They all look like software shopping lists. "Expert in Figma," "Proficient in Framer," "Must know Miro."

Knowing your tools is important, of course. But this intense focus on software is a problem. It shows that many companies don't fully grasp what our job is. They are mixing up how we work with why we work.

It’s time to talk about what we should really matter.

Part 1: The "Figma-fication" of Hiring

Let's be clear: this isn't Figma's fault. Among the thousand of software and solutions, they're a lot of great tools. The problem is how the industry uses them as a filter for talent.

Why is this happening?

For one, it’s an easy filter. Recruiters and (ATS) software can easily spot the keyword "Figma," but they can't scan for "good critical thinking."

But the bigger issue is a simple mix-up between outputs and outcomes.

• An output is the thing we make. A mockup, a prototype, a flow diagram.

• An outcome is the change we create. A drop in support calls, more users staying, or a task being easier to complete.

When a job ad focuses on tools, it's a red flag. It often means the company wants someone to produce outputs, fast. They aren't hiring a problem-solver; they're hiring a pair of hands to make screens.

Part 2: The Three Dangers of a Tool-First Mindset

This isn't just a small hiring problem. It has real consequences for our products, our teams, and our careers.

1. It devalues the strategic designer When a designer is judged by their speed in an app, their job shrinks. They stop being a strategic partner and become a "pixel pusher" who just follows orders. This wastes their most valuable skills (like research, synthesis, and problem-framing) and it stops the company from finding real, new solutions.

2. It leads to "beautiful mistakes" A "tool-first" approach means we jump to high-fidelity designs too early. It's easy to make a prototype look amazing, and the whole team falls in love with it. But we do this before we even know if it's the right solution. We get busy perfecting the UI and forget to ask, "Are we even building the right thing?" The result is a beautiful product that no one needs or uses. A beautiful mistake.

3. It builds a fragile career Basing your career on one piece of software is a risky bet. Our industry's history is a graveyard of "must-have" tools. It was Photoshop, then Sketch, now it's Figma. What's next? A designer whose main skill is speed in one app will be in trouble when that app is no longer popular. But the real skills are durable. They last your entire career, no matter what tool you're using.

Part 3: A Smarter Way to Hire and Work

We all need to help fix this. We have to change the conversation from what tools we use to how we think.

For Designers: Your portfolio is not an art gallery; it's a book of case studies. Stop showing just the final, polished screens. You need to tell the story.

• The Problem: Start by explaining the user problem and the business goal. Show that you know how to ask good questions before you start designing.

• The Process: Show your work. The messy sketches, the failed ideas, the "aha" moments from user interviews. This is how you prove you can think.

• The Outcome: Connect your work to real results. Did you make the user's life easier? Did a business metric improve? Show your impact, not just your mockups.

For Hiring Managers and Recruiters: Stop asking, "How good are you at Figma?" Ask better questions that test how a person thinks.

• "Walk me through a time you were given a vague project brief. What did you do?"

• "Tell me about a design decision you made that other people disagreed with. How did you handle it?"

• "Describe a project that failed. What did you learn from it?"

These questions show you how a candidate thinks, communicates, and learns from mistakes. Those are the real skills you want to hire.

Our Value Is in Our Minds, Not Our Tools

The tools we use today will be gone tomorrow. That’s a guarantee.

But the fundamentals like understanding people, framing good problems, and testing our solutions don't change. It's our job to remind our teams and our companies of this. We should be valued for how we think, not just for how fast we can draw.

Our real value is in our minds, not just in our hands.