A designer I work with told me something last week that I have heard more times than I can count.
"I know my work had impact. I just cannot prove it on the page."
She has 12 years of experience, shipped real products, worked at two well-known companies. Her case studies read like process walkthroughs. Her resume bullets start with "Led," "Designed," "Facilitated."
Every one of those words describes a task, not a result.
And "improved the user experience" is doing none of the work her experience actually did.
This is what the Hiring Signal framework calls a Lens 3 problem. Impact and Outcomes. It is the lens that makes hiring managers ask "what actually changed because of this person?" If the answer is not obvious in 30 seconds, the shortlist moves on.
Most of the designers I coach score lowest on Lens 3. Not because their work had no impact. Because the evidence is not on the page.
Most workshops I have seen on this topic give designers a list of impact words. Adoption. Activation. Retention. Churn. Conversion. A vocabulary. A thesaurus.
I am running a different kind of workshop.
Impact Math: How to Quantify Your Design Work When You Don't Have the Numbers
90 minutes, live. Two time slots (same content, pick one):
- Thursday 23 April, 4:00-5:30pm SGT / 10:00am CEST
- Friday 24 April, 10:00-11:30am SGT / 10:00pm EDT (Thursday)
You will learn:
- The 7-step Creative Math methodology I walk my clients through
- The Three Levels of Impact framework (Design → User → Business)
- How to handle projects with no analytics access
- How to handle projects that never shipped
- How to frame "estimated" numbers so they sound credible, not vague
You will see:
- A full worked example from start to finish (B2B)
- 1-2 volunteer case studies rewritten live using my Premium Portfolio Coach GPT
- Before and after side by side
You will leave with:
- Lifetime access to 3 of my Premium Coaching GPTs: Portfolio Coach, Resume Coach, and LinkedIn Profile Coach. Full coaching mode, rewrite capability, Creative Math built in. Not the free diagnostics. Yours to keep.
- Recording of the session
- An Impact Math reference card
- Your workshop ticket credited toward The Backdoor enrolment, plus an additional $200 off if you join within 30 days
These are the same tools my $3,500 coaching clients use. You get lifetime access with your ticket.
Early bird: $37 (first 72 hours or first 20 seats, whichever comes first) Standard: $67
Career Creators community: free
Register here:
Thu Apr 23, 4pm SGT (9am BST / 10am CEST)
https://community.careercreators.com/events/7CB9E4
Thu Apr 23, 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT (Fri Apr 24 10am SGT)
https://community.careercreators.com/events/0C7638
I have done this math exercise with over 50 senior designers in the last two years. It works for shipped work, unshipped work, consulting, freelance, side projects, and internal tools. The only thing it does not work for is first-year junior work (not enough scope to calculate).
If you are a senior, staff, or lead designer who has real impact but cannot prove it on the page, this is the session.
See you there,
Joseph
P.S. The word "estimated" makes it honest. The math makes it credible. I will show you exactly what I mean on Thursday.
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