Why Can't We Just Ask What People Want?

TLDR; we think we're rationale. Unfortunately we're not.

People are really bad at predicting how they will behave in a given situation. The truth is every single decision we make in life is driven by emotion and logic takes a backseat (this might sound crazy but it is true, there's research to back it up).

We don't like to think we act irrationally so we always have an explanation for our behaviour. The challenge is that only sometimes is this explanation right - and we can't distinguish between the times it is accurate and when our brain is making things up.

When doing research then we are working with a situation where people don't really know why they behave a certain way but they are happy to confidently tell you why they do.

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. Research being hard is what makes it more fun!

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

Transa's Organic Transformation: From Hierarchy To Self-Management In The Swiss Alps by Tine Bieber
Transa transitioned to self-management emphasizing co-creation and inclusivity, which allow employees to contribute to the organization’s evolution and adapt gradually.

Three Simple Rules To Solve Unsolvable Organizational Problems by Dennis Persson
Dennis outlines three principles—Single Responsibility, Communication, and Dependency Elimination—to tackle organizational issues and improve team performance.

Product Direction

How Botify Broke Down Silos And Moved To Product Trios by Melissa Suzuno
Botify transitioned from traditional silos to product trios. This shift improved collaboration, aligned product development with user needs, and streamlined decision-making processes.

Product Strategy: Why You Don’t Always Need One by Francesca Cortesi
Uncover how product maturity and market stability influence the need for a product strategy, advising flexibility in approach.

Continuous Research

We Did All This Discovery... Now How Do We Decide? by Ryan Singer
Evaluate and prioritize insights by assessing the negative impact of not implementing them, ensuring that research findings lead to actionable decisions.

Why Can't We Just Ask What People Want? by Rory Madden
Helping teams remove the blockers that hurt the effectiveness and efficiency of software development.

Continuous Design

Leverage AI For Mock Tables And Charts When Testing Prototypes by Evan Sunwall
Creating realistic data for prototypes is a chore. Use these prompting tactics with generative AI to enhance content fidelity in usability testing.

If You Can Keep It: Pointers For Effective Website IA Governance by Jorge Arango
Ongoing governance in IA provides strategies for defining clear roles, understanding the interplay between content and structure, and adapting IA to meet new needs without compromising user experience.

Continuous Delivery

Are AI Assistants Making Us Worse Programmers? by Rafael Quintanilha
The influence of AI assistants in programming practices; discussing potential benefits and drawbacks to help leaders make informed decisions about their integration.

To Dare Or Not To Dare: The MVA Dilemma by Pierre Pureur and Kurt Bittner
Balancing between using familiar technologies or exploring new ones, the MVA dilemma impacts architectural decisions, shaping product delivery and innovation.

First 50% of UXDX USA Agenda Confirmed!
Start planning your 2025 experience now

We’re excited to announce the first 50% of the UXDX USA 2025 agenda, featuring incredible speakers and sessions across Product, UX, Design, and Development. This is your chance to get a head start on planning your agenda and make sure you don’t miss out on key insights from industry leaders.

Check out the agenda now and start mapping out which sessions you’ll attend at UXDX USA 2025 in New York from 12-14 May!

Did you know that UXDX is also on BlueSky now? You can follow us here @uxdx.com

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Video of the Week
Connecting the Dots in Product Design

Alkistis Mavroeidi, Director of Product Design at Kayak, shares her insights from seven years of designing user-centric solutions in the travel industry. In this session, she explores the art of connecting the dots in product design—bridging gaps between teams, aligning goals, and fostering a collaborative culture. Dive into the full session here 👇👇

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: How often do you evaluate and rank different research methods for a project, rather than defaulting to familiar options?

If we exclude the people who don’t do research, the winner with 38.9% is that people are varying their methods most of the time, according to the needs of the feature. This is great news as different features can often benefit from different techniques.

In second place, with 37.5% is that people always use the same methods. As long as the methods have a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches I don’t think this is too bad. Some research is better than none. The final 23.6% of people vary their methods every time.