Have We Been Thinking About UX All Wrong?

Why UX Was Never Meant to Stand Alone – and What That Means for Designers Today

For the past few years, we’ve seen the same question pop up over and over again: Is UX dead? Articles, podcasts, LinkedIn thought pieces — everyone has an opinion. But most of these discussions feel like they miss the point.

UX isn’t dead. But I do think the way we’ve thought about UX might have been wrong all along.

I’m still wrestling with this idea, and this isn’t a polished, final take. But I want to explore something that’s been sitting with me for a while — maybe UX was never really its own thing. Maybe it was always a subset of product design, and now we’re just watching it get absorbed back where it belongs.

The Business Lens vs. The User Lens

Here’s what I think is at the core of the tension UX designers feel inside organizations:

• Product design prioritizes business goals. A company exists within a market. It offers a product (physical or digital) to customers. The flow is: Business → Product → Customer
• UX design prioritizes user needs. A person interacts with a product, which is built by a business. The flow is: User → Product → Business

It’s a complete inversion of priorities.

This explains why UX designers often feel like they’re fighting against the system. They advocate for the user. They push for the best possible experience. But businesses don’t exist to serve users out of pure goodwill — they exist to make money by serving users in a way that’s sustainable and profitable.

And here’s the kicker: what’s good for the user isn’t always good for the business.

That’s a hard truth to swallow if you’ve been taught that “great UX always leads to business success.” In an ideal world, sure. But in reality, designing for the best possible experience often means higher costs, longer development cycles, and difficult trade-offs.

A seamless onboarding flow?
Great for users. But maybe it requires engineering effort that could be spent on a feature that actually brings in revenue.

A perfect, intuitive navigation system?
Ideal for usability. But what if the data shows that a slightly worse navigation keeps users engaged longer and increases retention?

This is why companies don’t blindly chase “the best UX.” They chase the best balance between user experience and business outcomes.

Why UX Designers Struggle Inside Companies

Most UX designers enter the field with a user-first mindset. They’re taught that their job is to advocate for the user — always.

But here’s what they aren’t taught:

• Business strategy
• Product prioritization
• Development trade-offs
• Revenue models

UX designers often push for the best, most optimal experience without considering the business impact. And that’s not a knock on UX — it’s literally what they’ve been trained to do.

But the business can’t afford to ignore trade-offs. And this is where UX designers run into frustration. They feel like they’re always fighting for the user against business constraints, instead of working within those constraints.

I don’t think this means UX is useless. But I do think it explains why so many UX roles are disappearing or being rebranded as product design.

The Absorption of UX: A Shift Back to Product Design

Since 2015–2016, companies have been moving away from dedicated UX roles, folding them into product teams under the title Product Designer. This shift wasn’t random — it reflected a growing understanding that UX was never separate from product and business strategy.

Peter Merholz, in Org Design for Design Orgs (2016), noted how design teams were becoming embedded in cross-functional product teams, rather than standing alone. Around the same time, companies like Facebook, Airbnb, and Shopify adopted the Product Designer title, recognizing that designers needed to balance user needs with business realities.

By the late 2010s, industry discussions questioned whether UX Designer was an outdated role. Some resisted the change, but the reality is that UX was always part of a bigger system.

Why? Because they’re not just designing for users. They’re designing for the product, within a business context.

This shift isn’t random. It mirrors what happened in the past.

Before UX was a thing, product design already existed — but it was focused on physical products. Industrial designers thought about form, function, usability, and market fit. When digital products emerged, UX became its own discipline.

Now? We’re shifting back.

The same principles that governed physical product design are being applied to digital products, with business constraints baked in from the start. And UX? It’s just one of many considerations under the product umbrella.

Does this mean UX was wrong all along? Maybe not wrong, but maybe… misframed.

So, Is UX Dead?

No. But it’s changing.

The idea of UX as this separate, independent force inside a company — a team that fights for users while the rest of the company figures out how to make money — was never really sustainable.

That doesn’t mean UX is worthless. Usability, accessibility, human-centered design — these things matter. But they don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re part of a bigger system that includes product strategy, business needs, and technical constraints.

If you’re a UX designer, this shift might feel frustrating, but I think it presents an opportunity:

The more you understand product and business, the more valuable you become.

The best UX designers today aren’t just fighting for the user. They’re navigating the tension between user needs and business realities. They understand trade-offs. They make compelling arguments for why certain UX improvements are worth the investment — not just for users, but for the business too.

So no, UX isn’t dead. But the way we think about it needs to evolve.

Final Thought: What Do You Think?

I don’t have everything figured out here. This is something I’m still exploring, and I’d love to hear from others in the field.

• Do you think UX is just a subset of product design?
• Should UX remain independent, or is it better inside product teams?
• How have you seen this tension play out in your own work?

Let’s start a conversation.