The reason is a lack of user research to understand how people think and act when shopping, and how they navigate their way through the experience to get it done. It's the user experience concept of a mental model, if you want to get fancy, or the application of a system matching the real-world heuristic they teach you about in college.
AI tools are now embedded across almost every stage of product design. We use AI to generate ideas, summarize research findings, explore visual directions, write UX copy, and even ship working prototypes. Yet despite widespread adoption, many teams still struggle with a key question: How do you integrate AI into the design process without weakening design quality?
All of these decisions shape how users experience your product or service. And most of them happen without any input from actual users. You do the research. You create the personas. You write the reports. You give the presentations. You even make fancy infographics. And then what happens? The research sits in a shared drive somewhere, slowly gathering digital dust.
We've all been there. You're three hours into a study session, hunched over your desk with tabs multiplying like rabbits, your phone buzzing with notifications, and that nagging feeling that you're not actually retaining anything. Digital learning promised us flexibility and endless resources, but sometimes it feels more like drowning in information while learning nothing at all. A new concept design called Check Mate is tackling this exact problem, and it's making waves in the design community for all the right reasons.
This step embodies a user research (UXR) mindset, systematically deconstructing assumptions through methods such as analytics review, user interviews, surveys, competitive analysis, or journey mapping. The term "ruthless" signifies a commitment to brutal honesty and a willingness to kill ideas if data reveals they are misaligned or ineffective. This audit is not a one-time event; it's a process for uncovering latent opportunities, such as unmet user needs that could drive retention or acquisition.
VeJa is a company that creates guitar plugins simulating amplifiers for music production. They were selling exclusively on the MOD Devices platform but wanted to expand their reach with their own online store. The challenge? They had great products, a loyal niche following, but no website. Just a logo. And us. The brief was simple: Our bootcamp team of three had just 8 days to prototype a e-commerce platform that would help VeJa compete
If you've used an AI product recently, you probably know that the technology is incredible. The UX? Not so much. Maybe you've gotten comfortable writing prompts or using simple one-click tools. But as AI interfaces start to take different forms, many of them are still kinda hard to figure out. Navigating them can be overwhelming. It doesn't feel like you're using these products so much as deciphering them. The engineering is powerful, but the flows don't make sense.
Unlike our flashy cousins, product/UX designers or the tech-savvy dev crowd, our superpowers are a bit more... well, understated. And if I'm being honest, I don't think content designers do a good job of articulating what they do, which is ironic, given that content designers are shaping the user experience in ways that are subtle, powerful, and, dare I say, heroic. Content designers solve user problems through simplified content crafting experiences that guide, inform, and engage users.
The biggest surprise was how dramatically cognitive abilities varied within our target population. During our user testing sessions, I watched one participant solve complex spatial puzzles in under ten seconds while expressing frustration that the game wasn't challenging them enough. Twenty minutes later, another participant struggled with what I considered the simplest tutorial level. Both users had the same diagnosis. Both were part of our target demographic. But their cognitive strengths and challenges were completely different.
Usability testing should always be part of product development. Ideally, it is conducted before release, but in practice it can be useful at different stages. It's worth pointing out that, "testing" isn't a goal in itself. Without knowing exactly what you want to measure, you risk ending up with feedback you can't interpret or act on. Every usability study can focus on a different aspect of the experience, and the right metrics depend on your research goals.
Let's be brutally honest: your brilliant SaaS idea is probably a fantasy. You've got a beautiful mockup, a clever name, and a Trello board full of features that you just know people will love. But here's the cold, hard truth that kills 9 out of 10 startups: 1 Nobody cares about your features. They care about their problems. And right now, you're just guessing what those problems are.
User research insights often fail to drive organizational change because they are not connected to business objectives, making it difficult for stakeholders to recognize their potential impact.
