Why Decisions Feel So Hard Right Nows By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Over the last few months, Iāve been talking with design and product leaders across very different organizations, large companies, smaller teams, fast-moving environments, and slower ones. And I keep hearing the same thing. Their teams are being asked to make decisions faster than ever, and yet, deciding feels heavier than it used to. Not slower, exactly. Just harder. At first, people often explain this in familiar ways: too...
19 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
When Speed Stops Being the Bottleneck by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Quick question: What happens when the thing that used to take 12 weeks now takes 4 days? I've been watching this play out across the industry, and it's wild. Lots of companies aren't sharing their new speeds, but a few are: Code and Theory (an agency that works with Microsoft and Amazon) is building dashboards in 40 minutes that used to take a week. They report cutting time-to-prototype by 75%. Coinbase reports a 2-5x increase...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Missed a few newsletters last year? Start here. By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Before we jump into new ideas for the year ahead, we wanted to pause for a moment. If your inbox was anything like ours last year, thereās a good chance you missed a few newsletters. So instead of sending another new idea right away, we put together a curated catch-up, a handful of pieces from 2025 that capture the questions we kept returning to. If you only read a few things from us last year, these are a good place...
about 2 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
What Can't AI Do in Design in 2026 By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, If you work in design, your feeds are probably saying the same two things on repeat: Hereās everything AI can do for you, and Hereās why you should be terrified. Most of that conversation focuses on tools and job titles: āWill designers be replaced?ā āWhich roles are safe?ā It makes for good headlines, but itās not how the work actually changes in real life. A few months ago, walking to my studio listening to a Planet Money...
3 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Does the Double Diamond make sense for AI-enabled teams? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, For twenty years, the Double Diamond has been our north star. Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. It's elegant. It's teachable. It's in every junior's UX case study. And it made senseā¦when it was created. All that upfront research made economic sense when coding was the most expensive part of the process. Better to get it right before handoff because it's expensive for engineering to make changes later. But...
3 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
When Frameworks Fail and Gut Feelings Take Over By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, You know that moment when the data looks clear, the framework is airtight, and yet something in your stomach says, donāt do it? Thatās judgment, the quiet, inconvenient voice that shows up when the evidence has already spoken. Itās also the thing most of us struggle to explain, even though our careers depend on it. Businesses love reasoning. We build frameworks to make decisions look rational, dashboards to make them...
3 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 5 min read
Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for Designers š by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, It's time to expose your designer trauma to the whole world. Itās that time of year again, when weāre forced to stop nudging rectangles long enough to remember Halloween exists, and suddenly we need a costume tonight. But fear not! While normal humans panic-buy cat ears from a drugstore, we designers do what we do best: turn our professional pain into content. Here are 9 last-minute costumes for brave designers. 1. UX...
4 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Before The Fountain Institute, there was Art School Dropout By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, In spring 2020, when the world had just gone remote, we ran a tiny experiment called Art School Dropout. It wasnāt about UX or product design. We didnāt even know thatās where weād end up focusing yet. It was about exploring the overlap between art and design, and figuring out how to make learning online feel human, creative, and social. We werenāt thinking about building a business yet. We were just...
4 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Watch Jeff's Intro to UX Strategy šŗ by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, A few weeks ago, I gave a talk on UX strategy that I'd like to share with you, newsletter subscribers, because you're just the best. After teaching UX strategy for four years, I have some insights into how to approach strategy as a UXer. I hope this talk will ensure you have the right mindset to get started in strategy. Watch the UX Strategy Info Session What's in the talk: Why UX strategy matters now What UX strategy is (and...
5 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read