Apply the 5/3/1 training program to the design process
By: Tom Lau
Tags: Design Process, User Experience, Strength, Design, UI

In the past two years, I had great success in increasing my strength by following Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 training program. In my first six months (new to strength training), prior to gym lockdowns, I increased my squat, bench, and deadlift 1 rep max estimate total from 357kg to 414kg, an average increase of 9.5kg per month.

5/3/1 is a linear progression program that increases weight each 3–4 week cycle. In each cycle, reps decrease from 5 to 1 (hence 5/3/1), while the weight increases from 65%-85% to 75–95% of the max training weight:

Week 1: 5 reps @65%, 5 reps @75%, 5+ reps @85%

Week 2: 3 reps @70%, 3 reps @80%, 3+ reps @90%

Week 3: 5 reps @75%, 3 reps @85%, 1+ rep @95%

Week 4: deload sets @50%

Although the program recommends going for an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) every week, I find myself in a preparation state during the first 2 weeks, focusing on my form and technique to achieve a better outcome on week 3 and reduce the risk of injury. In week 3, I go all-out and attempt to break my personal record on the heaviest set.

This reminded me of Julie Zhuo’s fantastic sketches of explaining junior vs senior designers’ process and how it reflected my progression in the design process throughout the years. When I first started as a designer, I would often get attached to my first idea. As I grew, I learned to leverage the team’s talent, explore more ideas, and focus on the outcome.

The Process of a Junior Designer by Julie Zhuo

The Process of a Senior Designer by Julie Zhuo

I spend more time facilitating design workshops to get more ideas from team members in the early stage of the design process. In a sense, the ideas are the reps, and the confidence level in each idea is the weight.

For each problem I tackle, I can break down my design process into early, middle, and late stages. As I discuss with engineers, cross-functional team members, and business stakeholders, validate designs through testing, and receive feedback through design critiques, I narrow down on the direction, explore more on that direction, and in the end finalize on a solution.

The design process is similar to a cycle of 5/3/1 in that:

Early-stage: Explore 5+ ideas at 65% confidence in solving the problem

Middle-stage: After validation and feedback, work on 3+ ideas with 80% confidence

Late-stage: After further validation and feedback, focus on the 1+ solution with 95% confidence and ship it

Deload to prevent burnout and iterate 🧘

With a focus on the outcome, like my AMRAP for week 3, I value the high volume of ideas in the early phase without getting too attached to them. 5/3/1 taught me to trust the process, value patience, and strive for a better outcome.

Just like strength training, it’s difficult to achieve the best outcome in design by jumping straight to the final solution. In embracing the process of exploring more ideas early on before narrowing down and sharing the process, team members feel more comfortable contributing ideas early on during brainstorm sessions and design sprints, which increases the outcome. PMs and business stakeholders will also trust more in the final solution after seeing the range of ideas explored in the early stage and seeing the ideas flourish and refine through the mid and late stage.