Effort Over Time: Why Story Points Are a Better Way To Plan UX Work Naresh Shan
Estimating design work in hours sets teams up to fail. But story points help designers earn trust, align with product managers, and keep creative space intact. This week, we unpack how adopting story points can shift the way your team plans and communicates.
What if the secret to better collaboration wasn’t a new tool or process, but a number?
For years, UX teams have struggled with estimation. Say something will take ten hours, and suddenly you’re locked into a number that doesn’t account for iteration, alignment, or even creativity. The result? Broken trust and unrealistic expectations.
This week, I chat with Naresh Shan, a design leader who’s built global UX teams and proven that story points, not hours, are the secret to bridging the gap between design, engineering, and product management. By shifting estimation from time to effort, Naresh shows how design teams can protect creativity while building credibility with stakeholders.
We explore what story points are, what it looks like when designers adopt them, why this shared language breaks down silos, and how it transforms team dynamics.
If you’ve ever felt sidelined in sprint planning or struggled to explain your workload, this episode will give you practical ways to earn trust and plan smarter.
Topics:
• 03:02 Understanding Story Points in Agile Teams
• 03:33 Interview with Nhan: The Power of Story Points
• 08:24 The Fibonacci Sequence and Story Points
• 13:20 Challenges and Solutions in Estimating Design Work
• 22:24 Decentralized vs. Centralized Teams
• 32:04 Maintaining Momentum and Team Cohesion
• 35:27 Building Team Unity Through Gratitude
• 35:58 Embracing Change and Leadership
• 36:36 Benefits of Story Points in Design
• 41:22 Implementing Story Points: A Practical Guide
• 46:32 Balancing Design and Management Roles
Helpful Links:
• Connect with Naresh on LinkedIn
• Value UX Conference
• Aligned Podcast
• Aligned Consulting
Co-Founder of Aligned Consulting Group
About Naresh
Naresh Shan is a Global Director of UX and DesignOps with over two decades of experience leading high-performing teams and embedding design into product strategy. He is the founder of Aligned Consulting in Zurich, where he helps organizations scale design operations to deliver measurable business impact. Previously, he directed a 39-person global UX team at Johnson Controls, led UX and DesignOps for Swiss Re iptiQ, and pioneered the UX strategy at Leonteq Securities—driving improvements in user satisfaction, reducing technical debt, and establishing scalable design systems across global enterprises.
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Meet your host
Jeremy Miller
Designer // Host // Mentor
I’m Jeremy. I’m a product designer from New Orleans. Here are some things I want you to know about me:
- I rally around research
- I’m dedicated to design
- I’m crazy about collaboration
- I’m sweet on the soft skills
- I’m entranced by the end users
- I’m passionate about the product
But most importantly, I know you can’t build great software without great relationships.
So join me here and learn about how to build truly great software.
