Last month a product designer showed me her new prototype. She’d spent two weeks vibe-coding a tool for […]
Vibe-Coding Is Not Need-Finding
AI’s Missing Ingredient
You know what’s ridiculous? We have one of the most powerful technologies software has ever seen, and we’re […]
The Formula That Changed How I Think About Design
A few years ago, I stumbled across a formula from Kurt Lewin, a psychologist working in the 1930s […]
The Three Most Powerful Words in User Research
Last quarter I watched a Stanford student conduct her first user interview. She had a beautiful script—twelve questions, […]
Before You Cite That Study
Last week Anthropic released findings from their new AI Interviewer tool. Among the headlines: people are optimistic about […]
The Dancing Bear Problem
There’s an old circus act where a bear shuffles around on its hind legs. The audience goes wild—not […]
OKR Dash
Ever worked with a CEO who wanted more than Outcome confidence—who needed to see the day-to-day heartbeat of […]
Sketching With AI: Why Physical Thinking Still Matters in the Age of Generated Everything
Last week, I watched a product designer spend 45 minutes crafting the perfect prompt for DALL-E. “Make it […]
Student-Created Rubrics: Preparing Designers for Real-World Quality Decisions
What’s a Rubric, and Why Should We Care? A rubric is basically a scorecard for quality used by […]
How to Hire a Real UX/Product Designer
One of the biggest hiring mistakes I see over and over: teams looking for a UX/UI designer and […]
Prototypes, Turf Wars, and Vibe Coding: Who Does What Now?
Designers and PMs have always stepped on each other’s toes, especially when it’s a user-centered PM and a […]
Why Qualitative Data Belongs in Your Key Results
Check out my self-serve class on OKRs! When it comes to measuring success, people tend to gravitate toward […]
AI Can Synthesize Data for You—But Should It?
AI is fantastic at synthesizing data. It can process vast amounts of information, surface trends, and summarize research […]
Continuous Reflection: Driving Success Across the Product Lifecycle
Every product has a lifecycle, and every company navigates it differently. Some ideas take root and grow into […]
Strategy is Not War; It’s Gardening
When most people think of strategy, they think of war. And it’s no wonder—our history books, leadership courses, […]
Agile, Lean Startup, and OKRs: Cinderella’s Glass Slipper
Agile, Lean Startup, and OKRs weren’t created by sprawling corporations. They were developed by small teams trying to […]
King of the Mountain, er, Middle
In product management, there’s a classic image that almost everyone in tech knows: the Venn diagram where the […]
Using Ikigai with Personal OKRs
Finding and achieving the right goals in life isn’t easy. You may feel pulled in multiple directions and […]
Diagrams for Thinking Through a Digital Products’ Architecture
I’m sharing this out in case some educator benefits from it. If you want to go a little […]
Design’s Unsexy Middle Bits
While Design Thinking gets all the attention, it is not the same as (Digital) Product Design. In How I […]
Five Habits of Design Thinking
There are three thinking styles that have transformed how we develop new products today: Agile, Lean (Startup) and […]
Five Habits of Design Thinking
There are three thinking styles that have transformed how we develop new products today: Agile, Lean (Startup) and […]
The Intuitive and the Unlearnable
Why some designs won’t ever stop sucking Again, it starts on ze twitters Intuitive is one of the most […]
What I’d Rather Talk About When You’re Talking About UX
I blame Alan Cooper. This time. In a moment of pique (or boredom, or if he’s like me, […]
Keynote for WIAD Boston
Miss me while I’m heads down working on my current book (and beginning my teaching practice at Stanford?) […]
What testing do I do when, and why?
I’ve been too busy to post, but I just tripped over this “Golden Oldie:” CarbonIQ UCD Methods . […]
Tweaking the Persona
This is another “half baked” post. Hope it’s useful! Personas have been around for a long time in […]
A Unified Theory for Designing Just About Anything
A few years back I was obsessed with the question of why some companies rocked at one thing, and […]
How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Design Thinking
If you like this article, you probably want to sign up to be notified when my new book on […]
Draw Me a Picture!
OMG, it’s getting real, people! Pencil Me In is almost ready for print… sign up to find out […]