The C.L.E.A.R. UX Method

A modified design-thinking framework for busy teams, startups, and companies building UX maturity from the ground up.

Why deviate from design-thinking?

Don’t get me wrong, design thinking is powerful.

When practiced inside structured, design-forward orgs, it’s a proven approach:

Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test

However, in early stage startups or leadership-heavy teams with low UX maturity, this process often doesn’t land.

Here’s why:

  • Strict timelines leave no room for ‘formal UX.’ When teams are sprinting toward MVPs, investor deadlines, and feature parity, they don’t believe they can afford to ‘slow down’ for user research—especially  if leadership believes they already “know the user.”

  • Leadership is often fixed in their vision. Founders and senior stakeholders often already have a strong idea of what the product ‘should’ be, and may unconciously resist anything that challenges that vision.

  • Design thinking is sometimes received as process for process sake. To non-designers, explaining the design-thinking process can be seen as performative—too many sticky notes, too little momentum—no matter how you pitch it.

So I created a process that maintains the integrity of human-centered design, but meets fast-moving teams where they are.

C

Context

The what, why, and whom. Before a single design decision is made, I consider the business goals, stakeholder dynamics, internal politics, and any technical constraints. 

L

Lens

Through lightweight research methods (like stakeholder interviews, mini-personas, or empathy mapping), I help the team align user needs with business goals — creating a lens of shared perspective.

E

Explore

At this point, we now are creating user journeys, information architecture, wireframes and prototypes based upon the lens, limiting assumptions and guesswork. 

A

Align

Formal usability studies may not be feasible — but stakeholder walkthroughs, informal user demos, and internal reviews are. This stage is about reality-checking the design with the people who matter.

R

Refine

Iterate with purpose. Using feedback, data, and any new constraints uncovered during testing, I refine the design for both users and stakeholders — so it not only looks better, but works better. 

Why it works

C.L.E.A.R. UX stays close enough to traditional design thinking to remain grounded in user-centered principles while being flexible enough to fit the fast pace and ambiguous environments of modern startups. It brings just enough process to create clarity, without slowing things down.

📣 Want to bring C.L.E.A.R. UX to your team?

Share this page with the tag #CLEARUX, or contact me if you’d like help introducing this framework into your product workflow.