Crickets!

This is what I hear after I’m done with a product design.

Or even worse, well-meaning opinions of people who are not the real customers of the product. To this, I have to respond with a promise that I’m not sure I can keep.

How do you prove what you’ve designed is the right solution? I know what you are thinking — prototyping, user testing, user interviews.

But let’s be honest.

This is not real proof. It’s a promise. It’s a promise from a stranger who doesn’t care to keep it.

So what is UI/UX design in that sense? Design is a promise we make on behalf of someone else. We promise it will work and potential customers promise they will use it. Both parties make promises on someone’s else behalf. Promises that they can’t keep.

We are fooling ourselves.

Consumer native

I see design as a translation medium. We translate the customer’s ideas to the business. And the business idea to customers. But we are not fluent in either of their languages. We know just enough. Enough to ask for direction, order food, and get by. But we are still seen as foreigners from either side.

To change that, we need to immerse ourselves in the culture and to contribute.

One option is to learn the business side of things. Learning business as a designer is all the rage right now. But that’s pandering to the wrong people. Let’s learn some business jargon so we get a seat at the table. And once we are at that table, what do we do? We start promising on someone else’s behalf. Enough of that.

I have a different idea.

Let’s immerse ourselves in consumer culture and contribute there instead. We are already halfway there. When we are not designers, we are consumers. But it seems to me that very few of us use our design skills to contribute.

No, I don’t mean create Dribbble Shots or interactive prototypes. Most consumers don’t care about that. What do they care about instead? They like to click around real products, watch, listen, and read.

So what I’m saying is…

Let’s start making our own digital products.

Products that solve interesting problems by expanding our toolbox a bit. This way we don’t have to pander to anyone and at the end of the day show real results. Even if it does, the results are lessons learned. Only when you have “skin in the game” can you get good at making products. And get the respect you always wanted.

Not that I know much about it. I’m writing this to challenge myself and whoever cares to join.

The practice

If this whole thing sounds about right, here is how you can start. Pick a medium: video, audio, writing, no-code tools or code. Why those? Trust me, there are very few people who care to dig in your Figma file. You need to create something that people are used to and know the rules of engagement.

You might think: are you trying to sell me on becoming an influencer or something? How is video, audio or writing related to making a digital product?

Here is how I see it.

Digital products are automated solutions to a problem. In most cases, the customer cares more about solving their problem, not so much how automated it is. You can solve a problem for millions of people with an article, video or a podcast episode.

I see a piece of content as version one of a possible product. The beauty is the production time — it’s much shorter. You can ship a product every week. And it’s something that the end customer can engage immediately. The feedback loop is much shorter. You don’t need to wait a month of development to see if your solution works. This real-time feedback from the market is priceless. It changes how you think.

In adopting the practice of shipping small solutions like this on a regular basis, you get good at digital product design. The rest is empty promises and translation work. Work that will always leave you unfulfilled.

I got a bit mangled in the metaphors there but I hope you get my point. To get a bit meta for a second, I see this article as a product I made for myself and designers like me. Designers that want to be more than service providers. A product that you pay with your time and your attention. The only non-renewable resources we have.

So, thank you!