UX design and research

Your user research isn’t unbiased

You’re just finding evidence for decisions you already made

Here’s what I’ve seen in the past, constantly.

A team runs user interviews after they’ve already designed the solution.

They ask leading questions.

They cherry-pick quotes that support their direction.

They ignore feedback that contradicts the roadmap.

That’s not research.

That’s confirmation bias with extra steps.

Look at these temperature graphs.

Reference: The Pocket — Universal Principles of Design (026)

Same data.

Wildly different stories depending on what you want to believe.

Your user research does the same thing.

You believe your design solves the problem.

So you unconsciously ask questions that confirm it.

You interpret ambiguous feedback as supportive.

You dismiss contradicting evidence as edge cases.

Real research kills your assumptions.

Uncomfortable research changes your direction.

Next time you run research, ask yourself: when’s the last time user feedback completely stopped a project?

If you can’t remember, you’re not doing research. You’re doing confirmation bias with a research budget.

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[embed]Design debt isn’t technical debt. It’s documented evidence of your team’s past compromises. Every inconsistent button style is a conversation where someone said “we don’t have time to update the design system.”medium.com