Beyond UX Design

Jeremy Miller
  • 5.0 (51)
  • Design
  • Updated Weekly

Beyond UX Design’s mission is to give you the tools you need to be a truly effective UX designer by diving into the soft skills they won’t be teaching you in school or a boot camp. These soft skills are critical for your success as a UX professional.

  1. 4h ago

    When Figma Was Just How We Worked // What Survives E01

    A late-night DM from a listener named Chris asked me something I couldn’t answer: did I lose my identity as a designer? My team just went one hundred percent Cursor, no more Figma. This season, I figure out what AI actually changes about the work, and what it never touched. When the tool that defined your job for a decade disappears overnight, what part of “designer” actually leaves with it? This is the first solo season in the history of Beyond UX Design. No guests, no interviews, just me working through one question that landed in my DMs late one night from Chris, a listener I’ve known for years. He asked whether I felt like I’d lost my identity as a designer after my team dropped Figma and went fully into Cursor. My gut said no. Thirty seconds later, I realized I didn’t actually know. That question became this whole season. Episode one is about the world right before the change, back when Figma was just how we worked. I walk through what a normal design process looked like on my team, and then I get honest about something we don’t talk about enough: how much of “being a good designer” got quietly measured by tool fluency. Named layers, auto layout, clean files. None of that is capital-D design, but it stood in for it because it was the thing we could see, screenshot, and post about on LinkedIn I also take on a good question from the original LinkedIn thread that inspired this. If you could always design and build in code, why is this suddenly a big deal now? My answer comes down to opportunity cost, and it reframes what AI actually changed. Spoiler: it wasn’t the ability to code. It was the time. If any of this sounds familiar, whether your team already made the switch or you can feel it coming, hit play and come along for the season. Topics: • 00:00 – The DM from Chris: “Do you feel as if you lost your identity as a designer?” • 02:40 – The late-night LinkedIn message • 03:20 – Why the identity question never crossed my mind • 04:10 – 127 comments, and why they were almost all tactical • 05:30 – This isn’t just a designer problem: PMs and engineers too • 06:00 – What “normal” looked like: the old design-to-handoff process • 07:30 – How designers quietly ranked each other on tool fluency • 09:20 – Why tool skills got mistaken for design skills for a decade • 10:40 – Derek’s challenge: “We could always design in code, so why now?” • 11:20 – My front-end dev origin story and why it doesn’t settle the debate • 12:50 – The real answer: opportunity cost, not ability • 13:50 – What AI actually changed: collapsing the time to do both • 14:40 – Were there warning signs? The pilots I read as experiments • 16:00 – The real danger isn’t replacement, it’s belief • 16:30 – What survives so far: research, flows, judgment, taste • 17:10 – What still gets me, and a look ahead to episode two — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    When Figma Was Just How We Worked // What Survives E01

