Most UX strategies expire quietly. Research decks age out, roadmaps drift from customer reality, and the “book” that captured a moment in time stops matching the moment we’re in. In large organizations, the half-life of insight is short—release cycles, shifting priorities, and new constraints change the context faster than documentation can keep up.
That’s why I chose a different form for Unfinished: a living manuscript. It’s not a static text; it’s a maintained system of evidence, decisions, and narratives that updates as signals change. The goal isn’t to publish and defend. It’s to observe, revise, and help teams act with confidence.
The problem with static strategy in enterprise settings
- Decisions are made far from research. Findings live in folders, not in product rituals or governance.
- Evidence decays. As teams ship, the original conditions shift. Old recommendations create new risk.
- Alignment erodes. When design, product, and engineering read different narratives, they make different bets.
Research organizations like Nielsen Norman Group have long warned about the gap between what users say and what they do. In practice, the bigger failure is letting any narrative—attitudinal or behavioral—calcify. Enterprise UX needs living guidance that evolves with the system.
What a living manuscript is (and isn’t)
- A maintained narrative that ties research, prototypes, and decisions into a single, searchable source of truth.
- A cadence, not a dump: updates ship on a schedule (biweekly or monthly) with clear deltas, not massive rewrites.
- A decision tool, not a memoir: each chapter anchors to a current risk, opportunity, or promise we’re testing.
It’s not:
- A static PDF or “strategy book” meant to be shelved after a launch.
- An internal wiki that becomes a graveyard of unmaintained pages.
- A marketing veneer that hides uncertainty.
How it works in practice
Operating cadence
- Intake signals weekly: interviews, analytics, support trends, field notes.
- Synthesize to decisions: frame risks as promises at stake (“Where are we failing the user?”).
- Publish deltas: highlight what changed, what stayed the same, and what we’re trying next.
- Close the loop: track metrics tied to each narrative (task success, time to value, support volume, trust indicators).
Artifacts
- Short chapter updates (1–3 pages) that pair story with evidence and a “what we’re doing next” section.
- Prototypes or narrative walkthroughs that stakeholders can comment on.
- A visible change log with dates and rationale.
Guardrails (critical for enterprise)
- Anonymize examples. Remove vendor names, project code names, and proprietary details.
- Share safe evidence. Use behavioral summaries and sanitized clips; avoid raw datasets unless governed.
- Version like software. Every change is timestamped and reversible.
Evidence and impact: why the model works
- Recency increases adoption. Teams act on insights they encountered this sprint, not last quarter.
- Narrative beats artifacts. Leaders make decisions when they can see themselves in the story—problem → impact → next move.
- Smaller cycles reduce risk. Shipping guidance in smaller, faster loops lets teams test assumptions before they calcify.
Start your own living manuscript
Near-term (2–4 weeks)
- Choose one high-risk promise (e.g., onboarding time, trust in recommendations).
- Publish a first chapter with: current state, evidence, and the next two experiments.
- Stand up a change log and commit to a biweekly cadence.
Mid-term (1–2 quarters)
- Expand signal sources (support, analytics, field operations) and standardize templates.
- Add simple governance: who approves changes, how decisions are archived, how you sunset outdated guidance.
- Tie chapters to metrics owned by product and CX to close the loop.
Long-term (2+ quarters)
- Integrate with planning rituals (QBRs, portfolio reviews) so evidence drives investment decisions.
- Build a searchable narrative library for onboarding and cross-functional training.
- Layer in lightweight AI assistance for retrieval and summarization—without outsourcing judgment.
Conclusion: stay unfinished, on purpose
Unfinished is a stance: ship smaller truths faster, so you can change them sooner. A living manuscript makes that stance operational. It preserves context, accelerates alignment, and helps large organizations move with rigor without pretending certainty. If your strategy artifacts aren’t keeping pace with your reality, don’t make a bigger book—build a smaller, living one.
If you want a taste, read the sample chapter and see how the narrative pairs with real decisions. Prefer paper? You can also grab the book on Amazon. The point is the same either way: don’t wait to be certain—iterate in public, refine together.
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About the author: I design enterprise-scale experiences and research systems that help organizations learn faster. I write to share methods that keep UX work alive, not archived.