I write on this blog weekly. Nobody edits me. Nobody tells me to “soften the tone” or “add more tactical takeaways.” I also pitch articles to other publications. They have editors. Standards. Opinions about what their audience wants. Sometimes they publish them. Sometimes they send polite rejection emails that say “not quite right for us”…
The first week of UX design 101, you learn about the double diamond. Research, define, ideate, prototype. Clean phases, logical sequence, satisfying diagram. The first week of an actual project, you learn that the research phase is two conversations with one customer your PM happens to know. Define phase: a Slack thread that went sideways.…
Six months into her first junior role, she kept doing something her manager couldn’t figure out. Every time a PM overruled a design decision, she just… did it. No pushback. No “here’s why that creates a problem.” She’d nod, open Figma, and make the change. Her manager asked her about it once. “Why don’t you…
Someone at an event, after I mentioned the book. “You wrote about AI and design. Did you use AI to write it?” No. “Really? Not even for editing?” No. They looked confused. Not skeptical – just visibly puzzled, in the way people get when they encounter a choice they wouldn’t have made and can’t immediately…
Six months into her first junior role, she kept doing something her manager couldn’t figure out. Every time a PM overruled a design decision, she just… did it. No pushback. No “here’s why that creates a problem.” She’d nod, open Figma, and make the change. Her manager asked her about it once. “Why don’t you…
A prospect emailed last month. Polite. Clearly done their homework. “I noticed you’re not on Clutch’s top UI UX design agency list for New York. We usually only consider agencies with a strong Clutch presence. Is there a reason you’re not listed?” There is a reason. It costs $8,400 a month. The “Top UI UX…
The wireframes looked perfect. Clean navigation. Clear hierarchy. Logical flow. Three stakeholders approved everything in 45 minutes. “This is exactly what we need.” PM scheduled development to start Monday. Then the designer added real content. Product names weren’t the placeholder “Product Name” shown in wireframes. They were 43 characters with special symbols and line breaks:…
B2B analytics platform. Six months post-launch. 1,400 trial signups. 83 paying customers. That’s 5.9% conversion. Founder: “Maybe our onboarding needs work. Or the trial’s too short. Should we extend to 30 days?” I pulled the usage data. 67% of trial users logged in once, clicked around for 4 minutes, never came back. The problem wasn’t…
December 2025. Video call. Client (B2B workflow automation SaaS, 8-person team, Series A): “We just spent $210,000 with a design agency in New York. Six months. Nothing works. Can you look?” Share staging link. Load product. Immediately clear: this UI/UX design agency in New York had never designed a real SaaS product before. Dashboard looked…
The job posting said “Product Designer.” Responsibilities included: user research, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, design systems, stakeholder management, A/B testing strategy, and “owning the product vision.” Basically: eight jobs disguised as one title. I asked the recruiter what made this a product designer vs UX designer role. Long pause. Then: “Product designers are more strategic.”…
The UX writer opened the staging site. Clicked through the onboarding flow. First button said “Proceed to Next Step.” Second screen: “Click Here to Continue.” Error message when she left a field blank: “Input required. Please try again.” Empty state in the dashboard: “No data available at this time. Please check back later.” She counted…
