Logo
Search
Home
Archive
Tags
Login
Sign Up

Teamwork and Leadership

UX is a team sport. To drive strategy and render our design decisions into products, we must bring others along with us.

Teamwork and Leadership

+1

All your problems are people problems (Don't Just Do Things, Part 2)

Oct 19, 2025

•

7 min read

All your problems are people problems (Don't Just Do Things, Part 2)

If you want to do strategy, you must be willing to do process transformation first.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

+1

"Just doing things" is not a path to value (Don't Just Do Things, Part 1)

Oct 12, 2025

•

7 min read

"Just doing things" is not a path to value (Don't Just Do Things, Part 1)

Action for the sake of action feels good, but the path of least resistance leads you to surrender your own agency.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+2

The people ARE the process

Sep 21, 2025

•

8 min read

The people ARE the process

Cutting down on collaboration tricks you into thinking you're going faster, but it destroys the divergence effects that make the design process valuable.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Metrics and Data

+3

Research is a leadership skill; don't cede it to AI

Sep 12, 2025

•

9 min read

Research is a leadership skill; don't cede it to AI

The role of UX is not only to change the behaviors of users, but also to influence the behaviors of stakeholders. Adding AI tools to this process only undermines alignment.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

+2

Skipping alignment leads to zero-impact UX

Sep 7, 2025

•

9 min read

Skipping alignment leads to zero-impact UX

Deliverable artifacts are only a small part of the social system that product development entails. Any "productivity" gained by ignoring that system is an illusion.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

+1

The aesthetics of success come at the cost of failure

Aug 31, 2025

•

7 min read

The aesthetics of success come at the cost of failure

It's easy to get a seat at the table. Just agree to become part of the problem.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+1

Aura UX

Aug 17, 2025

•

8 min read

Aura UX

Shortcuts to establishing the legitimacy of design sabotage your ability to achieve anything meaningful.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Metrics and Data

+1

The ROI of UX is so massive that no one will believe you

Aug 10, 2025

•

7 min read

The ROI of UX is so massive that no one will believe you

User research makes the most difference when findings challenge closely-held assumptions. But the truth is often unpopular.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Teamwork and Leadership

Design struggles to be born

Jul 27, 2025

•

7 min read

Design struggles to be born

The golden age of UX is over. But the momentum that it brought is not yet extinguished, and a new generation of design leaders is seizing it.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

+1

Can Designers Avoid Meetings?

Jun 28, 2025

•

8 min read

Can Designers Avoid Meetings?

LLMs are not the first tool to promise that they can free us from having to talk to people so we can "focus on the work." But talking to people IS the work.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Teamwork and Leadership

The glue is the work

Jun 8, 2025

•

7 min read

The glue is the work

Tech orgs only function thanks to people who volunteer for thankless "glue work." This is the space where UX lives; for the field to get respect we need to make this work visible.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+1

The AI Hangover Era (The Everything App Part 3)

May 31, 2025

•

12 min read

The AI Hangover Era (The Everything App Part 3)

Some leaders are starting to realize the extent to which AI has broken their ability to prioritize and ship value. Others are still doubling down.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+1

AI is not an assistant – it's your new boss (The Everything App part 2)

May 23, 2025

•

10 min read

AI is not an assistant – it's your new boss (The Everything App part 2)

As managers continue to outsource data-gathering and decision-making to LLMs, the person above you on the org chart is transforming into a chatbot's clerk – and leaving product teams with the consequences.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+1

The Everything App is a symptom of Nothing Management (part 1)

May 18, 2025

•

10 min read

The Everything App is a symptom of Nothing Management (part 1)

Leaders who surrender their point of view inevitably arrive at the same conclusion: we must solve every problem for every user. This approach demolishes the possibility of real impact.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

+1

The AI job crisis is a crisis of groupthink

May 4, 2025

•

10 min read

The AI job crisis is a crisis of groupthink

Unmoored from user needs as the driver for decision-making, executives increasingly perform innovation for their peers. Today, that means AI products and AI workflows – no matter the cost.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

+1

If you're comfortable, your principles aren't working

Apr 27, 2025

•

9 min read

If you're comfortable, your principles aren't working

Design principles are a tool for delegating and scaling the ability to say "no" to many good ideas, so that they can say "yes" to one great idea. If your principles aren't constraining these kinds of decisions, then they are not actually fit for purpose.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Teamwork and Leadership

+1

Taste is a dead end; what you should have is a point of view

Apr 21, 2025

•

10 min read

Taste is a dead end; what you should have is a point of view

By justifying decisions on the basis of taste, designers are throwing away the influence they need for preventing low-value feature bloat

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

+1

Attack of the Template Ronin

Apr 11, 2025

•

9 min read

Attack of the Template Ronin

Learning “best practices” by rote has produced a cohort of shallow generalists. Solving real-world challenges requires tailoring your methods to the problem's unique context.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Feedback Loops

+1

Design without feedback is theater (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 4)

Apr 6, 2025

•

8 min read

Design without feedback is theater (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 4)

The building blocks of feedback loops are learn, design, build – in that order. It's Design's job to create these loops, because no one else will do it for you.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

+1

Design is a leadership skill (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 3)

Mar 29, 2025

•

8 min read

Design is a leadership skill (why design goes wrong and how to set it right part 3)

A seat at the table is no good unless design is part of the strategy. To find the right place to apply leverage, designers need to embrace systems thinking.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Feedback Loops

+1

Steering a design career (why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 2)

Mar 23, 2025

•

10 min read

Steering a design career (why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 2)

The work of design starts long before you open Figma. We must first seek out – or create – conditions in which good design is even possible, by building our own relational power.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Teamwork and Leadership

+1

Why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 1

Mar 16, 2025

•

8 min read

Why design goes wrong and how to set it right, part 1

At the root of design's crisis is an incentives crisis throughout tech. But we have tools that let us cut through the magical thinking of feature factories - if we're willing to use them.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Metrics and Data

+2

The bounty of the commons

Mar 8, 2025

•

7 min read

The bounty of the commons

You'll never be able to make effective trade-offs without thinking holistically about the entire system, and the other people within it

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

+1

The outputs of design are memetic, not visual

Feb 7, 2025

•

5 min read

The outputs of design are memetic, not visual

Like our products, visual artifacts should be designed to fit their audience and purpose. That purpose is not "so that someone can look at it."

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

+2

Tools for not-thinking

Jan 24, 2025

•

10 min read

Tools for not-thinking

User research would have prevented this week's extremely expensive mistakes - but leaders are determined to keep making them.

Pavel Samsonov
Pavel Samsonov

The Product Picnic

Writing on UX and product management to connect today's discourse with classic insights that the industry forgot.

© 2025 The Product Picnic.

Privacy policy

Terms of use

Powered by beehiiv