What It Means to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like You
Article summary
What It Means to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like You The first time I thought a team had ignored my design, I got defensive. I’d spent weeks building an interface that was technically solid-backed by clean contracts, clear service boundaries, and airtight failure modes. But the team struggled. Work stalled. Tickets multiplied. Eventually, they reimplemented half the interface in their own layer. At first, I saw it as sabotage. Then I realized I had built for myself-not for them. How I Learned to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like Me Their priorities were different. I was thinking about reusability. They were thinking about getting a customer unblock shipped by Thursday. They didn’t share my assumptions. I assumed they’d cache tokens. They assumed they’d call fresh every time. I assumed they’d read the schema. They assumed the client would generate it.
Read Full Article on MediumPractical takeaway
The main idea behind What It Means to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like You is to help teams move from broad theory to clear, repeatable decision making. When teams apply this thinking, they reduce ambiguity and focus on improvements that deliver measurable momentum.
Example scenario
Imagine a team facing competing priorities. By applying the ideas in What It Means to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like You, they can map dependencies, identify risks and choose the next move that produces progress without destabilizing their system.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to redesign everything instead of taking small steps.
- Ignoring real constraints like incentives, ownership or legacy systems.
- Creating documents that do not lead to any change in code or decisions.
How to apply this in real work
Start by identifying where What It Means to Design for People Who Don’t Think Like You already shows up in your architecture or delivery flow. Then pick one area where clarity would reduce friction. Apply the idea, measure its effect and share the learning.
Signs you are doing it correctly
- Teams make decisions faster and with fewer disagreements.
- Architectural conversations become clearer and less abstract.
- Changes land safely with fewer surprises or rework cycles.