Designers who struggle with imposter syndrome believe they are undeserving of their achievements and high esteem. They feel that they are not as competent or intelligent as others might think — and soon enough, those around them will discover the truth that they are a fraud.

Many reasons may contribute to the internal experience of imposter syndrome. Temperament, ethnicity, gender, and even our childhood can influence how we perceive our competency in specific settings and conditions.

It is possible designers frequently experience imposter syndrome because much of our aptitude stems from the perception of a creative and subjective foundation. This type of mastery is challenging to quantify compared to professions such as accounting or programming, where objective and measurable dimensions can determine intellect and worthiness.

From my personal struggle with imposter syndrome, I have assembled several methods I believe other designers can employ to give self-assurance and confidence to their well-deserved status and esteem.

1. Qualify your design decisions

Design, as a profession, is plagued with varying degrees of subjectivity. Even the definition of what a designer does is ambiguous, especially when discussing UX and product design descriptions.

Being unsure of our decisions, responsibilities, and authority in an influential position is familiar for many designers. Most well-established professional designers, including myself, frequently trust and use our intuition to determine the quality and direction of many design decisions — and rightfully so, as the more experience we have, the better we can sense if something is a good or bad idea.

However, even as a seasoned designer, the problem with intuition is that what makes sense in our head or gut can appear subjective to others, especially if we lack conviction in our authority or intellect due to imposter syndrome. The solution to subjective decision-making is to employ objectivity in our communication tactics.

One of the many insights the UX industry stresses is the value of making confident decisions using quantitative and qualitative data. Design judgments backed by objective information always appear more rational.

However, when a designer does not have access to data for supporting decisions, they must be able to articulate their choices based on fundamental design principles that offer rational motivations.

Using proper terminology to describe your choices earns respect and feeds our confidence because we have made the most logical decision. And when it comes to conveying judgments, people tend to respond well to rational choices, especially in a business environment.

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For example, if a stakeholder says they do not “like” the position of a button, we should follow up by asking them what does not “work” about the position of the button?

Hopefully, this simple shift in language also causes stakeholders to convey rational decisions for their preferences. Overall this type of communication between designers and stakeholders creates quantifiable, collaborative, and confident design decisions — which goes a long way in easing imposter syndrome as a designer.

2. Write, write, write

Writing well is one of the most valuable skills a professional designer can learn. They do not tell you this when you start your design career, but you will spend a lot of time writing as you move up the career ladder. Some of these writing responsibilities include crafting emails, creative briefs, case studies, proposals, job descriptions, and employee reviews.

A comprehensive understanding of persuasive and assertive writing techniques is helpful for general business and design communication. If we feel insecure about our abilities and intellect, we may subconsciously convey that frailty to others unintentionally through our writing. By learning to write confidently, we can express belief in our capabilities.

Another writing technique to combat imposter syndrome is to write about your experience as a designer. This technique is how I started my writing journey several years ago.

At first, I was terrified to write about any design-related skills or advice for fear that other designers would negatively judge me and call me out for being a fraud. So instead, I wrote about my experiences and introspections as a professional designer.

As designers, I believe we each have a unique story to tell. And writing about our struggles and perceptions adds tremendous value to the design community, helps us discover who we are, and enables us to become more authentic.

The funny thing about stories that focus on experiences as a designer is that you start to discover that many other designers feel the same way as you. We all seem to be stumbling through this industry with similar struggles, fears, and insecurities. And if you ever feel alone regarding challenges as a designer, you can be sure you are not.

It is also worth mentioning that designers are generally not writers. And unlike the feelings associated with imposter syndrome, a designer can always claim they are not a writer if they feel insecure about their writing capabilities. This excuse is what I tell myself every time I publish an article — and quite frankly, it works well for me.

3. Realize that you are not alone

Growing up, I never fit in with the crowd. In my mid-twenties, I took a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test and discovered I was a textbook INTJ. While this is a rare personality type, approximately 2% of the population, it was a relief to know others share my peculiar manner of thinking and interacting with the world.

With imposter syndrome, we tend to believe we are alone in our feelings of fraudulence regarding our status and achievements. Yet, 70% of people feel this way at one time or another. Compared to discovering there are people out there with a similar personality type to us, there is a higher probability that someone you know has felt or feels like a fraud — a strange kinship connected by our skeptical competency.

While there appears to be plenty of us that feel like imposters, there are those who genuinely are imposters. We have all encountered these types of individuals. They ooze over-confidence and charisma yet lack the qualities and intellect required for their prestigious positions. In many cases, the bar we compare ourselves against becomes artificially inflated by these imposters.

Unfortunately, business and corporate cultures tend to reward highly extroverted and overconfident individuals. I wonder if we are not comparing ourselves to actual competence and intelligence but rather the illusion projected by boastful frauds.

These overconfident individuals sometimes suffer from a reverse imposter syndrome, known as the Dunning Kruger Effect. This behavior is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are.

Conclusion

Many harmful emotions and behaviors are associated with imposter syndrome, from rejection and lack of confidence to questioning our intelligence and skills. And those of us who suffer from this condition are constantly trying to prove that we deserve our esteem, achievements, and responsibilities. While continuously attaining goals and acquiring knowledge is excellent for self-improvement, we should not be doing so to prove that we are not a fraud.

Changing our perspective or learning soft skills such as communication and writing can also alter how we see ourselves. These techniques help us transcend to a higher level of self-awareness and appreciation of our qualifications and accomplishments.

If you liked this article, check out some of my others at Medium.com/@micbuckcreative