Summary
In the early days of SaaS, Harry Max was hired to design a pioneering consumer finance app. Instead of starting with the founder’s vision, he dove into a methodologically-heavy process, hoping rigorous persona development would reveal the answers. It didn’t—progress was slow, clarity never emerged, and the strategy never materialized. Join Harry to explore how neglecting vision can lead to a painful failure, and why aligning with leadership from the outset is crucial for innovation and success in uncharted territory.
More Videos
"Reviewing decisions out loud held everyone accountable and made it harder for Jeff to forget or change his mind."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"Customer experience cannot truly be good if some are left out or excluded, either intentionally or unintentionally."
Aaron Stienstra Lashanda HodgeLeveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
December 8, 2021
"Captions and subtitles were initially designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing but over 50% of Americans watch content with subtitles."
Kavana RameshMeaningful inclusion: Practicing accessibility research with confidence
September 24, 2024
"Humans tend to give too much authority to autonomous systems, which can lead to overtrust."
Helen ArmstrongAugment the Human. Interrogate the System.
June 7, 2023
"A model is a simplified representation of a system, whether in math or UX."
Scott PlewesWhy Isn't Your UX Approach Going Viral?: A Mathematical Model
March 28, 2023
"We need to innovate how we innovate, expanding cultural and geographic perspectives in design."
Christian BasonExpand—Rethinking Design for Public Challenges
September 14, 2022
"Models are stateless; they have no memory and forget everything after each response."
Peter Van DijckBuilding impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!
July 30, 2025
"It’s not answers we’re after but further questions to keep the conversation and understanding alive."
Soma Ghosh Savina Hawkins Dave Hoffer Rob Thomas Victor UdoewaWhat emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 28, 2023
"You don’t have to have a moral to the story; just capture it for now and maybe the lesson comes later."
Steve Portigal Susan Simon-Daniels Tamara Hale Randolph Duke IIWar Stories LIVE! Q&A-Discussion
March 30, 2020