Where the model starts

I use the word Ethos for the habits that, in general, characterize designers. I describe it as ten tensions. Each one runs between two ways of working. On one side is a habit that design education and practice tend to build. On the other is a habit the top teams of large corporations tend to rely on. Both sides describe good work. This is not designers versus executives. Good leaders, trained in design or not, draw on both sides; a lean toward the design side doesn't make anyone less suited to the top.

Designers can work at both ends of every tension. When push comes to shove, most of us feel more at home on one side. I think it's worth knowing which from your first job onward. In my research, it mattered most around the late thirties, when the choices about preparation and experience that lead to senior roles begin. The model is a loop: with each new role, every three to five years, it begins again, and so does the question.

This is not about changing who you are. It's about seeing the other side clearly, learning its language, and choosing on purpose.

Where this came from

I put the ten tensions together from the literature on designer identity and from the thirty interviews. I deliberately didn't show them to the people I interviewed, so our conversations wouldn't turn into debates about bias. They have not been validated as a psychometric instrument. The self-test is a tool for reflection, and the data it collects is my first step toward testing them, including against the answers of sitting executives.

2026 noteIn September 2026 I rewrote the right-hand statements so they describe the work of a top team the way its members would describe it. The tenth tension was Individualism versus Collectivism, about acting as a professional class. It is now Individualism versus Enterprise, about putting the company ahead of your function.