The UX design process is a myth (& what to do instead)

"After 18 years in the field, here's the truth about how great products are really built. You've seen the diagrams. They're clean, they're confident, and they're plastered on the walls of agencies, startups, and design schools around the world. A perfect, linear path: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Or maybe it's the elegant loops of the double diamond, diverging and converging in a beautiful, predictable dance."

"These artifacts do more than just outline a workflow; they offer a promise of control. They are a professional security blanket, assuring our clients, our bosses, and even ourselves that we are rigorous engineers of solutions, not just chaotic artists. We sell this process in pitches and kickoff meetings, presenting ourselves as masters of a reliable, repeatable methodology. It's our shield against the perception that our work is purely subjective."

Common visual models present product design as a clean, linear sequence or an elegant loop that promises control and predictability. Those models function as professional security blankets, reassuring stakeholders that work is rigorous and repeatable rather than subjective. Selling a tidy process helps with pitches and kickoff meetings, but it creates a false sense of certainty and limits responsiveness. Effective product development requires embracing messiness, balancing research and trade-offs, iterating through experiments, and exercising judgment amid uncertainty. Prioritizing outcomes, adaptability, and continual learning delivers stronger products than slavishly following a prescribed, linear ritual.

Read at Medium