✨ Designing a product isn’t about following a strict framework — it’s about understanding the problem, the users, and the context. Every project varies based on the challenge, timeline, and complexity, so no two workflows are exactly the same.
Starting with the Essentials
I usually start by asking myself a few essential questions:
- Why am I designing this?
- Who am I designing for?
- What exactly am I building?
- When and where will it be used?
- How will I know if it’s successful?
📝 These questions help me understand the scope and context before I do anything else.
💡 From there, I try to uncover the real problems by asking more questions. Sometimes I even send documents or talk to stakeholders to gather insights, collecting qualitative and quantitative data to inform the next steps.
📋 I keep a FigJam file where I track all my kickoff questions — timelines, constraints, users, and available data. I also maintain a fixed-term file I got from a newsletter that I use to update my questions and dig deeper. Designing for a business often involves many perspectives, and this is where founders, startup owners, or anyone invested in the product naturally become part of the conversation. Their input shapes the direction of the product from the very beginning.
User Research & Competitor Analysis
👥 I move into user research — surveys, interviews, and feedback — and organize everything in Excel to create affinity maps, empathy maps, and user personas. This helps me fully understand the users’ needs and pain points, while also giving business owners and founders context about how users interact with the product and what matters most to them.
🔍 After user research, I research competitors, not to copy them, but to understand what users are accustomed to, make the experience feel intuitive, and spot opportunities to improve.
Wireframing & Design
🖌 Once I have clarity, I start wireframing, create a style guide and design system, and then build the full visual design and prototype.
Testing & Measuring Success
✅ Testing comes next, where I measure success through:
- Usability metrics like task success rate, time on task, errors, and navigation efficiency
- User satisfaction from surveys and feedback
- Business metrics aligned with stakeholder goals
- Comparative analysis against previous designs or competitors
💻 Most of my work happens in Figma, and I also use AI to make the process smoother and easier to follow.
Flexibility is Key
🌟 I’ve realized there’s no single “correct” design process. Each project varies based on the challenge, timeline, and complexity. Strictly following frameworks like empathize → define → ideate → prototype → test can actually limit understanding. My process is flexible — I choose the steps that make sense for the project while still keeping the rigor needed to solve the problem.
Why Stakeholders Matter
🤝 Founders, startup owners, and business leaders are part of this story too. Their insights and priorities help shape the goals, validate assumptions, and ensure the product is both user-centered and aligned with business objectives. When they understand how designers approach a problem — from research to testing — it becomes clear why certain design decisions are made and how they impact the success of the product.
The Goal
🎯 At the end, the goal isn’t just to make a product that looks good. It’s to create something that works, feels right for users, solves real problems, and reflects a thoughtful process. And when that happens, everyone involved — designers, founders, users — can see and feel the value of the work.
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