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When you're starting out in UX and product design, it's easy to get overwhelmed with tools and methods.

Today, you can find tons of method libraries online (try this one for easier methods or this one for harder methods). These libraries have step-by-step directions, but knowing how to do a method and working it into your practice are two very different things.

Design methods are like habits...the more regularly you use them, the greater the long-term effects.
If you were to ask me, I'd say start with a Keystone Habit, and everything else will follow.

Keystone Habits

Charles Duhigg is an expert on human motivations, and he writes about a concept called The Keystone Habit. ​

The idea behind the Keystone Habit is that there is a small but crucial habit that is key to unlocking aspirational behaviours.

I experienced this myself with an app called Fabulous. This app helps you eat healthier or reduce anxiety through small habits.

The app starts small, asking you to drink a big glass of water the moment you wake up. So I did it…for a week.

That one action to start the day put me on the path to bigger habits like eating salads for lunch and going to bed earlier. Drinking one glass of water every morning became my Keystone Habit for a more healthy lifestyle.

The Keystone Habit should be like drinking water in the morning. It should be quick and easy to manage.

Weekly Customer Interviews

The Keystone Habit of a healthy UX practice talking to customers regularly. This habit starts with weekly customer interviews.

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Weekly customer interviews are the best way that I know to build an advanced UX practice. The time commitment is only one hour, but that time commitment multiples like compounding interest.

Weekly customer interviews provide lots of benefits after a few weeks:

• Working out logistics around scheduling, note-taking, and research operations
• Developing interviewing skills that will help your entire career
• Learning the art of asking the right questions
• Building confidence in your ability to represent your company publicly
• Bringing others into the UX process

Weekly research is perfect for agile startup environments where you have to keep up with lots of developers. If it's already a part of your routine, it can be managed in sprint cards, and it prevents the need for last-minute interview scheduling...the bane of every designers' existence.

While customer interviews aren't a silver bullet, they are an excellent place to start. After mastering the customer interview, you will naturally move to more advanced methods as you build confidence.

Interested in building the Keystone Habit of weekly customer interviews?

Join us on October 27th for a 3-hour online workshop that will give you the tools, mindset, and confidence to conquer the Keystone Habit of UX.

You'll get Interview Methods, Automated Recruitment Strategies, and Miro Templates to lead weekly customer interviews at your company.

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Until next week, start small and start talking to customers!

Jeff Humble
​Designer & Co-Founder of the Fountain Institute

P.S. We're hosting a Guild Meetup on October 20th with Basim Al-Baker, a UX Researcher at Dance, a premium e-bike subscription service based in Berlin. Here are the details:

​Click here to RSVP for free and get the calendar invite​