Lean Ux

---
name: lean-ux
description: 'Apply lean thinking to UX: hypothesis-driven design, collaborative sketching, and rapid experiments instead of heavy deliverables. Use when the user mentions "Lean UX", "design hypothesis", "outcome over output", "design studio method", "assumption mapping", "lightweight research", "too much design documentation", or "get the team designing together". Also trigger when reducing design-documentation overhead, getting cross-functional teams to co-design, or running fast usability experiments. Covers hypothesis statements, MVPs for UX, and cross-functional collaboration. For Build-Measure-Learn, see lean-startup. For usability audits, see ux-heuristics.'
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: wondelai
  version: "1.4.0"
---

# Lean UX Framework

A practice-driven approach to UX that replaces heavy deliverables with rapid experimentation, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous learning. Lean UX shifts the question from "What should we design?" to "What do we need to learn?"

## Core Principle

**Outcomes over outputs.** The value of a design is measured not by the fidelity of the deliverable but by the change in user behavior it produces.

**The foundation:** Traditional UX waterfalls requirements into wireframes, mockups, specs, and code—losing context and hiding untested assumptions at every handoff. Lean UX compresses the distance between idea and evidence: declare assumptions, form hypotheses, run the smallest possible experiment, and let real user behavior settle the argument. Shared understanding replaces documentation; learning velocity replaces pixel perfection.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** Score a UX process, design plan, or team workflow by the eight-row Quick Diagnostic below: award ~1.25 points per row answered "yes" (8 yeses = 10). Bands:

- **9-10** — assumptions declared, hypotheses with pre-committed success criteria, lowest-fidelity experiments, whole-team design, weekly research, outcome (not output) metrics, dual-track agile, and a recently invalidated hypothesis on the books.
- **5-6** — hypotheses exist but criteria are vague or fidelity is over-invested; design and research still partly siloed.… load the full skill through Skill Me