You Know the Users. You Know the Problems. Now Learn the Tools.
For people who bring clarity, connect teams, and want to work more intentionally.
Context
My friend has long played the role of the honest broker. They have a deeper understanding of processes that cut across various departments to serve customers, and they have embedded relationships in those departments. They have built a kind of local expertise such that new engineers and new product managers in the org often seek them out for clarity. While this expertise hasn’t been formally packaged as “design,” it’s clear they’ve been doing the work of a designer—especially in the service design sense.
In recommeding these resources I’m more leaning towards helping them work with technical teams in a service or UX design capacity, rather than UI or Interaction Design. I’m not entirely ruling out the possibility that they might at some point be drawn into UI Design, but the former is an easier and more engaging learning curve, especially considering they’ve been doing it informally.
Books
User Story Mapping, Jeff Patton: User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product.
Why it’s important:
A lot of UX books talk about empathy and user needs, but this one shows you how to actually build products around them. Patton’s book is full of real product stories, and it’ll change the way you think about features. You stop asking ‘What should we build?’ and start asking ‘What does the user actually need to do?’ That shift is UX gold.
Story mapping is one of the best tools for UX Designers to drive conversations about what really matters to users, and where design can make the biggest impact. It helps you frame the problem space visually and prioritize it like a pro.
It’s not a dense or academic read. Even just reading the first two chapters will give you a clearer idea of how to think through a user journey in a way that makes design more effective and grounded. And it’s fun. Patton’s voice is honest and informal.
Short videos you can watch to accompany this book:
Jobs to be done : Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice: Anthony W. Ulwick: 9780990576747: Amazon.com: Books
Why it’s important: It helps you answer the question: Why will customers want the products that I design? Or, how do I know I am solving the right problem for my customers? This is the book that helps you stop guessing. When people say ‘listen to users’ or ‘do discovery,’ this book gives you a way to actually do that systematically. It’s not just theory—it’s a method to find out what will matter most to the user before you design anything.
Ulwick’s approach helps you make design decisions that are strategic, not just tactical. It gives you language to advocate for design choices with data and logic—super helpful when working with product or business folks.
Short videos you can watch before reading this book:
Forces of Progress: Customer Retention & Customer Acquisition (Don’t skip this one.)
Obviously Awesome, April Dunford: Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It: Dunford, April: 9781999023003
Why it’s important: You can design the perfect flow, solve the right user problem—and still have your product flop because people don’t understand what it is. This book shows you how to make sure your product clicks instantly in your user’s mind.
If you've ever struggled to explain a feature or a product to someone—and watched them go ‘meh’—this book is your fix. It helps you find the right angle that makes users go, ‘Ohh, I need this.’Short Videos to watch:
Courses:
Google UX Design Professional Certificate: Google UX Design Professional Certificate | Coursera
Interaction Design Foundation (Shorter self-paced Courses with credible certification): Join our community | IxDF
Udacity UX Designer Nanodegree - Most comprehensive of all these courses, but most expensive. Still plenty of value for money. Learn UX Design | Online UX Course | Udacity