From Pixels to People

I used to think my job was to design solutions. I was wrong. My job is to design the conversation that finds the solution.

The Broken Meeting

You’ve been there. You’re in a product meeting. The room’s tense. Everyone’s guarding their turf. Ideas get shot down before they can breathe. You walk out knowing nothing actually moved forward.

Now picture the opposite. The “breakthrough” session where the room’s collective IQ goes up. People lean in. The whiteboard fills with possibilities. That’s the difference between adversarial debate and generative dialogue.

Why This Matters for UX

You can have the best pixel-perfect designs in the world, but if you didn’t start with the right conversations, they won’t land. Great product design isn’t about artifacts — it’s about alignment.

At Big Nerd Design, we focus on facilitating clarity before we even touch the UI. That’s where fractional design leadership and AI-powered workflows shine:

• We map user needs fast.
• We get buy-in early.
• We validate with real users before dev touches a single line of code.

How to Find the Real Problem Before You Redesign

1. Prototype before you commit. Build a few rapid prototypes to explore solutions without the cost of a full rebuild.
2. Test early and often. Run quick user tests to uncover where people actually get stuck. Spoiler: it’s rarely where you expect.
3. Follow the friction. If a key flow is buried, blocked, or confusing, fix that first. Small changes in the right place can make a big impact.

Why AI Helps Here

AI tools like Dotted aren’t just for generating prototypes — they can facilitate these conversations. You can upload product requirements, run instant usability tests, and visualize options on the spot. The tech clears the busywork so the team can focus on what to build and why.

If your team’s stuck in the same conversations without progress, maybe you don’t need a new product — you need a new way of working. We can help.