Hey, it's Joseph.

Last week a designer I work with was calling himself a "marketplace designer." Accurate. His last two roles were marketplace companies. But every time he said it, people asked "what kind?" and he'd spend five minutes explaining instead of connecting.

We peeled it back. What problem does he actually solve?

He wasn't designing marketplaces. He was designing decision infrastructure. Platforms that help organizations detect risk earlier and move faster.

The moment we wrote that down he said "I can immediately tell a lot of jobs out there are looking for this."

One frame shift. His entire market opened up.

That's what Monday looks like. That's what week 1 looks like. A room of experienced designers realizing the gap between what they've done and what's visible isn't as wide as it feels. It's a signal gap. A framing gap. And it shifts fast once you see it.

If you've been thinking about this for a week. Two weeks. The approach you've been using hasn't changed since then. Usually it doesn't change on its own. Another month from now the search looks the same. Three months from now the confidence is lower. Six months from now you're considering roles you'd never have considered today.

I recorded a short video walkthrough of exactly how the program works. The three ways designers try to get hired. Why the usual approach stops working at the senior level. And what the 8 weeks look like.

Watch it here: https://www.tella.tv/video/the-backdoor-invite-bafw

Full program details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mi4qSrFCIcnmZNdctgtfcVorzYx3cdYaiUpAjmtCSbc/preview

A few spots left for the March 30 cohort. If you have questions, reply to this email. I respond to everything personally.

Joseph