Design
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.…
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…
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…
I’ve been designing products for enterprise SaaS companies for eight years. Deutsche Telekom, IQVIA, D.E. Shaw Group. The kind of products where a bad UX decision costs millions and ruins someone’s quarterly bonus. Never mine, unfortunately. Technical debt is familiar territory: ship fast, promise “we’ll refactor later,” codebase gets messy, developers slow down. UX debt…
The UX strategist’s final deliverable was a 31-page PDF titled “Strategic UX Framework for Multi-Audience Dashboard Optimization.” Page 8 had a Venn diagram with three circles: “User Needs,” “Business Goals,” “Technical Constraints.” The recommendation in the executive summary: “Further research required to validate strategic direction.” Seven weeks. Fourteen thousand dollars. Three weeks into that engagement,…
“Mark” (not a real name, but the story is) asked me to write this. Said I’d know the model – I’m from Ukraine. Here’s what happens: Agency sells you “a full-stack designer with 8 years experience in UI/UX design and development services.” You get a junior designer in Portland who’s never written code + an…
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”…
Got on a call last month with a potential client. Series A SaaS company, 18 people, looking for design help. “Before we start, can you walk us through your design process?” I should’ve known. They screen-shared a 40-slide deck. Their “UX design process.” Eight phases. Twelve deliverables. Three validation gates. Stakeholder touchpoints color-coded by department.…
I had a call last Tuesday with a founder who wanted help “improving activation.” Their SaaS launched eight months ago. Activation: 23%. Support tickets: 180/week. Team of six. I asked to see the roadmap. Roadmap Items Count New features 12 “UX improvements” (no details, pushed to Q3) 2 Total 14 “Which feature causes the most…
