Overview
Jenny Wen from Anthropic argues that traditional design processes may be outdated in today’s AI-enabled world. Instead of following rigid user research → personas → wireframes workflows, designers should prioritize rapid prototyping since AI makes building and testing ideas much faster and cheaper than before.
Key Arguments
- The traditional design process is outdated for today’s world where anyone can make anything: The standard workflow of user research → personas → user journeys → wireframes before building anything may be too slow and rigid when technology enables rapid creation and iteration
- Prototyping should replace process as the primary design methodology: AI makes prototypes much more accessible and less time-consuming than before, allowing designers to test ideas quickly rather than spending extensive time on upfront planning
- AI reduces the cost of building the wrong thing, enabling more experimental approaches: Previously, wrong design directions could waste months of development time, but AI-assisted programming means wrong directions now waste just days instead of months, making it safer to take risks and explore
Implications
This shift means designers and developers can move from risk-averse planning to experimental building. Rather than trying to get everything right upfront through extensive research and documentation, teams can afford to build multiple directions quickly, test them with users, and iterate rapidly. This fundamentally changes how product development works in an AI-enabled world.
Counterpoints
- Traditional design processes exist for good reasons: User research, personas, and systematic approaches help ensure products meet real user needs rather than just what seems interesting to build
- Not all prototyping translates to good products: Building fast doesn’t automatically mean building the right thing - without proper research and planning, teams might prototype in entirely wrong directions
- Process provides necessary structure for teams: Established workflows help coordinate between designers, developers, and stakeholders - pure prototyping might create chaos in larger organizations