About Episode

Let me start with an observation: Throughout my career, I’ve interviewed many designers and product managers. I always ask candidates to walk me through the process for one of their projects. In response, nearly every person shares a similar version of this story:

First, they began with research, then the team had a big brainstorm with Post-its (naturally), then a series of hand-drawn sketches, all culminating in a shiny pixel-perfect prototype, which was tested, and then shipped out into the world. Voila! It’s such a satisfying tale from conception to completion.

But here’s the thing: I rarely believe it. Products today never get built in such a clear, linear, and picture-perfect way. The reality is so much messier. So why do we act like it isn’t?