Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - September 7, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - September 7, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  AI evals are replacing your product requirement docs. Wait,
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  so we're testing behavior instead of defining it? Exactly,
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  and the teams skipping the specs are shipping faster because the
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  code writes itself. Let's see if that actually holds up.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Leadership By Design is on Thursday and
• 0:21
  Friday, September 17 and 18 and tickets are available now! And
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  while you're at it, get caught up on UX fundamentals with five
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  available online at feed and thread dot com to submit your
• 0:32
  feeds, or download our app for all the feeds and threads
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  delivered right to your pocket.
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  We're building systems that measure themselves, but we're
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  losing track of the humans who use them. The tension today is
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  between technical compliance and actual human value. Jeff
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  Gothelf challenges the shift toward AI evals in "How to write
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  a definition of done for an AI feature" at his blog. He argues
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  that while evals check system accuracy, they miss the mark on
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  real customer outcomes like remembering to buy milk. Relying
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  solely on these metrics risks losing the user in the
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  conversation. We need a definition of done that combines
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  compliance scores with clear user value. Anna Lefour at UX
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  Design.cc explores the growing impact on collaboration in "AI
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  in Product teams: In 2026, the growing impact on
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  collaboration". She notes a stark gap where seventy-three
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  percent of designers feel pressure for speed, yet only
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  twenty-eight percent see formal strategy from leadership. The
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  early chaos of tool adoption is giving way to structured needs
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  driven by ROI. Designers are feeling the weight of this shift
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  without the support to navigate it. iA Inc. reflects on winning
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  IDEA Gold in "IDEA Gold". Oliver Reichenstein contrasts the award
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  acceptance with the decade-long struggle to solve a simple
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  notebook problem. True design requires a madness of believing
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  improvement is possible, followed by years of failing and
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  adjusting. It reminds us that good work often hides behind a
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  decade of quiet persistence. Other reads today from Codrops
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  on real-time 3D face masks and UX Design.cc on synthetic
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  selves.
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  Practitioners are asking hard questions about access and
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  academic standing today. Over on r/hci, someone is weighing
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  whether a seven hundred dollar registration fee for a spatial
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  interaction symposium is worth the investment after getting a
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  demo abstract accepted. It highlights the steep financial
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  barrier for early-career researchers who want to present
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  their work. We measure technical compliance easily, but we rarely
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  account for the human cost of entry. In r/UXResearch, an
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  essay argues that the web has collapsed into sameness because
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  design practices have converged into a single safe direction.
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  The claim is that pattern libraries have replaced
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  exploratory research, leading to a one-way conformism. It raises
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  a critical question about whether our reliance on
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  standards is actually stifling the diversity of user
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  experience. Back in r/hci, a user is trying to navigate the
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  academic landscape by asking about the standing of the
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  Journal of Collaborative Computing and Work Practices.
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  The confusion stems from its name overlapping with the well-
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  known CSCW conference. It reveals how opaque academic
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  validation can be for those trying to find their footing in
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  the field. Over on r/UXResearch, a former principal
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  researcher shares their transition to independent AI-
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  powered consulting after a layoff. They argue that AI tools
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  allow practitioners to bypass bureaucratic hurdles and execute
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  research solo in a fraction of the time. It suggests a shift
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  where individual agency replaces systemic inefficiency, even if
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  it feels isolating. In r/hci, an international student seeks
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  portfolio advice for a master's program without paying for
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  commercial coaching. They emphasize a tight budget and a
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  need for structural guidance on their first project. It
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  underscores the tension between expensive industry norms and the
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  actual design thinking process that programs value. We're
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  building systems that measure themselves while losing track of
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  the humans who use them.
• 4:06
  Chicago Camps is hosting Leadership By Design on Thursday
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  & Friday, September 17 & 18. It's an online event, so you can
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  join from anywhere in the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the
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  generosity of the community! If it's within your budget, you can
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  purchase a general admission ticket for only twenty six
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  dollars - with limited early bird tickets at only fifteen
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  dollars. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  Jeff Gothelf's argument about definitions of done cuts through
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  the noise because it exposes a specific blind spot. We're
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  optimizing for system accuracy while ignoring whether the user
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  actually remembers to buy milk. The metrics look clean on the
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  dashboard, but the human outcome is completely decoupled from the
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  technical score. That decoupling is exactly why the
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  gap in leadership strategy feels so heavy right now. Seventy-
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  three percent of designers feel the pressure to move faster, but
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  only twenty-eight percent see a formal strategy to support that
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  speed. We're being asked to deliver human-centric value
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  using tools that only measure machine-centric compliance. And
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  that pressure creates a dangerous feedback loop. If the
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  only thing we can measure is the eval score, we start designing
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  for the eval. We stop asking if the feature helps the user and
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  start asking if the feature passes the test. It turns design
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  into a compliance exercise rather than a value creation
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  exercise. But here's where I see an opening rather than a
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  trap. The former principal researcher on r/UXResearch made
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  a compelling point about individual agency. When you
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  strip away the bureaucracy, AI allows a single practitioner to
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  execute research in a fraction of the time. The constraint
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  isn't the tool, it's the lack of permission to define value on
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  your own terms. I worry that individual agency isn't enough
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  to solve a systemic measurement problem. If the organization
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  rewards speed and compliance, a solo researcher working faster
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  just produces compliant bad ideas quicker. We need the
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  definition of done to change at the organizational level, not
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  just the individual level. True, but waiting for the
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  organization to change is a losing strategy. The shift is
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  happening now because practitioners are realizing they
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  don't need permission to validate outcomes. They can use
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  these tools to prove user value directly to stakeholders,
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  bypassing the middle management that only cares about dashboard
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  green lights. So the battleground isn't the tool.
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  It's the evidence. Exactly. The teams that win are the ones who
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  bring the proof themselves instead of waiting to be asked
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  for it
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!