The Biggest Lies in Tech (Designer Edition)
The earlier you realize these in your career, the better
1. “We value user-centered design”
Everyone nods in agreement when “user-centered” is mentioned in meetings. But the truth? Business priorities and feature requests often override actual user needs. You’re left fighting for basic usability in a sea of sales pitches disguised as “customer-centric” initiatives.
2. “PMs are your partners”
In theory, product managers are your allies in delivering great experiences. In reality, they’re often too focused on timelines and features to truly care about design. Collaboration turns into compromise, where design vision is diluted by what they think is feasible in a sprint.
3. “Engineers just want to build good products”
No, they want to ship. Fast. And your designs? Often seen as obstacles to quick delivery. Half of your work will revolve around reducing your vision into something that fits their constraints, rather than pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
4. “The best ideas win”
If only. The loudest voices win. Often, that voice belongs to the most senior person in the room who doesn’t know the first thing about UX, but insists on adding features that kill the experience. The battle for design quality becomes a political game.
5. “Design is respected here”
“Design-led” companies are rare. Most businesses treat UX as an afterthought. You’re the decorator, not the architect. The majority don’t care about flows and experiences—until something breaks and they point fingers at you.
6. “Feedback makes you better”
In UX, “feedback” is often code for “everyone’s a designer.” You’ll have non-designers from every corner throwing opinions at you. Instead of constructive input, you’re balancing an avalanche of subjective takes that derail the focus on users.
7. “You’ll have ownership”
You’re told you’ll own the UX process. But your “ownership” is at the mercy of business goals, PM demands, and engineering limitations. In reality, you’re often shepherding someone else’s vision, with little room for your own expertise to shine.
8. “Design systems solve everything”
A design system is not a silver bullet. It won’t fix poor communication between teams, unclear goals, or misaligned priorities. It’s a tool, but without the right culture behind it, it just becomes more red tape.
9. “We’re data-driven”
Sure, data is important—when it aligns with business interests. You’ll find that the “data-driven” decisions are more often “data-justified” ones, selectively used to support pre-made decisions, with little room for actual user research insights.
10. “UX is all about users”
No, UX is about balancing user needs with business objectives, tech limitations, and internal politics. It’s as much about navigating organizational dysfunction as it is about delivering great experiences. Often, you’re the last line of defense between users and bad decisions.
While most of these are true to some extent, a key factor others should keep in mind is that they are not 100% true 100% of the time. It's all about what you can/cannot control and how much of that control are you willing to give up to make an informed decision. An important principle that has helped me decided who is worth working with as it relates to personal values is figuring out incentivization structures because I found it is the best way to cut through lies and exaggerations in-order to predict actual behaviors and outcomes of an individual or company. Are PM's incentivized by how many tickets they create/close or how many features they launch?.. red flag. Are Engineering teams incentivized by their velocity instead of quality?.. red flag. Are Design Leaders incentivized by output vs outcomes?.. red flag. The answers can often lead you to an informed decision either way... a decision that is one of the only aspects of working-for-someone-else that you CAN control.