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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

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Shop UX Resources — UX Playbook

Learn UX design with Playbooks. 200+ ready-to-use UX templates, examples, presentations, surveys, interview guides. Learn more

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

1. What frustrates the hell out of you?
2. What solution would you personally use?
3. What feels like play but looks like work to others?

My answer: Making UX education digestible & fun.

That was my "thing."

What's yours?

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

The education industry is built around credentials, not outcomes.

But the internet changed all that.

Now you can learn from practitioners, not professors.

Here's my "find your thing" framework:

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

The funny thing? I'm not special.

I was just a Viet/Chinese immigrant kid who:

• Got kicked out of university at 21
• Scrubbed toilets to get out of debt
• Lived with my grandparents (broke AF)
• Found design by accident at 26

What's the lesson here?

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

Then I waited...

…crickets
…crickets intensify

Then... a sale.

From someone I didn't know.

Then another.
And another.

Fast forward to today:

→ 20M+ content impressions
→ 100k+ designers following my work
→ 20k+ designers using my systems (from 90+ countries)

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

What if I took the actual systems and frameworks I built as Head of Design... and turned them into practical playbooks for designers?

No BS theory.
No academia.
Just tools for the real world.

I threw together a scrappy website.
Slapped on a price tag.
Launched.

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

Scene 2: Me, jobless, in my underwear, building what would become UX Playbook

So what did I do?

I quit.
Mid-pandemic.
No backup plan.

My friends: "Dude, you having a breakdown?"
My mum: "Is this a quarter-life crisis?"
My bank account: sobbing noises

But I had a hypothesis…

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

→ $15k+ bootcamps teaching theory
→ $30k+ for university degrees
→ $2k+ for online courses

Graduates entering the industry completely unprepared.

It's like teaching someone to swim by making them read books about water.

↓

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

The title.
The salary.
The status.

But I was miserable.

Why?

Because I'd realised something that kept me up at night:

UX education is completely broken.

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

Scene 1: Me sitting in my fancy Head of Design office, plotting my escape...

Year 2020.
Middle of a pandemic.
Earning 6-figures at a unicorn.

The dream job, right?

Narrator: It was not, in fact, the dream job.

I had everything I thought I wanted.

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 18h

Why UX education is broken AF
(and what I did about it)

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

📰 Every Wednesday, I send 1 quick UX tip (under 2 mins, zero fluff)—join 11k+ designers here → newsletter.uxplaybook.org

Play of the Week Newsletter

UX newsletter sharing 1 actionable framework or hack to help you grow your UX Career. Every Wednesday - 5 minutes or less.

newsletter.uxplaybook.org

Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

📌 Need a new portfolio? I can help: uxplaybook.org/shop/p/ux-po...

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

We don’t need fewer rejections.
We need sharper takeaways from each one.

Keep going until your YES.

💪

—

P.S. What's your rejection record?
Mine's 30. Let's normalise the struggle. 😎

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

Rejection never goes away.

But the sting gets smaller when I:

∗ Realised it comes with maturity
∗ Turned every “no” into motivation
∗ Accepted that it happens (and it’s just reality)

↓

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

𝟰. 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

Why does rejection feel unbearable?

→ I expected success without setbacks
→ I see rejection as failure, not feedback
→ I let “no” stop me instead of shaping me

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

When I do, I…

→ Prove I’m willing to grow
→ Show humility (rare for my early days)
→ See myself from new perspectives

Get a reply or not… I’m genuinely curious.

↓

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

𝟯. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 (𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆)

Why am I not improving?

→ I treated rejection as a dead end
→ I assumed I knew why they said no
→ I never hear how others see my work

The fix is simple: ASK

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

So I flipped it:

“On to the next one”
“It’s not the right time”
“There will always be more opportunities”

That’s progress. Not self-pity.

↓

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀

Why should rejection keep me stuck?

→ I spiralled into victim mode
→ I replayed the “no” in your head
→ I convinced myself the system is broken

That mindset only drained my energy.

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

𝟭. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

Why am I not passing round 1?

→ The budget got cut
→ They already hired internally
→ The requirements changed overnight
→ Your portfolio didn't match their exact needs

It’s not about me.

That's business. Not personal.

↓

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

Rejection hurt.
Rejection killed my confidence.
Rejection made me depressed.

Turns out…

I CAN control my reactions to rejections.

I stopped blaming "the market"
I started fixing what I could control.

4 lessons that got me out of my slump:

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 1d

I didn’t just break into UX.

I got rejected 30 times before I got a yes.

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Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 2d

📰 Get a weekly email to grow your UX career 🌱
newsletter.uxplaybook.org — 2 minute read. No fluff.

Play of the Week Newsletter

UX newsletter sharing 1 actionable framework or hack to help you grow your UX Career. Every Wednesday - 5 minutes or less.

newsletter.uxplaybook.org

Chris from UX Playbook ⚡️ @uxchrisnguyen.bsky.social · 2d

...we are hugging and facing the camera (make the image the most similar as the original pic - don't change their face)

[Drop your cute pics here]

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