Why Toss reduced its design roles to two (opens in new tab)

On April 1, Toss’s Design Chapter consolidated six design roles into two: Product Designer and Visual Designer. The change reflects how role boundaries had already blurred as designers crossed disciplines and technology reduced the importance of tool-specific expertise. Toss’s central argument is that designers should be organized around judgment and user problems—not the tools, media, or screens they work with.

Why Role Boundaries Became a Problem

• The previous structure separated designers by tools and outputs rather than by the decisions they made.
• Ambiguity emerged in areas such as:
  • Whether interaction in a design system belonged to Platform or Interaction Designers
  • Whether interactive graphics should be handled through Lottie, code, or UI design
  • Whether expanding a PC product to mobile belonged to a Tools Product Designer or Product Designer
• These divisions sometimes determined ownership based on medium instead of capability or context.

Designers Were Already Crossing Disciplines

• Tools Product Designers began designing mobile products.
• Interaction Designers worked on parts of internal design tools.
• Graphic Designers created semantic icon systems.
• Platform Designers built interactive web pages.
• Brand Designers with visual-design backgrounds worked on lighting products.
• AI and other tools have shortened the time needed to learn formerly specialized skills, including:
  • Video and Lottie production
  • Figma prototyping
  • Coding interactive experiences
• As tool proficiency becomes less differentiating, the ability to judge what creates a good experience becomes more important.

Product Designer

• Product Designer and Tools Product Designer were merged into one role.
• The distinction between mobile and PC disappeared.
• The role now focuses on:
  • Understanding the user’s context and problems
  • Deciding how those problems should be solved
  • Designing across screen sizes and product environments

Visual Designer

• Platform, Interaction, Graphic, and Brand Designers were combined into Visual Designer.
• Visual Designers are expected to work across media and produce what the experience requires, such as:
  • Building interactions within systems
  • Creating icons for prototypes
  • Designing interactive web experiences
• The defining capability is visual judgment: deciding what is beautiful, appropriate, and correct.
• The title was chosen to emphasize visual decision-making rather than a specific medium or technique.

Lessons from Other Industries

• Disney animation reduced many physical and intermediate production steps through software while preserving stages requiring important creative judgment.
• Digital audio workstations allow artists such as Billie Eilish and Finneas to compose, perform, record, and mix with a laptop, but human judgment about what sounds good remains essential.
• Digital cinema and streaming weakened the historical distinction between film and television production.
• Across these industries, tools converged while the value of creative judgment increased.

What Comes Next

• The new job structure will not immediately change how people work.
• Toss still needs to redesign hiring standards, onboarding, and career-development paths.
• The consolidation is intended to give designers broader ownership and more room to make decisions across disciplines, ultimately improving the experiences delivered to users.