Failure Friday #5: Lessons from a SaaS Design Failure
Summary
In the early days of SaaS, Harry Max was hired to design a pioneering consumer finance app. Instead of starting with the founder’s vision, he dove into a methodologically-heavy process, hoping rigorous persona development would reveal the answers. It didn’t—progress was slow, clarity never emerged, and the strategy never materialized. Join Harry to explore how neglecting vision can lead to a painful failure, and why aligning with leadership from the outset is crucial for innovation and success in uncharted territory.
More Videos
"Situational disabilities like glare or temporary injuries affect a large portion of your audience and need to be considered in design."
Sheri Byrne-HaberThe Importance of Accessible Design Systems
January 8, 2024
"We used AI tools like NotebookLM and Gemini primarily to shortcut getting up to speed and managing transcripts, without focusing on specific tools themselves."
Mujtaba HameedThe new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
March 11, 2026
"Imagine a world where the government prototypes and iterates the whole time."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"AI is important and here to stay; ignoring it is ignoring the future of design."
Dave Hoffer Joanne WeaverUX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
April 3, 2025
"Mastery is achievable, whether you have 10,000 hours or not—it’s about building that portfolio and case studies."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"Visual communication is still really important—it's always better to show rather than tell."
Shipra Kayan Robert Kortenoeven Eileen TangEmerging principles for using AI in Design: What the product design team at Miro has learned from deeply integrating AI in their workflow
June 11, 2025
"Service design has a critical role in mapping human and agent interactions in an AI and automation world."
Dharani PereraThe mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
November 20, 2025
"Some of the older content has discoverability problems, which is typical with blogs."
Jorge Arango[Demo] How to re-categorize content at scale using LLMs
June 5, 2024
"Even teams with dedicated designers sometimes have gaps because designers get pulled to other priorities."
Audrey CraneShadow Design–Where Else is Design Happening in Your Organization?
April 20, 2023