We are all biased by our personal experiences and beliefs. Having insight to our own biases is key to being a successful designer who can continue to deliver innovative designs over a 30 – 40 year career. If one is not aware of their biases they can never question them and determine if it is best to continue embracing them or let them go. Here are some of the more enduring, and effective, biases I have developed over the years (but these too may change over time as even an old design war horse learns and grows).

Design is a team sport.

Your product process is your design process.

Design for clarity and meaning rather than simplicity and consistency.
(also see Robert Hoekman Jr.’ article:
http://www.wired.com/2015/12/simplicity-is-overrated-in-ux-design/)

Designers are best served by being influencers rather than dictators.

As difficult as aesthetic design systems are, they are simple compared to well designed interaction systems.

Executives typically have no patience, time or real understanding for assessing interactions.

Prototypes are the most under-used and under-valued tool in the designer’s toolkit.

Design should be on equal footing with Engineering, Product Management and Business decision makers in the executive ranks.

Design is a full time job and cannot be performed by someone who also has responsibility for product management or engineering.

Unicorns (those proficient in multiple skills like engineering and design) do not scale, become bottlenecks and ultimately move on to different roles. Design cultures need all skill sets to be proficient in design but they need separate owners for business/product, engineering and design. See “Design is a team sport” above.