  2. 4d ago

    Source Confusion: Why Your Ideas Get Remembered Under Someone Else’s Name

    We remember what we learned but lose track of where it came from. I dig into source confusion, the memory quirk that quietly decides who gets credit on your team, whose research gets remembered, and why the person who repeats an idea usually beats the person who had it. Have you ever watched your idea come out of someone else’s mouth twenty minutes later and get all the applause you didn’t? Source confusion is the reason your team’s history gets rewritten without anyone meaning to do it. We hold onto what we learn and quietly lose the note about where it came from. Back in 1993, researchers Marcia Johnson, Shahin Hashtroudi, and Steven Lindsay laid this out as the source monitoring framework: memories don’t come with a tag saying where they originated. Every time you recall something, your brain rebuilds the source on the spot using clues like how vivid it feels or whether you remember thinking it through. And because the source gets rebuilt instead of retrieved, it can get rebuilt wrong. An idea you worked hard on feels like yours whether it was or not, and an idea that arrived easily in conversation leaves fewer clues behind, which makes it easy to lose track of who actually said it first. On a design team, this quietly reshapes who gets credit, and credit is the whole game. It decides who gets trusted with the next big project, who gets promoted, and whose voice carries weight in the next planning meeting. The person who develops ideas out loud and in writing piles up credit, while the person who seeds an idea quietly and moves on gets absorbed into someone else’s story. The good news is that this is predictable, and predictable things you can plan around. In this episode, I get into how to work with it: attribute out loud and in writing, capture ideas before the room talks, keep decision logs with names on them, and build your own paper trail because your org isn’t going to do it for you. Give it a listen and see where source confusion might be quietly rewriting your team’s history.Topics: • 00:37 - Why it isn’t stealing • 02:27 - Flipping the scene around: how you fall for this too • 03:24 - What source confusion actually is • 04:04 - The memory-as-filing-cabinet myth and the source monitoring framework • 04:40 - How your brain rebuilds a source from clues instead of retrieving it • 05:45 - The Brown and Murphy round-robin experiment and cryptomnesia • 06:55 - Schacter’s seven sins of memory: these are side effects, not bugs • 07:15 - How credit gets absorbed in critiques and research • 08:12 - How this quietly shapes who gets promoted • 08:45 - Using it to your advantage: be the last confident voice in the room • 09:15 - The defensive move: stop relying on anyone’s memory • 09:38 - Why your boss won’t track credit for you • 09:55 - What to actually do about it • 10:20 - Write ideas down before the room talks • 10:50 - Attribute out loud and in writing • 11:20 - Make your own contributions and leave a paper trail • 11:50 - Check the origin story before performance reviews — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    Source Confusion: Why Your Ideas Get Remembered Under Someone Else’s Name

  3. Trailer

    What Survives: When AI Comes for Your Design Work (Season 1 Trailer)

    At the end of April, my design team dropped Figma. As of May first, we've been one hundred percent in Cursor. Then a friend asked me if I'd lost my identity as a designer, and I couldn't answer him. This season, eight solo episodes, is my answer. Starts September 08. If the tool that defined your career disappeared tomorrow, what part of being a designer would actually be left? This season is different. No guests, no interviews. Just me, telling you exactly what happened when my team lost the tool that, for a decade, basically defined what it meant to be a designer. At the end of April, our Figma license got cut. It wasn't our decision. By May first, we were doing everything in Cursor, and I've been sorting through what that means ever since. The whole thing kicked off with a DM from Chris, a longtime listener and a friend, who asked me a question I couldn't answer: do you feel as if you lost your identity as a designer? My first reaction was no, obviously not. My second reaction was that I didn't actually know. Across eight episodes, I'm going to work through it out loud. The day the call came down. What we traded away and what came back. Whether I lost something or just lost the story where the answer was easy. What's still mine when the robot does the pixel pushing. The economics nobody wants to say out loud. And the question that worries me most: if judgment is what survives, and judgment gets built by the exact work that's disappearing, who comes after us? I'm not selling a tool, and I'm not selling a course. I'm a design lead who's actually living this, and I've got a lot to say. If your team has made this switch, or you can feel it coming, this season is for you. Follow the show so the first episode lands in your feed on September 08. — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    What Survives: When AI Comes for Your Design Work (Season 1 Trailer)

