You've shipped the design system. You've mentored the juniors. You've presented to the board with data you gathered yourself, translated into language that moved a room. But who mentors you?

Not the imposter syndrome content. Not the conference talk about psychological safety. The specific, grinding reality of being the most senior designer in a room — and realising that seniority is its own kind of solitude.

In early 2018, Convene's founder tried to organise a mastermind group through a Slack community. Fourteen people signed up. Three showed up to the first call. Two had something to sell. The format was wrong. The incentives were wrong. The container wasn't safe enough.

Then came a dinner — six designers, one long table, no agenda, a rule that phones stayed in bags. By dessert, someone had admitted they were about to quit a role they'd spent two years building toward. Everyone at the table had felt the same thing. Nobody had said it out loud before.

From that dinner, a structure crystallised: twelve members maximum, monthly sessions, Chatham House rules, no vendors, no pitching, no one in the room who might one day be your manager. Just peers — radically, uncomfortably honest with each other.