From IC to Principal: what changed

Going from Senior to Principal isn't a step. It's a category change. The skills that earned the promotion are mostly the wrong skills for the role you just walked into.

What I had to unlearn

• Being the fastest in the room. (Now: being the clearest.)
• Owning the file. (Now: owning the framing.)
• Defending the craft. (Now: defending the team that defends the craft.)

Where the leverage actually sits

Most Principal-level impact comes from three things: writing things down so they survive without you, asking the question nobody else will ask, and making other designers visible to leadership.

"Your job is no longer the screen. It's the conditions that produce the screen."

If I could redo year one

I'd spend less time in Figma and more time in 1:1s. The work I'm proudest of from that year isn't a flow. It's a document that two teams still reference.