  4. Aug 25

    Anchoring Effect: Stop Letting the First Draft Define the Whole Project

    Whoever puts the first number, the first draft, or the first design in front of the team quietly decides where everyone else ends up. This week I dig into why anchoring bias steers our estimates, redesigns, and negotiations more than we realize, and what we can do about it. Ever set out to redesign a feature and ended up with the same product wearing a fresh coat of paint? There’s a good chance you got anchored before the work even started.Anchoring bias is the tendency to lean too heavily on the first piece of information we encounter when making a decision. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman named it back in 1974, and the effect is stubborn. Their famous Wheel of Fortune study showed that even a totally random number could pull people’s estimates toward it. Later research on experienced judges and real estate agents found the same pattern, even when the professionals swore the anchor hadn’t influenced them at all. That denial is a big part of what makes this one so tricky. On product teams, this shows up constantly. The first draft of a PRD sets the frame every reviewer edits around. The old design becomes the gravity for the new one, and a supposed redesign quietly turns into a reskin. The first estimate in a planning meeting drags everybody else’s numbers toward it. This week, on the Cognition Catalog, I walk through where anchoring comes from, why willpower and expertise barely help, and a handful of specific moves you can make to keep the first thing seen from automatically becoming the thing that wins. Give it a listen and let me know if you’ve caught yourself getting anchored lately. Topics: • 3:00 The Two-Week Estimate Trap • 4:45 What Is the Anchoring Effect? • 5:20 The Wheel of Fortune Experiment • 6:20 Why We Stop Adjusting Too Soon• 7:15 Even Experienced Judges Get Anchored • 8:10 The Real Estate Study• 9:00 How First Drafts Frame Everything • 9:35 Why Redesigns Turn Into Reskins • 9:55 The Status Quo Is an Anchor Nobody Chose • 10:30 Using Anchoring on Purpose • 11:25 Why Willpower Doesn’t Fix It • 12:00 Five Things to Try With Your Team • 14:30 The Bottom Line — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    Anchoring Effect: Stop Letting the First Draft Define the Whole Project

  5. Jul 14

    What Reinventing Your Career (Twice) Actually Looks Like with Chris Nguyen

    Jeremy catches up with friend of the show, Chris Nguyen, who’s rebuilt his business twice since his last appearance. They talk about why designers can’t count on job security the way they used to, what it actually takes to build something of your own, and why the perfect plan is a myth worth abandoning early. If you can’t count on your job to protect you, what are you doing to protect yourself? Chris Nguyen has already rebuilt his business once since he last joined the show, and by the time this episode airs, he’ll be in the middle of doing it again. He built UX Playbook into a recognized education brand, tried a community project called Backlog that fizzled out, took several months off to recover, and landed on Rectangles: a live-stream and newsletter brand built around the design conversations he wishes he’d had years ago. None of it happened on a straight line, and that’s kind of the point. Jeremy and Chris talk candidly about why designers can’t afford to treat a single employer as their whole safety net anymore. Jeremy’s own team recently made a drastic tooling change that upended how designers on his team work day to day, and he connects that disruption directly to a bigger argument: if the ground can shift under you that fast, having something outside your job, whether it’s a side project, a creative outlet, or a small business, isn’t optional anymore. It’s how you stay steady. The conversation keeps circling back to a simple, unglamorous truth: nobody has the plan figured out in advance. Chris talks about sitting on the Rectangles idea for the better part of a year before finally committing to a two-week sprint to get it out the door, and admits he still doesn’t fully know what it’ll become. Jeremy pushes on that idea with his own reflections on burnout, reinvention, and why doing something just for yourself, outside of work entirely, might be the most stabilizing thing a designer can do right now. Give this one a listen if you’ve been sitting on an idea and waiting for the right moment. Topics:• 03:16 – Catching up on 100 episodes and the never-ending edit grind• 05:33 – What Chris has been building since his last appearance• 06:20 – The funk, the time off, and the shift from product to media• 09:37 – Why running a media company means the content is the product• 11:36 – Chris breaks down what Rectangles actually is• 14:04 – Going beyond UX and UI into big D design• 15:26 – The early 90s aesthetic behind the Rectangles brand• 20:10 – Why Jeremy’s team just walked away from their Figma license• 22:42 – Designing straight into Cursor with a component library• 29:20 – The case for building income outside a single job• 32:36 – How UX education content has changed as the industry shifts• 34:22 – The unglamorous side of building something online• 52:56 – Why a latte art post outperformed a bias breakdown on LinkedIn• 57:03 – Chris’s closing advice on ideas versus execution• 58:23 – Consumption versus creation and why the balance matters• 58:43 – Where to find Chris and the Rectangles launch details Helpful Links:• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn• Subscribe to Rectangles• Get your UX Playbook — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    What Reinventing Your Career (Twice) Actually Looks Like with Chris Nguyen

