7 Gems for Surviving Corporate Chaos and Navigating UX Politics

🎙️ Lessons from my conversation with Scott Berkun on S1E1 of Corporate Underpants Live

I had an incredible conversation with Scott Berkun on Corporate Underpants Live about the real reason UX and product work is so damn hard — it’s not because we lack skill, research, or process. It’s because we’re constantly battling politics, misalignment, and the illusion that our work should be “data-driven” enough to be respected.

But here’s the deal: complaining won’t fix it. If you want to thrive in UX and product leadership, you have to stop wishing the system was different and start learning how to work the system to your advantage — without losing your mind.

Scott and I broke it down into 7 gems that can help you navigate the tornadoes of corporate dysfunction and actually get good work done.

💎 1. Stop Pretending Politics Doesn’t Exist

You can try to ignore the internal power struggles at your company, but they will not ignore you. UX and product people love to say, “I just want to do the work, I don’t want to deal with politics.” But guess what? You don’t have a choice.

If you want to advance in your career (or even just keep your projects alive), you need to start seeing politics as part of the job — not as a dirty word. Once you acknowledge that, you can start playing the game instead of getting played.

💎 2. The “Data-Driven” Fantasy Is a Lie

UX folks spent the last 20 years convincing ourselves that if we just show enough data, executives will listen. But that’s not how business works.

Executives are not in the business of analyzing data. They are in the business of making judgment calls. That means that even if you have bulletproof research proving your design is better, your work still isn’t safe from a VP’s gut instinct or a last-minute “pivot” from the CEO.

If you’re still hoping data alone will protect your decisions, you’re playing defense in a game where everyone else is playing offense.

💎 3. Where Am I? Stop, Look, and Learn Before Trying to Fix Anything

One of the biggest mistakes UX people make? Jumping straight into fixing things without understanding what’s actually happening.

Before you start evangelizing design, usability, or process, ask yourself:

• Where am I?
• Who actually has power here?
• What unspoken rules are shaping decisions?
• Who benefits from the dysfunction I see?

If you don’t take the time to understand the political landscape, you’re just throwing solutions into a tornado.

💎 4. Complaining Feels Good — But It Won’t Change Anything

Scott and I hear the same complaints over and over again from UX and product folks:

• “My company doesn’t value UX.”
• “They keep changing priorities mid-project.”
• “Executives won’t listen to research.”

Here’s the tough love: Those things are all true, but complaining about them doesn’t solve them.

If you’re tired of the same old fights, the real question isn’t ‘Why don’t they listen to me?’ — it’s ‘How can I make them want to listen?’

💎 5. Find Allies — You Cannot Do This Alone

If you’re in a dysfunctional org, you’re not the only one suffering. Somewhere in the mess, there are other people who also want things to be better. Find them.

In every workplace, there’s at least:

• One other person who’s frustrated by the same things you are.
• One leader who gets UX and is tired of fighting for it alone.
• One team that would benefit from working with UX but doesn’t know how.

Find these people and start working together. Your projects will move further when you have allies pushing from multiple directions.

💎 6. Executives Will Never Admit They’re Lost — So Help Them Save Face

Executives often make huge, high-stakes decisions without clear data or alignment. But guess what? They will never admit they don’t know what they’re doing.

If you directly ask, “What are our top priorities?” you’ll either get a vague answer or a defensive reaction. Instead, make it easy for them to clarify what matters most:

• Send a draft of priorities based on what you’ve observed and ask for small edits.
• Frame your questions as a chance to help them rather than expose their gaps.
• Give them a way to articulate their real goals without feeling like they’re being called out.

Your job isn’t to make them feel stupid — it’s to help them look smarter by getting clear on what matters.

💎 7. UX People Are Trained to Be Observant — So Start Using That Skill Internally

UXers are great at understanding user behavior — but terrible at applying that skill to our own workplaces.

You already know how to: ✅ Observe and analyze how people interact. ✅ Uncover hidden motivations. ✅ Identify patterns of behavior.

So why aren’t you using those same skills to navigate your own company?

Stop assuming your org is rational. Start treating it like a research project. What are the real motivations behind decisions? What are the pain points for leadership? What “user needs” do your executives have that are driving their (often frustrating) behavior?

The better you understand your organization, the more leverage you’ll have to shape it.

🎙️ Listen to the Full Episode

Want the full, unfiltered conversation with Scott Berkun? Tune into my Corporate Underpants podcast:

📢 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 🎥 Watch the video version on YouTube. 🔗 Find all episodes at CorporateUnderpants.com.

Interested in the solution? Learn about Align Before Design, my book in progress.

Final Thought: If You Want Influence, You Have to Earn It

No one is going to hand you influence just because you have good ideas or solid research.

If you want a seat at the table, you have to: ✔️ Understand how decisions are really made. ✔️ Speak the language of business (not just UX). ✔️ Build relationships and find allies. ✔️ Make it easy for leadership to trust and rely on you.

This isn’t easy — but mastering these skills will put you lightyears ahead of most UX pros.

💬 Which of these gems hits home for you? Have you run into any of these challenges in your own work? Drop your war stories in the comments!