Navigating project ambiguity as a UX designer
How to deal with ambiguity while problem solving and take ownership of your work.
One of the most challenging skills I’ve learned during my design career is how to navigate through project ambiguity. As designers we’re told to embrace ambiguity. Design is about translating the abstract to the concrete. We bring meaning to the madness. While that’s true, embracing and acknowledging it isn’t enough. And I’ve learned the hard way through several projects that you need to address ambiguity strategically and head-on in order to keep projects moving.
I could no longer translate the environment I had in school for work, where we would simply ask a TA for direction or listen to our professor to tell us what we’re missing. Ambiguity is uncomfortable, and that was the easy way out. In a real-world setting, stakes are much higher, timelines and unpredictable, and designers have to craft their own process, because there is no one process.
And that’s why being a strategic designer is important. If you’re currently feeling a bit stuck on your project or not sure what the next step is, this is what this article is for.
“Everything is so complex!”
Generally speaking, ambiguity is when there is missing information, causing something to be open to more than one interpretation. This causes us to feel uncomfortable based on this uncertainty. This may be because you just entered a new company, are in a fast changing environment, changed orgs, working with new stakeholders, or simply lack of knowledge.
In the chart above, uncertainty is related to ambiguity, but uncertainty is more linear. As you learn more about your project, data about your customers, and how to deliver experiences that people want, there is no more uncertainty at the end.
Ambiguity shows up in different ways in projects, and that’s why there isn’t one design process for this. Remember when you first learned that the design process translates the abstract into the concrete? That’s essentially navigating through ambiguity! The double diamond and other design frameworks are simply that, frameworks. There are too many moving parts and pieces that you most likely need to employ something new every time.
Learn how to ask the right questions
If you feel stuck, most likely there’s someone on your team who has the knowledge(or maybe a piece of it, which helps re-direct you). And that’s why you should ask questions. Ask lots of questions with the goal of helping you feel more certain and productive on how you should spend your time on the project. Here are some questions you should ask and align on:
- Why are we working on this project?
- What are the outcomes we want to achieve?
- What do we want to learn from our customers? What data do we already have?
- What do we not know, and how can we address those questions?
- What terms is the business (and my team) using that I don’t understand?
- To reduce distraction, what are my top priorities for the day?
Do Smaller Experimentation
Projects can feel overwhelming because there are a lot of unknowns. One thing you can start doing is smaller experiments. Break up your project into milestones that you can create yourself, or loop in your team to keep yourself accountable. Remember the phrase people tell you when you apply for jobs but have no luck? They say rejection is redirection. Using this similar analogy, if you feel that your smaller experiments aren’t giving you the results you need, the redirect your energy to anther experiment. It’s not wasted time — now you know what didn’t work.
Things you can try running smaller experiments on:
- Sketching ideas on paper.
- Sharing your prototypes with people not on your team.
- Developing a list of unknowns or things you want to learn.
- Capturing all the decisions made, and how they were made.
- Step away from the project and do something unrelated!
Understand the project scope
For most companies, scoping a project is one of the responsibilities of the product manager. For smaller, iterative UI changes, this is easier. But for larger bodies of work that require more discovery and research oriented processes, this can be more ambiguous.
Having a defined scope and completion dates for designs and launch can help create a more successful project. Some ways you can better understand and help define scope are:
- What are our long term priorities? What are we building towards?
- Do we have a fixed or flexible deadline?
- Who are the decision makers? Are there ‘approvers’ for the project?
- How are we defining success?
- What are our biggest risks?
- What’s out of scope?
Lead by example
Actions speak louder than words. You’re not the only one that needs to deliver on your project. You have a team. Take responsibility by sharing your work early and often and admitting when things feel fuzzy. We’re human.
“When navigating ambiguity, instead of a finite plan, you’re choreographing moments where people come together to make progress.” — Suzanne Gibbs Howard, Dean of IDEO U
Finally, use existing processes that exist in your org such as stand-ups, design critiques, check-ins with engineer and project, and 1:1’s with your manager to be as present as possible with your work. Showing up and clearly communicating to your team will set you up to be your genuine and full self.
