Wen: Pure people management is becoming obsolete in design
Jenny Wen · The design process is dead. Here’s what’s replacing it. | Jenny Wen (head of design at Claude) · Mar 1, 2026 · at 38:44
Jenny Wen, Head of Design at Anthropic, explains how the role of design managers must shift toward hands-on craft direction rather than pure people management.
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“The way I think about, like, what a helpful manager is these days is somebody who is not just, like, I think pure people management, like, oh, like, just somebody to sort of set you up, help you in your career, have one-on-ones, make sure you're feeling, like, good at work. I think that that is kind of not a thing as much anymore, but I think somebody who can really function as, like, Giving the team direction as well as doing some of the people management stuff like that tied together, I think is the future of what managing looks like, at least for now.”
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