When Simon was deciding what to do after school, he googled "highest-paying profession." This straightforward curiosity led him to UX design, from which he worked his way through the tough school of freelancing all the way to the COO seat at a global startup. In its first year, Clipster paid out over $5 million to creators and generated 120 billion views. Today, Simon views the entire company as a machine, where design is just one of many gears. He argues that if a business is tied to its users, investing in design is a necessity. However, you must approach it pragmatically and constantly strike a balance with the needs of the business.

In this episode, we talk about why a designer's work never ends with exporting designs, because no real user lives in Figma. Drawing from his own experience as a Chief Operating Officer, Simon explains why external consultants will never solve your internal problems, why the future belongs to product generalists, and how the AI era will propel top talent extremely far forward while ruthlessly wiping out the average from the market.