak).
Theyâve done lead-level work for yearsâŠ
But still get asked to âsupportâ whoever just got promoted over them.
And it chips away at your confidence. Quietly.
You start shrinking yourself.
Second-guessing.
Trying to âearn itâ one more time instead of framing it better.
Not because youâre not ready.
But because no one knows what to trust you with, and youâve never made it obvious.