One of the hardest parts of UX research isn’t choosing the right method or running the sessions.

It’s letting go of what you think you already know.

As designers and developers, we’re paid for our expertise. Over time, that experience builds intuition — and intuition is valuable. But it can also quietly turn into assumption. And assumptions are where good products start to drift away from real people.

The hidden problem with “experience”

Experience can trick us into skipping steps.

We’ve seen similar products before.

We’ve solved comparable problems.

We’ve worked with this type of user, this industry, this platform.

So we assume.

We assume what users want.

We assume where friction exists.

We assume what “simple” means.

The danger isn’t arrogance — it’s familiarity. Familiarity shortens our curiosity.

Research isn’t about being right

Good UX research isn’t about confirming your thinking. It’s about challenging it.

The moment research becomes a tool to validate decisions that are already made, it stops being research. It becomes justification.

Real insight often feels uncomfortable:

• Users don’t behave how you expected
• They misunderstand things you thought were obvious
• They value something you almost removed

That discomfort is a signal — not a failure.

Letting go of ego doesn’t mean letting go of expertise

Ego in UX isn’t loud or obvious. It’s subtle.

It shows up as:

• Leading questions
• Ignoring outlier feedback
• Explaining user behaviour instead of listening to it
• Designing solutions before understanding the problem

Letting go of ego doesn’t mean you abandon your skills. It means you allow your skills to respond to reality rather than control it.

Experience should guide how you explore — not what you conclude.

Designing with curiosity, not certainty

The most effective research mindset is curiosity.

Curiosity sounds like:

• “Help me understand…”
• “Why did you choose that?”
• “What were you expecting to happen?”

It avoids:

• “Wouldn’t it be better if…”
• “Most people usually…”
• “That’s probably because…”

When you approach research with curiosity, users feel it. They open up. They stop trying to give the “right” answer.

And that’s where real insight lives.

Insight only matters if it changes something

Research isn’t complete when findings are documented.

It’s complete when:

• assumptions are revised
• designs are adjusted
• decisions are questioned
• trade-offs are made consciously

If nothing changes after research, the problem wasn’t the users — it was the mindset.

Final thought

The best UX work happens when we’re confident enough to admit we don’t know everything.

When we stop designing for the user we imagine, and start designing for the people in front of us.

Good research doesn’t make you look clever.

It makes the product feel obvious.

And that’s the point.