Unfair Advantages

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I’ve been struggling a bit with the next stage of my design career. I’ve hit a bit of a stagnant phase where I’m trying to move up, but whether it be an actual hurdle or the yips, things haven’t felt as fluid as in years past.

That is until I was given a bit of advice by Dan Mall. In speaking with him about how I’m trying to navigate my career, his thought was that in order to level up and appear more desirable to clients, I first needed to understand what my Unfair Advantage was.

According to Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba’s book, The Unfair Advantage, an Unfair Advantage is “a condition, asset, or circumstance that puts you in a favorable position.” Sounds simple enough, right? The funny thing is, we all have them.

I can recall many times where I have been speaking to designers (usually UX) and they mention how they transitioned to UX from something else. Maybe architecture. Maybe computer science. Maybe even hospitality. Those are all nuggets of knowledge that I do not know about, making them Unfair Advantages for the other person.

Using this to your own advantage is where it really shines. Not just for expertise, but for other things as well. The MILES framework explains there are other elements, like money, location, and education, that can also shape what a person’s true superpower is.

I’m still learning. There’s plenty more for me to do to get to a place in my career where I feel like I’m really rolling. But this one bit of advice has really got the gears in my brain to turn.

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Hi, I’m Jon, a UX and Product Designer from Brooklyn, New York. I write the Design Breadcrumbs newsletter to express my own thoughts on the design world, freelancing, and career advancement. Subscribe to get this news delivered to your inbox every week.