Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - March 16, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - March 16, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

• 0:00
  Jeff Gothelf says AI now handles the data, so evidence isn't a
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  PM's edge anymore. So if the numbers are automatic, what
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  actually separates a great product manager? He argues
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  storytelling is the only survival skill left when
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  everyone has the same data. That shifts the whole job from
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  analyzing facts to crafting the narrative. Let's get into it.
• 0:21
  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
• 0:23
  Chicago Camps. There's an open call for speakers for UX Camp
• 0:26
  Summer on May 30th, so now is your chance to get on stage and
• 0:29
  share your ideas! You can use our Proposal Counselor to help
• 0:32
  you get submitted today. The Feed & The Thread is available
• 0:34
  online at feed and thread dot com to submit your feeds, or
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• 0:39
  right to your pocket.
• 0:48
  Today's Feed tackles how we interpret user intent, whether
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  simpler games mean better design, and why human stories
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  beat AI summaries. Your phone isn't actually listening to your
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  conversations, yet the ad targeting feels eerily psychic.
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  Dora Czerna at UX Design.cc explains in "Your phone isn't
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  eavesdropping. The reality is stranger." that algorithms
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  correlate massive data sets to predict behavior without audio.
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  This rewrites the assumption that surveillance requires a
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  microphone, suggesting the real threat is predictive
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  correlation. Making games easier isn't dumbing them down,
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  it's often a deliberate choice to remove friction. Rita Kind-
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  Envy at UX Design.cc makes this case in "Are games really
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  'dumbing down'?" by showing how removing complex inventory
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  management boosts immersion. That shift represents a move
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  toward better accessibility where the goal is flow, not just
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  testing player skill. As AI automates data synthesis, the
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  ability to produce evidence is no longer a unique skill for
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  product managers. Jeff Gothelf writes on his blog in
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  "Storytelling: An AI era survival skill for product
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  managers" that weaving raw data into a narrative proves human
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  judgment. While AI accelerates reports, it can't replicate the
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  trust earned by sharing specific, physical experiences
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  with customers. Also publishing recently: UX Design.cc, LukeW,
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  and Chicago Camps released Bex Jeanson's UX Camp Winter replay,
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  "Bex Jeanson – You Can’t Wireframe Culture, But You Can
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  Design It!"
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  Welcome back to the Thread. The UX community had a lot to say
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  today, and the loudest conversations all pointed in the
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  same direction. Graduate school for UX might be running
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  out of road. Over on r/UXDesign, designers are questioning
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  whether formal degrees still matter when hiring managers care
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  about project outcomes, not diplomas. The field is moving
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  toward proven portfolios, and the traditional credential path
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  is struggling to keep up. That skepticism extends beyond
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  degrees. Quick courses and certificates are hitting real
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  resistance. The community sees through badges with expiration
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  dates; what holds weight now is deep, hands-on experience that
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  solves actual problems. Meanwhile on r/hci, students
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  comparing programs at Georgia Tech, UW, CMU, and NYU are
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  learning the same lesson from a different angle. Choosing a
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  program is less about prestige and more about aligning with
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  specific research interests and faculty expertise. The name on
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  the diploma matters less than what you built while earning it.
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  On the practice side, designers are pushing back against
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  guesswork in complex interfaces. Intuition alone can't handle
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  deep data flows or intricate user journeys; rigorous research
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  and iterative testing are filling the gap where gut
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  feeling falls short. And then there's the handoff problem:
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  design documentation that nobody reads. Static files aren't
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  bridging the gap between design vision and engineering reality,
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  and the conversation is shifting toward living documentation
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  embedded directly in development tools. Across every thread
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  today, the same message keeps surfacing: the community is done
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  with shortcuts and ready to demand substance.
• 3:53
  Chicago Camps is hosting UX Camp Summer on Saturday, May 30th.
• 3:56
  There's an open call for speakers so submit your idea
• 3:58
  today! It's an online event, so you can join from anywhere in
• 4:01
  the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the generosity of the
• 4:04
  community! If it's within your budget, you can purchase a
• 4:07
  general admission ticket for only thirteen dollars and fifty
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  cents. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  The piece on predictive correlation is wild because it
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  suggests our phones aren't listening, they're just
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  connecting data dots we didn't even know existed. That's the
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  friction point. If the threat isn't audio surveillance but
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  algorithmic prediction, covering the mic doesn't help you. And
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  that connects directly to the storytelling article. If AI can
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  synthesize that data instantly, the only thing left for product
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  managers is weaving a narrative that proves human judgment. The
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  market already knows this. Those quick certificates don't teach
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  you how to build trust with specific, physical customer
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  experiences. So the data is no longer the barrier. The barrier
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  is whether a designer can translate raw correlations into
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  a story that lands with a human being. But here's where I
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  diverge. You see the story as the shield. I see the data
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  itself as the new design material. The skill isn't just
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  storytelling; it's knowing which correlations to ignore. So
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  instead of hiding behind the narrative, we lean into the
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  prediction and curate what the algorithm shows us. The story
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  isn't a defense against the machine. It's the lens we use to
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  decide what the machine should actually build. Then the most
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  valuable skill isn't writing the report. It's deleting the data
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  point that makes the most sense mathematically. That's how you
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  keep the human in the loop. Not by fighting the algorithm, but
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  by being the one who decides what it means.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!