How to avoid accidentally giving up creative control of your designs

Why learning to mitigate shadow planning matters in the age of AI

"I often fear Data might overshadow creativity, leading to safe, uninspired designs." A student in my Data-informed Design class told me, which isn't uncommon.

For those designers lucky enough not to worry about unemployment, losing creative control is often their next biggest fear.

Between organizations taking parts of the design process away and AI tools generating designs, giving up the creative parts of the design process to do menial tasks is a growing fear.

Loss of Creative Control comes in many different forms

But it's not a new fear. Instead, it has existed for decades under a different name: shadow planning.

Like Amazon, but…

Shadow planning often stems innocently enough from one problem: we lack a point of reference when we start.

Product Managers might struggle to describe the new project, and you, as the designer, may be trying to understand what you need to design.

So, people reach for reference images or easy analogies. For example, our site is "like Amazon, but for pet accessories."