Stop Calling Screenshots Design Strategy

Last Tuesday I got a "UX Strategy" deck.

Six slides. Five screenshots of Stripe, Notion, Linear. One slide saying "we want something clean and modern like these." Zero actual strategy.

I asked about their users, their problem, what success looks like.

Response: "We can cover that in the kickoff, but the visual direction is what we need to align on first."

Right. Because picking colors before understanding the problem always works great.

Here's what actually happens when you do this: Week 7, $18K in, designs that look professional in Figma but solve nothing. You sitting in a call saying "something feels off" but can't explain what.

The what is: you designed for someone else's users instead of yours.

I've watched this exact sequence enough times that I can tell you the ending before we start. So let me save you the $18K.

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What Your Screenshot Deck Actually Tells Me

You copied homework from students who took different tests.

Stripe optimizes for enterprise buyers needing trust signals. Notion for knowledge workers wanting flexibility. Linear for developers who hate clicking twice.

When you say "combine these," you're asking me to design for three different users with conflicting priorities. Designs will look cohesive in Figma. Users will be confused because they're optimized for nothing specific.

Your screenshots tell me you admire successful companies. They don't tell me your product design strategy – who you're designing for, what problem competitors aren't solving, why users would choose you over doing nothing.

That gap is where the $18K disappears.

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The Four Disasters I Keep Watching

The Frankenbriefing

"We want Stripe's pricing, Notion's sidebar, Linear's shortcuts, Figma's collaboration."

Six weeks later: too flexible for users wanting guidance, too minimal for users needing hand-holding, too collaborative for solo users. Users land confused and bounce.

You blame the designer for not making it "cohesive." (The problem wasn't cohesion. It was trying to be four different products simultaneously.)

"We Know Our Users"

I ask who we're designing for. You say "product managers."

That's 47,000 different user types. A PM at an 8-person startup needs speed. A PM at a 600-person company needs structure. Opposite problems.

Three months later, your SaaS product design launches. Half your users say too simple. Half say too complex. Both right – you designed for everyone, which means no one.

Building Backwards

• Week 1: "Start designing, figure out strategy later."
• Week 7: "Can we define strategy now? This doesn't feel right."

You built the bathroom, then hired the architect.

The $12K you "saved"? Now costs $25K to redo plus $8K in technical debt. (Math never seems to math until after.)

Screenshot "Analysis"

You copied Stripe's pricing page. Stripe spent 3 years and $400K optimizing for enterprise buyers.

Your users are small business owners needing to understand your $49/month product in 20 seconds.

Your SaaS website design signals "expensive enterprise" to users wanting "affordable solution." Conversion: 0.8%. Industry average: 3-5%. You're losing 80% of potential customers.

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Why You Keep Doing This

Screenshots feel concrete. Point at Stripe, everyone nods. (It's not progress. It's procrastination with better aesthetics.)

Strategy is invisible – questions and trade-offs you haven't made. Can't screenshot questions.

Also: you're avoiding hard questions. "Who are we designing for?" sounds simple until you try answering specifically. "B2B SaaS companies" isn't an answer – it's you not wanting to say "I don't know."

Strategy forces confrontation with what you don't know. Screenshots let you feel busy.

You're optimizing for "when can we start" instead of "what should we build." Starting fast in wrong direction isn't speed – it's expensive backwards walking later.

(Watched founders spend $35K and three months building wrong because too impatient for three weeks of thinking.)

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What I Need Before We Start

Before taking a project, I need to know if you've done the thinking or if you're expecting me to guess your business strategy while designing.

Who are we designing for? Not "product managers" – three specific people, what they do, why they'd choose you.

What does success look like? Not "users love it" – activation from 23% to 40%? Time to value from 8 days to 2?

Have you validated this? Not "three friendly customers" – 15+ systematic interviews finding patterns.

Can't answer these? You have assumptions with a Pinterest board. Not strategy.

Week 7 shows the difference. Strategy: "Working as expected." Screenshots: "Something feels off."

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I'm not saying you need six months of research. I'm saying don't call 17 minutes of Googling "strategy."

You're hiring me to solve your users' problems in ways that achieve your goals. If you don't have the strategy, I either guess at everything (users, value prop, positioning, metrics) or make it look like your screenshots.

Neither works.

The $12K you "saved" skipping strategy becomes $25K redoing everything, plus $8K fixing technical debt, plus 8 weeks, plus momentum you killed.

But mostly it's Week 7. Looking at designs that look exactly how you asked – professional, polished, "clean and modern."

Knowing something's fundamentally wrong but unable to say what.

That sinking "we built the wrong thing" feeling? That's what I'm trying to help you avoid.

Do strategy first. Or budget for me to do it with you.

But don't screenshot Stripe for 17 minutes, call it "UX strategy," and expect this to work.

Everyone figures it out eventually. Usually Week 7. When designs look like the screenshots they sent. And nothing else works.

(The deck gets renamed "Inspo_OLD_v3_FINAL_archive_2024.pdf" and sits there, unopened, a $18K reminder that designing for someone else's users instead of yours is expensive.)