Proximity Is Not Understanding
Proximity is not understanding. Tooling is not rigor.
I reread "The Outsiders" yesterday. Inspired by my daughter's summer reading list. I finished it in one day. It is still that good!
The line from Cherry Valance, "things are rough all over," rings just as true today as it did then.
The Socs and the Greasers shared a town, a school, and the same streets. Proximity didn't help them. They got each other catastrophically wrong, and people died. Even then, they didn't truly understand each other.
Understanding comes from perspective and lived experience. You can't shortcut it.
Similar to...
PMs and designers are inheriting user research between sprint planning and standup. Headcount is shrinking. AI tools generate outputs that feel rigorous. The proximity is there. The tooling is there. The research isn't.
Six things tooling can't replace:
the right question
the right people
the right method
the right conditions for honesty
the right interpretation
the right connection to action
Most importantly, great research is not made at the end, during synthesis. It is made upstream, in the plan. A quality plan.
People who do research now, were you set up for success to do this work, or just told to deliver it?
P.S. If you've never read "The Outsiders," or it's been a while, read it. It holds up.
