The simplest lesson in user research is also the one people conveniently forget again and again: you are not your user.
I know, we all like to think we’re normal. Average. Standard-issue human. We’re not. Nobody is.
Sam Eagle from The Muppets nailed it when he thundered at the audience: “You are all weirdos.”
That’s the truth of the universe. And it’s especially true in product development. Everyone’s weird. Me. You. Your boss. The dev who hasn’t seen sunlight since the last sprint review. All weird. The danger comes when you forget that and start designing from your own comfy version of “normal.”
Here are some real-world reminders of just how weird we all are.
The Bettor Who Swore They Were Average
I’ve interviewed a lot of people who bet. And you know what every single one of them tells me?
“I’m just normal, really.”
Except their “normal” can be dropping £300 on a single football match or running ten bets at once because “you never know, one of them might land.”
To me, that’s not normal. To them, it’s just a Saturday.
If I took their self-perception at face value, I’d support teams in betting services around the fantasy that this is what “everyone” does. But it isn’t. Their normal is shaped by habit, risk tolerance, and a culture I don’t live in - although I’ve learned a tonne about it over the past few years.
That’s why you do research. Otherwise, you’re building for a make-believe version of yourself who doesn’t exist.
The Developer Who Thought They Were Average
In my career so far I seem to have developed a specialism of building internal services - as a result I’ve done a load of UR with devs and product teams. In this I’ve found that some developers are the most confident “normal users” in the world. They are also a walking source of bias. Then you watch them “test” something and it’s complete carnage:
Tab-switching between ten apps like it’s a sport.
Using three Chrome extensions you didn’t know existed.
Debugging with one hand while hotkeying with the other.
Casually saying things like: “Well obviously I’d just run a script to fix that.”
That’s not normal. That’s developer brain. It’s a superpower, sure, but it doesn’t map to your mam trying to access her pension information on ‘the family computer’.
When you design from that perspective, you’re baking in complexity only you can solve. That’s when real users throw their hands up and mutter: “Forget it, I’ll just call someone.”
The “Everyday” Civil Servant
Government isn’t immune either. Policy and delivery people often believe they’re “close to the user.”
Then they proudly demo a form they’ve tested on themselves… and it requires:
Knowing your exact National Insurance number off by heart.
Understanding what a “unique property reference code” is.
Uploading a “certified PDF” without even blinking.
That’s not normal. That’s civil servant normal. Most people don’t know what half those terms mean. They just want to get something done without feeling stupid.
The Researcher Trap (Yes, Even Us)
And yes, we’re guilty too. I’ve caught myself thinking:
“Well of course people read the whole error message.” (They don’t.)
“Surely they’ll remember what they clicked two screens ago.” (They won’t.)
“People must notice that link, it’s right there in blue.” (Invisible.)
I’m a weirdo. You’re a weirdo. None of us escape our own internal logic. That’s why I remind myself daily: you are not your user.
You Are All Weirdos (And That’s the Point)
The trick isn’t to fight the weirdness or chase some mythical “average.” It’s to accept it. Your job isn’t to design for what you think is sensible. It’s to go out, find out how gloriously weird your users really are, and design around that.
Some survival rules I keep:
Listen harder than you talk. If someone says something ridiculous, that’s insight, not an outlier.
Forget “average.” It doesn’t exist. Look for patterns instead.
Check your own weird. The moment you think “Well I’d just…”—stop. You’re not designing for you.
The Big Takeaway
Sam Eagle was right. We are all weirdos.
The bettors who torch half a paycheck and call it “a flutter.”
The devs who think “normal” means being a walking stack trace.
The civil servants who assume everyone remembers their NI number.
Me. You. Everyone. Weirdos.
The sooner you accept that, the better your research gets. Because good design doesn’t come from assuming your version of normal is reality. It comes from spending time with real people, embracing their weird, and building services that actually work anyway.
And if you still think you’re the normal one in all this?
Congratulations. You should be studied in a lab.