AI Agents: Multipliers of Value… or Chaos

A couple of thoughts for those who fear AI agents and for the fearless.
Agents, like any software architecture, are getting excellent at scaling and automation. Which is great.

The catch is AI agents don’t fix broken systems; they scale them.
If you’re looking for a new silver “vibe bullet,” keep in mind:

Agents can automate your process.
Or, if you don’t have one, they can automate your chaos.

Agents can scale your expertise in a domain.
Or, if you don’t have it, they can scale your lack of expertise.

So here comes my revolutionary idea for this weekend.
What if…

As business owners:
— We understand and own our processes, so there is something meaningful to automate.
— We augment real experts instead of scaling non-experts.

As experts:
— We embrace the change instead of denying it
— We learn the tools and use them for our augmentation.
— We understand our role in the business process and suggest meaningful automation.

Because agents, like any automation, will amplify what already exists.

Design Systems – UXPLORE Talk

My UXPLORE talk is now online!

Speaking about UX and Design Systems in German again after more than five years was a really special moment for me.If you take a look, I’d love to hear how the core idea resonates with you — feedback is always welcome!

German UPA Design Talk

Delivered my first talk at German UPA meetup in Karlsruhe after a while.

It felt good to step back onto the stage and engage with the wonderful local UX community again.

I shared some thoughts on user task types — a structured way of connecting user research insights with practical design system decisions.

Great feedback, with thought-provoking suggestions and challenges from the audience.

It is inspiring to explore further how this framework could translate to contexts beyond traditional desktop enterprise applications — such as consumer apps, mobile environments, automotive UX, or even specialized manufacturing tools.

The Search for Work Happiness

The Decision Maker and I would like to recommend a book to you for your weekend. Easy-to-read, thoughtful and optimistic reading from David Lubofsky.

I recommend it to everyone who was given the chance to make a difference in other people’s lives. Occasionally you need to be reminded of simple things that form our worlds, like kindness, trust, and passion. So read it… and watch Ted Lasso. :)
It undoubtedly deserves a spot on your bookshelf, so buy it in hardcover. Illustrations tell a story by themselves.

My favorite chapter: “Transparency breeds trust – and causes people to give a shit”.

Magic Excel

No matter how efficient the processes in our organization are, there comes a time when we find ourselves searching for that ‘magical Excel to fill.’ And in those moments, ‘filling’ turns into ‘feeling.’ Thus, here we are, ‘feeling magical excels’ together with DALL-E3.

The Decision Maker: My Most Effective Leadership Coach

In a leadership position, you learn to deal with uncertainty. I’ve hired a personal trainer for this discipline. My team calls him The Decision Maker.

He is a true researcher with a proven record of making hard decisions. Having a long-running meeting? Cannot decide about the size of the buttons? General hardships in finding your work-life balance?

Bring The Decision Maker into the room.

You will immediately learn what is important and balance your conflicting priorities by finding good, fast and cheap solutions to satisfy his curiosity (and save your house from total destruction).

Want to upgrade your leadership skills? Here is my two-step plan for you:

1) take a UX course for theory (e.g “Design Trade-Offs” by NN/g)
2) buy a (bloodhound) puppy for practice.