Member-only story

Stop talking about your process — start having a conversation

Process is not the solution. How to utilize scoping discussions & design methods to lead conversations that shape and guide your work.

Robert Sens
UX Collective
15 min readJul 8, 2020
Whimsical illustration showing an abstract chart with a male and female character at the center in discussion.

Designers, I will start with a hard truth — no one cares about your process.

Even me, a human-centered design practitioner who believes that a deep understanding of the goals, motivations, and underlying needs of our customers is a prerequisite to creating anything new, novel, or more efficient.

A crying emoji face graphic with the phrase “first things first, no one cares about your process” to the right of it.

As a designer, I understand the desirability of the process though — by stating that we have one, we provide ourselves with an illusion of control.

Creative problem solving and innovation in a team environment is incredibly ambiguous by nature and, as designers, we are hard-wired to make sense of complexity — to simplify and connect the dots. In the face of this ambiguity, the idea of having a linear, repeatable process is a security blanket, it provides us with a bit of comfort and clarity as we walk into a swirling cloud of ambiguity full of information and opinions.

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Robert Sens

Designer & leader. Pratt alumni. Building things at the intersection of design, technology, strategy & research.

Responses (1)

What are your thoughts?