Bait-and-switch jobs, a layoff survival guide, and the art of disagreeing with stakeholders

Show notes for Season 2, Episode 1 of the Diary of Design Thinking by Simon Hoang, co-hosted by Chuck Rice.

Okay, maybe bait-and-switch is a bit harsh. But the feeling is still valid.

Finding a new UX job can be daunting in itself, but it’s miles harder if you’ve just been laid off. What’s worse? Imagine if on your first day, it wasn’t what you signed up for—your manager informs you the role has changed responsibilities.

Bummer.

We cover how we navigate these difficulties in our own career journeys, wrangle with Webflow, and shine a transparent light on professionally disagreeing with your stakeholders.

Hint: rhymes with shdata, and shmuser shmesearch.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

What we discussed

• 0:00:00 – what’s happened to Simon since last season?
• 0:02:30 – Webflow, it’s learning curve, and comparing it to Figma
• 0:07:55 – Chuck’s childhood, and the “life stages” of brewing coffee
• 0:12:25 – Simons career update, and starting a different job than advertised
• 0:18:00 – advice for you if a job doesn’t match the description; it differs if you’re junior or senior
• 0:23:10 – Chuck career update, a legit design system, and navigating a layoff
• 0:30:00 – Elon Musk, Twitter layoffs, and main character syndrome
• 0:34:50 – what to do immediately after a layoff
• 0:43:08 – Chucks new gig
• 0:44:40 – a tale of disagreeing with a stakeholder
• 0:50:20 – when to push back, and how to make your case
• 0:56:34 — what if the data says no, but a stakeholder still says yes?
• 0:58:55 — should designers take responsibility if devs are busy or not?
• 1:05:44— after 8 years, would you join UX if you could start again?

Resources

• DoDT S01E05: Empathising with Engineers for an excellent product with Chuck Rice, Tech Lead at Residently (Spotify, Apple Podcast)
• How I avoided being cut: designing my way out of redundancy, on UX Collective
• “Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?” Rick and Morty, Season Episode “Rixty Minutes”

Jargon buster

• Lean UX—a hypothesis-driven approach to carrying out UX activities within an agile framework.
• MVP—stands for Minimum Viable Product, popularised by the book “Lean Startup” by Eric Ries
• JFDI—stands for Just Freaking Do It

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