  6. Jun 27 ·  Bonus

    Ambiguity Effect: The Hidden Reason Your Roadmap Keeps Playing It Safe

    Your team isn’t just avoiding risk, they’re avoiding the unknown. In this episode of the Cognition Catalog, I break down the ambiguity effect: the cognitive bias that makes unfamiliar ideas, tools, and people feel like threats before anyone’s even evaluated them on their merits. Have you ever watched a genuinely strong idea get quietly buried in a planning meeting? Not because anyone argued against it, but because nobody could fully picture how it would play out? The ambiguity effect is what happens when our brains treat “I don’t know” as “probably bad.” It’s not the same as avoiding risk. Risk is when you know the odds, and they might not be in your favor. Ambiguity is when you don’t even know the odds, and that uncertainty is what our brains treat as a genuine threat. The research goes back to economist Daniel Ellsberg in 1961, who ran a simple thought experiment with two jars of colored balls and predicted that people would almost always choose the jar they could see clearly, even when the hidden jar was, on average, an equally good bet. Decades of follow-up research confirmed he was right. In a UX or product context, this shows up constantly and quietly. It’s the familiar roadmap feature that beats out the bolder, fuzzier idea. It’s the proven engineering framework that wins over the newer tool that might actually be a better fit. It’s the new hire or new leader whose ideas get extra scrutiny, not because they’re weaker, but because you haven’t had enough time to read them yet. The bias doesn’t announce itself. It disguises itself as discipline and caution. In this episode, I walk through where the ambiguity effect comes from, how to spot it in your team’s decision-making, and a handful of practical ways to make sure your best ideas get a fair shot before the fog scares everyone off. Give it a listen.fds Topics:• 02:28 – How the ambiguity effect plays out in a planning meeting• 03:59 – What the ambiguity effect actually is• 05:00 – The Ellsberg experiment• 07:05 – Risk vs. ambiguity, what’s the difference?• 08:22 – How it shows up on your roadmap• 09:49 – When the unknown is a person• 12:10 – What to do about it• 14:42 – Closing thought — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    Ambiguity Effect: The Hidden Reason Your Roadmap Keeps Playing It Safe

  7. Jun 25

    Build a Career That Outlasts Your Next Layoff with Frank Bach

    Your nine-to-five pays the bills, but it doesn’t define your career, and if you think it does, that might be the thing holding you back. This week, I sit down with a lead product designer, community builder, and all-around multi-hyphenate to talk about owning your career before someone else does. What happens to your sense of identity when the job goes away? Have you built anything outside of it that would survive? My guest this week is Frank Bach, a lead product designer who’s worked at places like Instagram, DoorDash, and Headspace. But honestly, the resume might be the least interesting thing about Frank. He also runs the LA Design and Dev community, teaches courses, fronts a hardcore band called Monk, and runs his own e-commerce shop, Sunshine Shop. Frank is someone who has clearly figured out that a career worth having doesn’t fit neatly inside one little box. We get into a lot in this conversation, like the danger of tying your self-worth to a company name, why “personal brand” feels so gross to so many designers, and what it actually looks like to cultivate what you’re known for without becoming a full-time content creator. Frank has a really practical way of thinking about all of this: treat your full-time job more like a freelance engagement, stay in “maintenance mode” when life demands it, and remember that your manager is thinking about their own promotion, not yours. We also talk about the other side of having a lot going on: how to decide when something’s run its course versus when you just need a breather, how to balance side projects without letting them eat your life, and why starting something messy is always better than waiting for the perfect moment. If you’ve ever felt like your career is just happening to you, this one’s worth a listen. Topics: • 03:20 - How Frank got into design and the multi-hyphenate mindset • 04:20 - The danger of tying your self-worth to a company name • 05:05 - Treating your full-time job like a freelance contract • 06:25 - The upside of big brand names on your resume • 07:05 - What happens to colleagues who lean too hard on “ex-Google, ex-Meta” • 08:17 - Why personal brand feels gross to so many designers • 09:35 - Personal brand isn’t just posting on LinkedIn • 11:10 - Being memorable: your look, your setup, your presence • 13:40 - The Instagram hiring story: 15 years of showing up paid off • 14:45 - Internal brand: the designers who are legends without being online • 15:37 - Maintenance mode: you don’t have to be 100% all the time • 19:38 - Does your day job have to fill your creative cup? • 21:05 - How side projects made Frank more valuable at work • 24:45 - How to have the side project conversation with your manager • 28:40 - How Frank stays consistent with so many things going on • 29:15 - The minimum viable version: where to start if you have nothing • 30:19 - Knowing when to cut something loose • 33:57 - Hiatus vs. done: how to tell the difference • 42:31 - Closing advice: you’re in the driver’s seat Helpful Links: • Connect with Frank on LinkedIn • Listen to Monk • Sunshine Shop — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    Build a Career That Outlasts Your Next Layoff with Frank Bach

