No one wants to build bad products. But in an industry where programmers implement features to order, it can be hard to shake that feeling.

This is how orgs see the ROI of UX: as a soothing function to tell everyone they're doing a good job. And as a scapegoat, when we finally learn otherwise.

UX cheerleading is doing the industry no favors.

#UX #UXDesign #ProductManagement #tech #softwaredevelopment

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Stop doing UX cheerleading

Design is being hijacked to create legitimacy for bad ideas. We can do better.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

When you say "we don't need user research, I already know what users want" this is what you look like

#ux #UXDesign #userresearch

Process creates friction, so we got rid of process. But that friction was necessary for holding workslop at bay.

Because without slowing down, we can't ask "is this good? is this right?" We can only ask "when will it be done?" And that's a world where #LLM outputs will always beat people.

Fortunately, an "optimized" process moves slowly, because producing consensus is also a process. And that's #UXDesign 's opportunity to step in and reassert itself as a strategic role

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The myth of "no design process"

Process can add friction, but trying to get rid of friction by getting rid of process dooms design to irrelevance.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

When a user doesn't understand your product, they can't use it. But when the team doesn't understand their own product, then NO ONE can.

We neglected the conceptual layer of software development, and products have devolved from a coherent experience into Proper Noun soup. To unwind this self-inflicted problem, we must stop "optimizing" for just one part of the job.

Here's how.

(this is a much deeper problem than "just UX vs UI")

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/wh…

#ProductManagement #tech #UXDesign

When teams don't understand their own product

A usable product starts with the conceptual model, but designers have "optimized" that work out of the profession. It's time to bring it back.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}