Every UX Designer Has a Strategy (Workshop)… Until They Get Punched in the Face
I grew up on a steady diet of martial arts movies Enter the Dragon. Fist of Fury. Bloodsport.
Bruce Lee slicing through opponents with surgical precision. Jackie Chan turning ladders and brooms into improvised weapons. Van Damme landing slow-motion head kicks that were somehow both brutal and balletic.
These weren’t just fights — they were highly choreographed routines.
Each move had a purpose. One pattern flowed smoothly into the next.
This wasn't reactive brawling. It was deliberate. Balletic.
That’s what UX used to feel like to me.
The UX Kata
You’d start with research. Run a workshop.
Define the problem. Explore the landscape. Test, learn, iterate.
Design was structured. Thoughtful.
A carefully choreographed series of moves you were trained in — and proud of.
I used to run six weeks of workshops, content audits, sitemaps, and prototypes before a single screen was designed.
And it didn’t feel slow or wasteful. It felt responsible.
K.O.
That version of UX is disappearing.
Deadlines are collapsing.
Research is skipped.
PMs shape the solution, then hand over a fully written PRD.
By the time you’re brought in, the direction is locked.
You’re not designing — you’re dressing the product for launch.
You jump into projects with no context.
Timelines have been set without consultation or qualification.
You raise concerns — only to have them brushed aside like Mr. Miyagi waxing a car or painting a fence.
Just do your best with whatever you’ve got at hand.
A new fighter has entered the arena
Product Design is no longer Taekwondo.
You’re not calmly preparing a textbook roundhouse kick.
Design is no longer a careful, considered practice.
All your well-rehearsed katas go out the window the moment you get punched in the face and end up in a chokehold.
This is MMA.
A mess of techniques, applied under pressure, by people who know how to take hits and keep moving.
It’s not pretty. It’s not elegant.
But it gets the job done.
The rules have changed — but the fight goes on
Design is starting to feel more like a barroom brawl.
A little UX. A little UI. Some product sense.
And a lot of adapting on the fly.
I still believe in the craft. I still miss the discipline.
But no one’s watching your form anymore.
They just want to know if it ships.
This isn’t the design dojo.
But rather the Octagon of Figma.
And you'd better be ready to fight.