Blog

Writing

Job Shadowing

Sep 23, 2024 · 7 min read

The most effective UX research technique available — and the simplest. A practical guide to Contextual Inquiry, from the master-apprentice relationship to continuous discovery.

Personal

Nokia N-Gage Coined by...

Apr 13, 2025 · 4 min read

The short answer: me, Victor Palacios. A story about naming one of Nokia’s most distinctive products — and what happened next.

Diagram showing the abstraction layer stack from business strategy to data foundation

AI + UX

AI Skipped the Stack

Mar 7, 2026 · 13 min read

Current AI tools give you a text box and an output. But complex systems have never been controlled through a single interface. The AI industry has a UX problem — it skipped 40 years of abstraction layers that make complex systems controllable by humans.

Illustration of duct-taped workarounds as signals for real problems

Look for the Duct Tape

Mar 10, 2026 · 9 min read

When someone has duct-taped together their own solution, that’s a massive signal pointing at a problem worth solving. A story about iBwave, building models that took days, and the 5-minute fix nobody could see.

Illustration of the 16 percent of users who become research allies

The 16% Who Will Talk

Mar 10, 2026 · 6 min read

Most users won’t help you. They’re polite, they’re busy, and they think nobody cares. But about 16% are desperate for someone to ask. They become your greatest allies — if you know how to find them.

Illustration of organizational blind spots preventing teams from seeing the real problem

Strategy

Why Your Team Can’t See the Problem

Mar 10, 2026 · 8 min read

I’ve worked on projects stuck for months — sometimes years — where the team couldn’t see the signals staring them in the face. It’s not stupidity. It’s a structural blind spot that affects every organization.

Illustration of the explorer and executor partnership model

Leadership

Find Your Opposite

Mar 10, 2026 · 5 min read

I’m great at finding the right problem. Less great at shipping a polished solution on time. So I found a hack: team up with your opposite.