"Throughout my career, I've worked on projects where I was the solo UX designer, collaborating with business stakeholders, engineers, PMs, and sometimes clients, across large enterprise teams with layered decision-making as well as lean service-industry setups. And there were many instances where I felt entirely helpless as a designer. It often felt like nobody was interested in design or solving problems for users the way I was taught. Everyone was optimizing for their own priorities, often at the cost of the user."
"For instance, engineering wanted designs that were easy to implement and not too flashy, clients wanted something extraordinary but didn't want to test it with users to validate the usability. On top of that, sometimes there's no head of design or design lead, especially in startups. And even when there was one, you couldn't run to them with every issue saying "Engineering doesn't listen to me," or "The client doesn't value UX.""
A solo UX designer often collaborates with business stakeholders, engineers, PMs, and clients across both large enterprise teams with layered decision-making and lean service-industry setups. Many instances leave designers feeling entirely helpless. Stakeholders optimize for their own priorities, frequently sacrificing user needs. Engineers prefer designs that are easy to implement and not flashy. Clients want extraordinary outcomes but resist user testing to validate usability. Small companies often lack a head of design or design lead, and even when present designers cannot escalate every issue. Designers are expected to be problem solvers despite limited influence.
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