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Introduction
Yup. You've heard me right. Today, we're embracing the art of fucking up.
Celebrating failures helps foster a 'fail-safe environment' and stimulates innovation and creativity within your organisation and hopefully assists your team in avoiding major pitfalls.
In other words, be proud of making mistakes because, essentially, your fuckups help you understand that your biggest enemy can be yourselves, and by overcoming your shortcomings, you get to be stronger as you come to know your own strengths and weaknesses.
Fuckups = self-confessed failures
Fuckups are essentially the exact opposite of Wins. We’re destigmatising mistakes to reinforce and accelerate learning.
Companies that stand out typically have this kind of approach to failures. They are eager to try new things, fail as quickly as possible, learn from them, and adapt subsequently.
Instead of sharing victories, it hones in on the questions like:
What did I fail at? What did I do wrong? How did I cope with it? How can I do better? What did I learn? What would I do differently?
It’s time to admit and say, “I fucked up”.
Easier said than done — now that I understand.
Lessons learned
When I decided to leave my Head of Product Design job in 2020, I prepared to address the team for the final time. I outlined the problems I see, and how we can potentially tackle them, and admitted how admitted I fucked up.
I wasn’t transparent enough.
I didn’t communicate this enough.
I didn’t fully take ownership.
Being able to share this vulnerability and the lessons learned meant others were more open about the things they could’ve done and what they could still do in the future.
New information on struggles, mistakes, and how we could mitigate them started to surface. It was the productive conversation we needed, albeit not soon enough.
Ever since then, I’ve always discussed how I could be a better leader in every job interview I’ve had. I came to understand my pitfalls and strengths better. Sharing this upfront has helped me build trust during interviews which led to a gig offer worth $150k/yr (one that I eventually turned down).
Using ‘fuckups’ to establish a safe environment & bring the team closer together
- Lead by example: Encourage the most senior leader in the room to admit his or her mistake or failure to start with. Regardless of where you are in the work hierarchy, you can always share your failures and what you learned from them.
- No blaming or shaming, please.
- Make the fuckups session more tangible by offering rewards to appreciate your team members’ best learnings.
- Never force it. People, in general, find it hard to open up. If that is the case, be patient and focus on establishing trust first.
Where to use Fuckups:
- As an icebreaker
- During stand-ups
- During a workshop
- During a one-on-one
- To wrap up a meeting
- During regular meetings, such as committee check-ins or weekly team meetings
This framework is part of UX Management Playbook—made for first-time managers building healthier and happier design teams.
Prompt questions to ask:
- What did I fail at this week?
- What didn’t go so well?
- What did I do wrong this week?
- What made you feel shit this week?
- How did you cope with it?
- What challenges did you face?
- How can you do better?
- What did you learn?
- What would you do differently?
This idea came from Fuckup Nights, a global movement based on sharing business failures in more than 185 cities from 62 countries.
The goal is to come together and learn from each other mistakes. Whether you’re in a startup or corporate environment, shortening the cycle to learn will greatly benefit you and your team's trajectory.
You’re going to fail, so might as well do it smartly
Our ability to learn when things go south is what helps us grow. Not just as individuals but as an industry.
The key to a good fuckup sharing session is to encourage your team to talk openly about what went wrong, what could've been done differently to prevent the errors, and how they can do better next time. By making fuckups part of your culture, you will allow your team to admit and learn from their mistakes.
Read more about UX Frameworks.
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