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- The Product Model #256 - Finding the Balance Between Enablement and Control
The Product Model #256 - Finding the Balance Between Enablement and Control
This Week’s Updates: AI-First Hiring, Metric Tree Trap, Human Insights In Data, Practical Design Patterns and more...

Platforms: Finding the Balance Between Enablement and Control
Developer platforms are designed to accelerate software delivery by standardizing tools, workflows, and infrastructure, reducing cognitive load for teams. However, when platforms become overly prescriptive, they can stifle innovation and slow down progress.
Premature abstraction can be more damaging than helpful. But how are platform teams supposed to know where the line is for what should and should not be in the platform? They should speak to customers (the internal teams using the platforms).
I go into more detail about the challenges, and solutions, for platform teams in this weeks continues development article below.
Have you ever had to work around your company's developer platform? |
This Week’s Updates
Enabling the Team
Zapier's AI-First Hiring And Onboarding by Tracy St.Dic
Zapier's hiring process is evolving in response to AI. The focus is shifting from tool-specific experience to adaptability, curiosity, and problem-solving skills. They also assess how candidates collaborate with AI tools, not replace them.
How (and Why) We Help by John Cutler
Helping behaviour in teams can be well-intentioned but counterproductive. There are different “helping archetypes” and how our desire to be useful can sometimes create confusion, dependency, or delay. Clear roles and thoughtful collaboration reduce friction.
Product Direction
The Metric Tree Trap by Paul Levchuk
Metric trees help teams decompose strategic goals into actionable metrics, but they often go stale or mislead. Avoid the trap by continuously validating your metrics against actual outcomes and evolving business needs.
Simplifying Your Product Strategy Is A Competitive Advantage by Ami Vora
Complex strategies often create confusion and stall progress. Simplifying product strategy means focusing on a few clear priorities, communicating them consistently, and aligning teams so execution becomes easier and more effective.
Continuous Research
Extracting Insights From Qualitative UX Research Data by Syed Balkhi
Turning qualitative research into actionable insights requires a structured approach. Methods like affinity mapping, frameworks, and storytelling help researchers synthesize data and influence decisions.
Make Meaning Out Of Data: Why Human Insight Remains Critical In An AI-Driven World by AnswerLab Research
As AI reshapes industries, human insight remains essential for grounding development in real user needs. As qualitative research can complement AI, ensuring empathy, ethical design, and relevance in rapidly evolving systems.
Continuous Design
Why AI Interviews Could Be Bad News For Honest Designers by Andy Budd
As AI-driven interviews become more common, there’s a growing risk of rewarding polished performance over real capability. Designers who value honesty and reflection may be disadvantaged by systems optimised for rehearsed, surface-level answers.
Conversational Interfaces: The Good, The Ugly & The Billion-dollar Opportunity by Julie Zhuo
Conversational interfaces offer immense potential but often fail due to awkward flows, unclear intent, and poor feedback loops. Designing them well requires blending strong UX principles with a deep understanding of human dialogue.
Continuous Development
Platforms: Finding the Balance Between Enablement and Control by Rory Madden
Platform teams must maintain a clear value proposition, demonstrating benefits and being transparent about tradeoffs. They should evolve the platform based on feedback, regularly evaluating features, deprecating unused capabilities, and adding highly-requested functionality.
Beyond The Gang Of Four: Practical Design Patterns For Modern AI Systems by Rahul Suresh, Srini Penchikala
Building AI systems goes beyond just model training as it requires modular design, clean interfaces, and robust evaluation loops. These architectural patterns help teams manage complexity and maintain flexibility as AI projects scale.

Insights, AI, and Networking In October!
Connect with Glasgow’s Product Community
Join Glasgow’s product community on 15 October for an evening of learning, discussion, and networking as part of Global Product Week. Hear from David Lorimer on Algorithmic Monoculture – The Downfall of UI Personalisation and Andy McMahon on Maximising the AI Opportunity: Tech, Business & Customer Alignment, then connect with fellow product leaders to share insights and experiences. Tickets are free but limited, so reserve your spot today: https://uxdx.com/community/community-glasgow-2025-10-15/
UXDX USA 10% Discount: 10NEWSLETTERUSA26 | UXDX EMEA 10% Discount: 10NEWSLETTEREMEA26 |
FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS
IN-PERSON 15 Oct: Glasgow 15 Oct: New York 🔔 Want a UXDX Community event in your city? or, alternatively, if your company wants to host an in-person event please reply and let us know. | ONLINE |
Video of the Week
Dual Track Agile
In this insightful session, John Schrag, Director of Experience Design at Autodesk, explores how discovery and delivery work together in software development. Dual Track Agile shows that successful product outcomes aren’t just about building features as they require the whole team to understand, contribute to, and balance both discovery and delivery work.
Whether you’re a designer, engineer, or product leader, this memorable talk offers thought-provoking guidance on how design and development can collaborate more effectively. Relive the highly anticipated talk by watching the video below:
The Results of Last Week’s Poll
The question: Are you happy with your design system?

This week’s poll shows that satisfaction with design systems is remarkably split. 28% of respondents say their design system saves time, while 21% feel it adds overhead for only limited efficiency. Meanwhile, 27% find their system not useful, and 24% don’t have a design system at all.
These results suggest that while design systems can bring real value, many organizations are still struggling to make them effective or fully adopt them. It’s a reminder that building a system that balances usability, scalability, and team adoption is as much about culture and process as it is about components and guidelines.
However if you’re looking to make your teams collaboration more impactful, our upcoming “From a Team of Functions to a Cross-Functional Team” course in Dublin this October offers practical strategies and frameworks to help your team collaborate and scale design practices successfully.
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