Last year, I wrote about a mistake I made when joining Klarna: assuming my past strengths would carry me forward. I learned the hard way that success in a new company depends on aligning your skills with what your current company values.
But even after I closed that gap, shoring up my visual design skills and putting in the hours, I ran into another wall. Because skills and execution alone still weren’t enough.
This is the story of my next mistake: doing high-impact work that no one saw.
The Project(s)
Three months. One massive project.
Klarna was building a new API for TikTok, Stripe Link, and OnePay at Walmart. A top company priority. A product that would enable us to reach hundreds of millions new users. I was the only designer.
I thought: “This is my chance.” The scope, the impact, the visibility - it had everything that should get me promoted.
But it nearly broke me.
Each partner had its own deadline, which meant I was running three projects in parallel. Then a fourth partner got added, which needed entirely new flows. At the same time, I was learning a new problem space, switching from the Shopping space to the Payment space. I was building new relationships, and juggling legal, product, architects, and external teams - all at once.
I remember during one design tactical, our lead asked: "Things are going smoothly, right Dan?” My answer: “Everything is on fire.” And it was. I worked evenings and weekends. One night, I stared out my window at the street glowing under streetlights, took a long breath, and refocused on the Figma window in front of me. Inhale, exhale, keep pushing.
The cost showed up everywhere. My habits crumbled. I went to bed late, woke up late, stopped exercising, ate poorly. I had no time for anything outside of work, including writing this newsletter.
When delivery came, the PM praised the work. I was proud. Exhausted. Excited. Confident I’d done work too impactful to be ignored. This was it. the validation, the title bump. “This will finally get me promoted to Lead.”
The Reality Check
Promotion cycle came. I asked my manager to put me up. He agreed. I wrote my doc. I waited.
A month later, I jumped onto the update call with him. And my manager said: "I have unfortunate news - no promotion."
At first, I tried to rationalize it. It wasn't pushing Klarna's visual design. This was a project focused on communication and collaboration. I can understand if that’s not how designers at Klarna are evaluated for Lead.
But then my manager said something that floored me: “Leadership thought the other designers had done the bulk of the work.”
My mind went blank. Disbelief first, then frustration. Three months of nights and weekends, like it had never existed. I couldn’t compute.
Those designers had created a few flows. But I had to rebuild everything to align with reality, expanded it into 20+ flows per partner, and shipped it under crushing deadlines. But leadership believed their few days of work was the real effort.
It hit me like a punch: without visibility, you and your work are invisible.
The Epiphany
I realized execution isn’t enough. Doing great work in the dark is like building the best product in the world but never marketing it. Nobody will use it. Nobody will know it exists.
That’s what happened to me. You need more than skills and the execution. You also need visibility.
What I’d Do Differently
If I could rerun the play, I’d optimize not just for delivery, but for visibility. Even if the work load is high. Otherwise, all that work is for nothing (in terms of your career progression). In the future I will:
Present in reviews, even when overloaded
Share updates directly with leaders
Align my PM with my promotion goals
Keep my manager looped in, with or without 1:1s
At first, I thought promotion was about leaning on my strengths. Then I thought it was about executing high-stakes projects. Both turned out to be wrong on their own.
The truth is you need the right skills and the right visibility. Miss either one, and the promotion will not come.
Unseen work is invisible work.
How come your lead didn’t advocate that bulk of the work is done by you?