  8. Jun 9 ·  Bonus

    Illusory Correlation: The Bias That Turns Coincidence Into Conviction

    Your brain is wired to find patterns. That's mostly a good thing... until it's not. This episode breaks down illusory correlation: why your team sees connections that aren't there, and what you can do to stop making decisions based on a handful of vivid moments dressed up as a trend. Have you ever watched your team make a confident product decision based on a pattern that, when you actually look at the data, barely exists? Illusory correlation is the bias that turns coincidence into conviction. When two things happen close together -- even just once or twice -- our brains quietly file them as connected. The concept was first identified by psychologist Loren J. Chapman in 1967, who noticed that trained clinical professionals were reporting patient behavior patterns that statistically didn't exist. The problem isn't laziness or bad intent. It's just how human memory works. Rare or distinctive events get stored differently, and when two unusual things co-occur, the brain treats that pairing as meaningful -- even when it's pure chance. In product and design work, this plays out constantly and in ways that feel completely legitimate. A feature ships and traffic ticks up the next day, so the launch gets the credit -- even though a competitor was down and marketing ran a campaign. Six user interviews produce two mentions of a feature, and suddenly that feature defines the whole persona. A few support tickets from one customer segment, and that segment becomes "a tough audience." The misses get forgotten. The hits stack up. And the team ends up navigating by a pattern that was never really there. This episode breaks down how illusory correlation sneaks into your metrics, your research, and your team dynamics -- and gives you a few concrete habits to start catching it before it shapes your roadmap. Give it a listen. Topics:• 02:20 – Personal story: the engineering lead I had all wrong• 04:29 – What is illusory correlation?• 04:46 – The origin: Chapman’s 1967 research• 06:19 – Hamilton & Gifford: how the bias distorts how we see groups• 07:10 – Kahneman & Tversky: why illusory correlations stick• 07:50 – How it shows up in your product metrics• 08:23 – The A/B testing problem• 09:00 – How it distorts how teams think about people and segments• 09:26 – How it corrupts user research• 09:50 – Engineering superstitions and team dynamics• 10:27 – Why more data isn’t always the fix• 11:00 – Five habits to fight illusory correlation — Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton. If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear. • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠ • ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

    Illusory Correlation: The Bias That Turns Coincidence Into Conviction
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About

Beyond UX Design’s mission is to give you the tools you need to be a truly effective UX designer by diving into the soft skills they won’t be teaching you in school or a boot camp. These soft skills are critical for your success as a UX professional.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeremy Miller
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    206
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jeremy Miller
  • Show Website
    Beyond UX Design

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