Are You an Accidental Design Saboteur? (According to the CIA)
As a design leadership coach, I work with a lot of incredibly thoughtful designers. They care deeply about their craft. They want to elevate design in their organisation. They want to be seen as strategic, not just the team that makes things pretty.
But when I talk to their business partners, I often hear a very different perspective...
“Design seems to slow everything down.”
“They’re still rethinking that thing we signed off on three weeks ago.”
“It feels like they push back on every small addition.”
“And their answer to everything is MORE RESEARCH!”
It’s well-meaning, of course. But it got me thinking: what if all this effort to improve things… is actually making things worse?
Then I remembered something strange:
The CIA’s 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual.
It’s a real document, developed to help everyday citizens disrupt enemy organisations during WWII. And weirdly, it reads a lot like how some design teams behave when they’re trying just a little too hard to do things “the right way.”
Let’s take a look…
1. Always Go Back to First Principles
OSS Tip: “Insist on reconsideration of the basic premise of every decision.”
Designer Version:
"Yes, but have we really defined what a dashboard is?"
You’re halfway through polishing the UI, and suddenly the conversation turns metaphysical.
"Is this even a dashboard, or is it a ‘workspace’? Should we rethink the entire nav structure?"
This tendency can unlock breakthrough ideas. But it can also reset the clock to day zero—every time.
2. Demand More Research. Always. Forever.
OSS Tip: “Advocate caution. Urge your fellow conferees to avoid haste which might result in embarrassments.”
Designer Version:
"I think we need to do more discovery before we update the error message copy."
We’re not stalling—we’re safeguarding. Every new insight could shift our direction. But when you're on your third round of user interviews about button placement, it might be time to ship and learn.
3. Hold Up Action Until All Possibilities Have Been Considered
OSS Tip: “Attempt to make the committee as large as possible.”
Designer Version:
"We should explore a few more concepts before committing to MVP."
If one idea is good, five must be better. Especially if one involves generative AI, another channels brutalist web design, and a third reimagines the entire user flow from scratch.
At some point, exploration becomes evasion.
4. Explore, Don’t Decide
OSS Tip: “Haggle over precise wordings. Reopen old issues.”
Designer Version:
"I know we approved that design last week, but I had an idea in the shower..."
Every decision is provisional. Every approved design is a draft. In an agile team, iteration is expected—but infinite iteration is just indecision with better typography.
5. Haggle Over the Details That Don’t Matter
OSS Tip: “Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.”
Designer Version:
"Before we move on, can we talk about the radius on the secondary CTA? I just feel like 8px is too… eager."
The devil’s in the details—but so is the delay. Sometimes, pixel-pushing isn’t refinement—it’s resistance dressed as perfectionism.
6. Speak Fluent Jargonese
OSS Tip: “Use technical jargon to mislead, confuse, and delay.”
Designer Version:
"We’re aligning on a contextually empathetic design language that integrates anticipatory UX affordances."
What starts as thoughtful nuance ends in a spiral of abstraction. Bonus points if nobody’s brave enough to admit they don’t understand what you just said.
7. Invent Process Where None Exists
OSS Tip: “Multiply the procedures involved in giving instructions.”
Designer Version:
"To manage this new icon set, let’s introduce a 5-step governance flow with a quarterly review process and rotating design sheriffs."
Process is great—until it becomes a parody. If every update needs an RFC, a voting emoji, and a mural board, you’re not shipping a product—you’re hosting a conference.
8. Form Committees. Then Subcommittees. Then a Slack Channel.
OSS Tip: “Refer all matters to committees. Make them large.”
Designer Version:
"Let’s spin up a cross-functional tiger team to align on a visual language for CTAs."
Somewhere in that Slack channel, the answer is buried between a Loom, a Figma jam, and someone asking if the thread should be moved to Notion.
No decision has ever moved faster by adding more people to the thread.
9. Seek Total Alignment from the Entire Org
OSS Tip: “Raise questions about jurisdiction. Insist on full consensus.”
Designer Version:
"Before we finalise, let’s check with the brand team, the content guild, legal, and maybe that one person from facilities who once studied art."
You’re not gatekeeping—you’re being inclusive. But when every stakeholder has to weigh in, even the smallest project becomes a diplomatic summit.
10. Advocate Caution
OSS Tip: “Be worried about the propriety of any decision—raise moral, ethical, or legal questions.”
Designer Version:
"Can we really A/B test this without a full ethics review?"
A thoughtful nudge is important. But sometimes the desire to be principled becomes a blanket veto for any experiment with a measurable outcome.
11. Haggle Over Precise Wordings
OSS Tip: “Split hairs when interpreting instructions.”
Designer Version:
"Is it really ‘onboarding’ if they’ve already signed up?"
You know what you’re doing—being precise. But if you’re still arguing about the label on the dashboard tab by week four, the only thing you’re onboarding is frustration.
12. If in Doubt, Run a Discovery Workshop
OSS Tip: “Talk at great length. Illustrate your points with long anecdotes and personal stories.”
Designer Version:
"Let me tell you what we did at my last company..."
Every project becomes an opportunity to roll out a FigJam board, some dot voting, and a tangent about what Spotify did (or didn't do) in 2014. Add stickies. Stir gently. Watch momentum fade.
13. Insist on Using “The Proper Channels”
OSS Tip: “Refer important matters to higher authorities. Raise questions of procedure.”
Designer Version:
"Shouldn’t this be coming from Product?"
It’s not that you don’t want to help. You’re just wondering if it’s your place. But when everyone’s passing the buck, nothing gets delivered—except confusion.
Design With Momentum in Mind
This isn’t an argument for cutting corners. Good design is thoughtful. Intentional. Inclusive.
But good design also moves the conversation forwards. And if we’re not careful, our commitment to doing things “the right way” can start to feel like sabotage from the outside.
So next time you’re about to advocate for another round of "discovery" maybe pause for a second and ask:
Am I being a good designer right now… or an accidental design saboteur?