"Build-measure-learn" - the premise of Big Tech development teams - is an ideology of waste. In reality it's "build, build, build" and all the stuff after that is an afterthought.

This week's issue covers UX designers who are finding ways to start with "learn" instead of starting with waste.

#UXDesign #UX #UserResearch #ProductManagement #softwaredevelopment

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/de…

Design without feedback is theater (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 4)

The building blocks of feedback loops are learn, design, build – in that order. It's Design's job to create these loops, because no one else will do it for you.

^{The Product Picnic}

In ancient times, the japes of fools and jesters were heeded as warnings from the gods. I have not spent this much time burnishing my jester credentials for nothing -- dashbots are coming and they will ruin everything. #UXDesign #UX #ProductManagement #LLM #AI #GenAI #B2B

spavel.medium.com/dashbots-the…

“Dashbots” — the inevitable fusion of dashboards and chatbots

It’s April 1st, which for many parts of the world is April Fool’s Day. While the entertainment value of tricking people into believing the wrong thing steadily declines with age, I still enjoy taking…

^{Pavel Samsonov (Medium)}

UX Design leadership has dropped the ball. Plot twist: so has everyone else's. There is no design strategy, because there is no strategy. Fortunately, we have the tools to make our own - here's how. #ux #uxdesign #userresearch #contentdesign

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/de…

Design is a leadership skill (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 3)

A seat at the table is no good unless design is part of the strategy. To find the right place to apply leverage, designers need to embrace systems thinking.

^{The Product Picnic}

#UXDesign is not dead. But our stakeholders have retreated from it, informing business decisions with carefully groomed metrics rather than by listening to user needs. Here's how designers fight back.

We've tried renaming design. We've tried learning how to code. We've tried yelling at people. Now let's try something that actually works.

To start fixing what's broken, we have to get out of Figma and build influence, trust, and - most importantly - relational power.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/st…

Steering a design career (why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 2)

The work of design starts long before you open Figma. We must first seek out – or create – conditions in which good design is even possible, by building our own relational power.

^{The Product Picnic}

#UXDesign is in disarray. The idea of design-for-use has been replaced with design-for-sales, and its incentives (make more features so that you have more shit to sell) don't align with user-centered work and #UserResearch.

In this issue, I investigate the ground-level view of how this happened and how to stop it.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/wh…

Why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 1

At the root of design's crisis is an incentives crisis throughout tech. But we have tools that let us cut through the magical thinking of feature factories - if we're willing to use them.

^{The Product Picnic}