The Missing, Messy Middle

Like many designers, something shifted in my process this year and I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. Lately, I am able to move to prototyping faster than I ever have. For example, I’ve been using Cursor to build a replica of our production environment, almost like a front-end only mirror of our product, as a sandbox for prototyping. I clone the repo, prompt a new feature into it, and have a working prototype in hours. It takes a fraction of the time it would have taken to do the same in Figma.

What I’ve noticed though is that the faster I move, the more intentionality starts slipping.

In retrospect, the design thinking process was a safeguard against sloppy work. Understand, diverge, converge… Like a designer’s version of due diligence. The process made sure the prototype I built actually answered the right problem in a thoughtful way. Now that I can snap solutions into existence, it’s easier for that process to slip. I’ve noticed I may skip a mapping step, or shortchange a competitive audit.

To be clear, I don’t think the answer is going back to a strict linear double diamond. What I’ve been trying instead is changing how I think about the process altogether: approaching it like a sculptor rather than a planner.

Instead of starting with a blank canvas, I start in Cursor and build something rough. That early prototype is the raw marble, not the finished work. Once something is in front of me, the real questions become clearer: Does it match the user’s mental model? What am I assuming that I haven’t validated yet? Is this actually solving the problem? Do I fully understand the problem?

From there, each cycle runs the same loop: prototype, diagnose, research, iterate. The time I spend in each loop has shrunk and continues to shrink, so I can run through loops quicker.

Where the old process ran the risk of front-loading too much thinking before anything was built, this approach is more surgical. Chip away a little, step back, adjust and repeat. I’ll loop through the process multiple times, both by myself and with the help of collaborators, until the work stops looking like something we made fast and starts looking like something we made well.