Newsletter written by Chris
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Read time: 1m 39s
It’s too easy, as a designer, to be fake busy.
You’ve been there.
Always in Figma.
Always "iterating."
Always complaining about stakeholders.
But if you’re working on a large team, 80% of problems aren't design problems.
They're process problems.
You're designing in chaos because you skipped the boring stuff.
I’m guilty of this too. I'd jump straight to wireframes because research felt slow. Stakeholders wanted to see "real designs" immediately.
And I ended up redesigning the same screen. Again and again. Because nobody agreed on what we were actually building.
But then something changed for me…
I stopped just taking in request. Instead, led the design process.
Process was the difference.
Not the theoretical bullshit they teach in bootcamps. The stuff that actually works when your PM is breathing down your neck and launch is next week.
The 7-step blueprint that saved my ass:
- Kickoff & workshop → Get everyone aligned (or they'll torpedo you later)
- Research + Audit → Talk to actual humans (shocking, I know)
- Requirements → Turn messy notes into clear problems
- Concept → Test your big idea before building it
- Framework → Structure first, pixels later
- Interface → Make it usable first
- Refinement → Polish and ship
I used to skip steps 1, 2, 4, 5, and jump straight into 6.
It was like trying to build IKEA furniture without the manual.
Technically possible.
Definitely painful.
Usually ends in tears.
Your process won't always be perfect.
Sometimes you'll skip research. Sometimes stakeholders will demand wireframes before you understand the problem. Sometimes you'll do user testing after launch because… startup life.
That's fine.
Process shouldn’t be rigid checklist. It's more of a compass.
When you know what your UX process looks like, you know when you're cutting corners and where to push back.
After 10 years building products, I can tell you:
Every minute spent on defining and executing my own UX process saves you hours in revisions.
Good news is your don’t have to start from zero. But don't take my word for it. Take it from the 1,000+ designers from 90+ countries who've used my frameworks.
Want my full breakdown?
Including the specific workshops I run, the research methods that work with zero budget, and how to handle stakeholders who think UX is "making things pretty"?