A design lead works on a screen alongside two designers at a shared table. AI assisted.AI is shrinking teams we run and raising the bar what each person is expected to produce. That changes what a leader has to bring, starting with their own hands.Bill Russell coached the Boston Celtics for three seasons while playing center, and won two championships doing both jobs. Player-coaches were common then because one salary cost less than two, according to Wikipedia’s Player-coach entry.As the leagues got rich, the role faded.Bill Russell and Red Auerbach.Design leadership followed the same arc. A leader’s status was counted in headcount as teams grew huge. That’s no longer the case.Plenty of design leaders are what Texans call big hat, no cattle: a vice president title, three layers of managers, and no understanding of the business that goes with nothing they’d made in years. That concept...