What does Lenny's late-2026 report say about design hiring?

As he reports it from TrueUp and Live Data Technologies: about 1,900 open product design roles globally, down 28% in a year; about 12,600 US product designer hires in the past twelve months against 27,600 in 2022; 3.8 open PM roles per open design role; and user research hiring down 66% from 5,300 in 2022 to about 1,800.

What should a design leader count instead of the ratio?

Two numbers: how many live surfaces the product has, and how many have a rubric written in the last two quarters that a PM's prototype arrives scored against. The gap is the coverage problem, and it is usually solved with writing before hiring.

Can the ratio still be useful?

Next to the coverage count, yes. A company with 3.8 PMs per designer and a rubric on every surface is fine. A company at one to one with no rubric is paying a reviewer to cap the product at what one person can look at.

PM-to-Designer Ratio: Why It Stopped Measuring Design

Is the PM-to-designer ratio the right design health number?

Answered by Falk Gottlob · Reviewed Nov 10, 2026 · 1 min read

THE SHORT ANSWER

No. The PM-to-designer ratio was a production ratio: one designer drew what several PMs specified, and the number said whether drawing capacity matched specifying capacity. Figma's randomized trial of Figma Make, as Jakob Nielsen reported it on October 19, 2026, cut PM time 35% and designer time 17% on the same three tasks, closing about 70% of the gap, so PMs now produce the first draft of design work and the ratio rises on its own. Lenny Rachitsky's November 10, 2026 report puts it at 3.8 open PM roles per open design role, up from 1.9 in early 2023, with about 1,900 open design roles globally. The number to count instead is the share of live surfaces with a current rubric, the page I use in place of a PRD with three to five criteria and at least 20 test cases graded pass or fail, which a PM's prototype arrives scored against. In my ownership map design owns six of thirteen rows, and none is reviewing the PM's prototype. Count the surfaces, then decide how many designers.

The ratio measured who draws. Drawing got cheap, so the ratio rose, and it cannot tell a company where PMs ship scored prototypes from one that cut design and will find out in the repair rate.

Lenny's figures as he reports them, the Figma trial as Nielsen reported it, and the two numbers to count instead are in Lenny Counts 3.8 Open PM Roles per Designer. Kill the Ratio. Count the Surfaces With a Rubric.. The rubric sizes and the six of thirteen rows are from Figma's Trial Closed 70% of the PM Gap. The Gate Is the Rubric, Not the Designer., and the method for writing the rubric is The Rubric Is the Spec.

Is the PM-to-designer ratio the right design health number?

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