Grant Baker

61% warm, 86% creative, 100% doubter of personality tests. #ux #design #ixd #GoalDirectedDesign #personas #ethnography #colemak #Zettlekasten Soli Deo Gloria

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

“Design Was Never the Comps: What I learned when Claude Design dumped a dozen screens on me” by Christopher Noessel https://t.co/yA20rBxwBJ

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

One usability test participant struggling with the same task for 3 minutes can reveal more than 40 slides of stakeholder opinions.

Reality is undefeated.

https://t.co/QsqaXWkmq5

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Weak structure creates hidden tax:

confusion
rework
politics
burnout

People don’t just need vision.
They need a system they can trust.

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Good designers solve problems.

Great designers discern which problems are worth solving in the first place.

https://t.co/bzxgKdFQOf

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Not all user problems deserve equal attention.

Some are paper cuts.
Some are arterial bleeding.

The hardest part of product strategy is knowing the difference.

This video explores why some problems matter more than others.

https://t.co/bzxgKdFQOf

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

A prototype review with stakeholders is not usability testing.

Your coworkers already know the product.
Your users do not.

That gap is where good design either survives or collapses.

https://t.co/QsqaXWkmq5

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Feature shipped ≠ problem solved.

https://t.co/YA24GEoyuj

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

A mature product team does not confuse prototyping with decoration.

Prototypes are experiments.
Learning devices.
Assumption crushers.

Their purpose is not polish.
Their purpose is clarity.

https://t.co/Olo7PX6wcO

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Continuous delivery without continuous discovery just helps teams ship the wrong thing faster.

Speed is only useful when direction is sound.

https://t.co/Olo7PX6wcO

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Too many teams measure activity instead of achievement.

Story points.
Velocity.
Tickets closed.

Outcome metrics ask:
Did the user succeed?

https://t.co/YA24GEoyuj

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

NPS can tell you people are unhappy.
It can’t tell you:
• why
• where
• what obstacle blocked them
• whether the product helped them achieve anything meaningful
Outcome metrics start with a better question:
“How did this improve someone’s life?”

https://t.co/YA24GEoyuj

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Culture gets the spotlight.

Structure does the heavy lifting.

If your org chart, incentives, and decision paths are misaligned,
no amount of “values” language will fix it.

Strength without structure collapses.

https://t.co/pOHnkndvwi

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

If people don’t feel safe,
they won’t speak honestly.

If they don’t speak honestly,
you won’t see reality.

And without reality,
trust becomes theater.

https://t.co/S5HMAB384B

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Most organizations don’t *decide* to lose trust.

They drift into it—
through inconsistency,
unclear decisions,
and unspoken assumptions.

Trust erodes quietly before it collapses loudly.

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Organizational trust isn’t built in town halls.

It’s built in a hundred small moments:
– decisions
– tradeoffs
– how leaders respond under pressure

Culture keeps receipts.

https://t.co/S5HMAB384B

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Research isn’t just validation.
It’s how you *see reality clearly.*

Stakeholders, users, domain—
braid them together, and strategy starts to take shape.

https://t.co/M4DiGTv225

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Strategy isn’t a deck.
It’s the discipline of removing uncertainty.

Designers are uniquely equipped to do that—
through research, synthesis, and framing the *right* problems.

https://t.co/M4DiGTv225

#ProductDesign #UX

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

If you hear:
“We’ll fix it in phase 2”
or
“Just build the prototype for now…”

You’re not looking at a design problem.
You’re looking at *unresolved uncertainty.*

Strategy begins by exposing the “why.”

https://t.co/M4DiGTv225

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

Most designers start with *“what should I build?”*

Strategic designers ask:
Why this?
Why now?
Why does it matter?

That shift changes everything. It turns execution into leadership.

https://t.co/M4DiGTv225

#UX #DesignLeadership

[Grant Baker @BakoInd]

I once watched a team build the “right” feature for the wrong problem.

It worked perfectly.
No one used it.
That tension—between what’s built and what’s valuable—is where design leadership lives.

https://t.co/gSTHOkzcED

#DesignThinking #UXLeadership #ProductDesign