Ever hear someone say, “Ideas aren’t valuable, execution is valuable”? Well, it’s true. Designers usually agree with that. After all, we are the execution. You’re welcome, everybody. But in practice, we also want to believe that all failures were bad ideas from the beginning. Otherwise, if the idea wasn’t bad and it still failed, that means—gasp!—it was our fault?!
Don’t tell anyone, but humans (even designers) aren’t always perfect. Another good reason why UX is a process! If you design a good idea in a bad way, it might not perform well, people won’t love it as much, the metrics will be uninspiring, and so on. Don’t stop there! It was only your first version, so now your job is to design a second version. A better version!
The business model (value) allows you to know when something should work. But now we need a way to fix it when it doesn’t work, instead of giving up after the first try.
Allow Me to Introduce Diagnostic Design
Many designers plan their work as if the goal is to get everyone to agree on a design. Any design. This is their plan:
Step 1: Brainstorm with stakeholders.
Step 2: Pick the stakeholders’ favorite design(s). ...
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