The Wrong Question: "What's your process?"

I'm looking for a new gig, like many.

Several times now I've been asked about 'my process' as a product designer. I'm really not trying to be difficult, but that's the wrong question, or at best the wrong focus.

It suggests there can be a single way to do things, honed by years of experience in the trenches, refined to perfection to be used over and over like a recipe. It suggests that all projects have the same constraints, resources, timeline and depth of user knowledge. That it all lines up neatly for someone with the right 'process' to consume and spit out product design magic. It also suggests that if I don't answer with some version of the 'right process', I'm out of consideration.

Imagine asking an accomplished chef, "Can you tell me about your recipes?"

One could perhaps be forgiven for asking the question given the cargo cult that the discipline of UX can be at times. The ubiquitous double-diamond has utility as a mental model, a map, but it sure doesn't fit reality as neatly as it's presence in UX articles would suggest. The map is not the territory, the finger pointing at the moon, is not the moon.

The truth is that the nature and context of the project and the people involved in it determines the 'process' as it were. Common elements, even from the double diamond, show up of course, but it's almost never linear. It's messy and that's ok.

So, what would be a better question? I'd start with thinking about what the asker of the question is really trying to discern. Back to the chef for minute, maybe this is better..

Tell me your understanding of the dynamics of salt, heat, flavor and presentation

That's juicy. There's no escaping that question with canned answers. The quality of the answer will more closely reflect the understanding of the responder.

So maybe, for design professionals..

When approaching design problems, what's your understanding of the relationship between constraints, user needs, business needs, resources, timelines, and the user interface?

Juicy.

#product #design #ux #ui #mentalmodels