The UX Practitioner’s Dilemma: Ideas vs. Validation
After 7-8 years in UX at a non-profit organization, I’ve witnessed a persistent gap between creativity and practical validation. The UX mindset with its emphasis on user research and evidence-based design offers a powerful framework for knowledge management that few have explored.
Where PKM Systems Fall Short
Most personal knowledge management systems focus on capturing and organizing information, but rarely address the critical process of validating ideas against real-world needs. Quality isn’t forged in isolation—it emerges from the intentional practice of testing assumptions and refining based on feedback.
Bringing Design Thinking to Knowledge Management
My approach integrates UX methodology into knowledge management through four essential phases:
1. Discovery
This phase is about exploration—gathering diverse inputs, documenting observations, and creating space for unexpected connections. In my PKM system, this translates to creating a quick note inside Obsidian and then refining into discrete portions.
2. Defining
Setting clear criteria and establishing specific steps is where most knowledge systems fail. By applying UX principles, I’ve developed a framework that transforms vague inspirations into actionable projects through clearly identifying the work to do. Name it to frame it as an approach, takes ambiguous unformatted thoughts and brings them into clarity and focus.
3. Designing
The creative process becomes more intentional when guided by validated constraints. My approach to designing within a PKM system involves diagramming, by creating a model and then turning it into higher resolution versions of the same.
4. Delivery
The ultimate test of any idea is its implementation. My delivery framework emphasizes real world validation. Sending to the suggested minimum of 5 people, to get a sense of what’s ahead and working and what they actually think. Especially in the angle of product design and setting up a paid offer page where money is exchanged.
The Multilingual Advantage in Systems Thinking
Being raised multilingual has shaped my perspective on information architecture and knowledge systems. This cognitive flexibility allows me to consider different perspectives not often immediately obvious.
From “I Don’t Know” to “I Could, I Should”
The most valuable outcome of integrating UX thinking with knowledge management is the transformation from uncertainty to possibility. This emergence, that’s the the product of systematic divergence and convergence creates spaces where new ideas can be both generated and validated.
Looking Forward
I’m committed to expanding this intersection between UX practice and knowledge systems, with a focus on teaching these methods to help others bridge their creative thinking with practical application.
