My Biggest Mistakes in 7 Years of UX Writing–And what they’ve taught me
Updated Februar, 2026 by Dr. Katharina Grimm
Dr. Katharina Grimm is a UX Writer, educator, and founder of The UX Writing School with 8+ years of industry experience and PhD in Technology Management and Communications.
A few weeks ago, I came across a LinkedIn post that caught my attention. It warned junior UX Writers and Content Designers about a specific mistake — one that would supposedly "give them away" as beginners. The post sparked a lively discussion, with many people (rightly) pointing out that shaming juniors for appearing as beginners is simply not helpful, and that curiosity and courage at the start of a career deserve to be praised, not used as a signal of inadequacy.
I agreed with most of that. But the post also contained another assumption I want to address directly:
Juniors make certain mistakes. Seniors don't.
That framing is worth challenging — and I'd argue it doesn't reflect the reality of how UX Writing actually works. The truth is that practitioners at every level make mistakes. What changes with experience is not that you stop making them. It's how you handle them when they happen.
And here's something worth naming: we as seniors, directors, and educators contribute to the mythology of senior infallibility. Not by lying about it, but by simply not talking about our real mistakes in a realistic and honest way. We say things like "mistakes help us grow" — and then stay vague about what those mistakes actually were.
So let me be specific.
I've been a UX Writer for seven years. I've led UX Writing projects for well-known brands, helped companies reach content maturity, taught 14 online courses to 25,000 students globally, and run workshops for a range of organizations. I also host the largest UX Writing channel on YouTube and speak at conferences about the discipline.
All of that has been built alongside mistakes. Embarrassing ones. Some consequential ones. Some that still make me cringe years later. Here they are.
A Very Embarrassing Mistake: Recommending a Tool That Didn't Work for My Audience
In my earlier years as a UX Writer — long before ChatGPT or any comparable tools — I was invited to give a talk at a local German meetup about inclusive UX Writing. I explained why it's essential to truly understand your target audience, and how copy must always be tailored to their needs and reading level. I stressed readability, particularly when writing UX copy in German, where the language can be quite formal and complex. To support readability checking, I recommended Grammarly and gave a fairly detailed introduction to how it works.
Just as I was wrapping up, someone raised their hand.
"But Grammarly isn't even available for German copy, is it?"
My answer: "Uh, no, you're right."
The follow-up: "Then which tool can I use to check readability for German copy?"
My face went blank. I didn't have an answer.
I had recommended a tool to a German-speaking audience without checking whether it was actually available in German. The lesson was immediate and clear: preparation means testing your assumptions, not just knowing your topic.
A Very Consequential Mistake: Overestimating a Project and Losing the Client
By year two, I was working full-time as a UX Writer at an agency. I had experience in the craft, but almost none in agency dynamics or client negotiations. One time, a client had shown interest in our UX Writing service and their product owner asked to meet up with me for "a talk."
I went in completely underprepared. It was just a talk, right?
When he asked me for a rough time estimate, I panicked and threw out a number that was laughably high. And I mean literally laughable — the client laughed and dismissed the offer. We lost the deal.
The technical work was never the problem. It was the business side — the ability to scope a project, estimate work realistically, and navigate a client conversation with confidence — that I hadn't developed yet. Craft expertise and client-facing skills are two separate competencies, and realizing that early is worth a lot.
A Very Discrediting Mistake: Using an Ableist Term in a Course
A few years into my career, I was already teaching online courses about UX Writing. In my most popular course, I casually used an ableist term. I didn't register it as a problem until an amazing student sent me a kind but firm message pointing out that I needed to do better.
She was right.
By the time I received her message, thousands of students had already taken the course.
This is the mistake I regret most, and also the one I've learned the most from. Inclusive language is not a list of prohibited words you memorize once. It requires ongoing learning, genuine attention, and the humility to know that you will miss things — and that the appropriate response when someone points that out is to thank them and fix it, not to defend yourself.
Research on imposter syndrome in UX consistently shows that practitioners at every level experience self-doubt and make meaningful mistakes — and that the most effective path forward is to treat errors as part of the craft's ongoing learning process rather than as evidence of inadequacy. ScienceDirect In practice, that means building habits of review, welcoming feedback, and staying genuinely open to correction from the people you're trying to serve.
A Very Persistent Mistake: Typos
I could not, for the life of me, consistently avoid leaving a typo in an important text. Write something, have it reviewed by another writer, run it through Grammarly, double-check it with ChatGPT, publish it. Two weeks later, look at it again. And there it is.
The most recent example: my very first newsletter. I poured time and care into writing it. I ran it through my entire quality control process. I hit send. The minute I saw a copy land in my own inbox, I spotted a typo — in the greeting header, of all places. "Here there" instead of "Hey there."
That was last month.
The persistent mistake isn't really about typos specifically. It's about the illusion that a good process eliminates all errors. It doesn't. Processes reduce the frequency of errors and catch the most consequential ones. They don't produce perfection. Accepting that — and building processes robust enough to catch what matters most — is a more useful place to put your energy than trying to achieve zero errors.
Header of my first newsletter with a typo, turning the opening into “Here there” instead of “Hey there”.
What These Mistakes Have in Common
Looking at these four examples together, a few patterns stand out that are worth naming directly.
What these mistakes were not:
Signs that I wasn't ready for the work
Evidence that I didn't care about quality
Problems that a better degree or more preparation would have fully prevented
What they were:
The natural result of doing real work at the edge of your current knowledge and experience
Moments that created the specific learning I needed next
Part of a career that has, overall, produced work I'm proud of
My newsletter had a 90% open rate. Nobody unsubscribed because of the typo. For every project I lost because of poor preparation, I've landed five others. For every missed accessibility term, I've since built a more robust review process and helped thousands of students think more carefully about inclusive language.
The mistakes are real. So is the rest of the work.
What Being Senior Actually Means
Being a senior UX Writer isn't about reaching a level where you stop making mistakes. The research is pretty clear on this: around 70% of all people report having felt like an imposter at some point in their careers Jurnal Pendidikan Tambusai, and that figure holds across experience levels and disciplines. The feeling of inadequacy doesn't disappear with seniority — it just shifts in character.
What does change with seniority is the surrounding toolkit: the soft skills to manage yourself under pressure, the ability to think holistically about a project, the capacity to guide work from brief to delivery, the instinct to build and refine processes rather than just executing tasks, and the professional resilience to face a mistake, take responsibility for it, and move forward without losing confidence.
Most importantly, it changes how you handle mistakes when they happen. Not by avoiding them — you can't. But by responding to them with directness, taking responsibility without spiraling, learning what's genuinely useful from them, and getting back to the work.
“Being senior isn’t about never making mistakes. It’s about having the skills to manage yourself, face what went wrong, and keep building. The practitioners who grow the most aren’t the ones who make the fewest mistakes — they’re the ones who take the most honest look at the ones they do make.”
“Senior UX Writers make mistakes too — the difference is in how they handle them. Seniority means having the professional resilience to face errors directly, take responsibility, build better processes, and continue growing without letting individual mistakes define your confidence or your career.”
Key Takeaways
Mistakes are not exclusive to beginners — they are a consistent feature of professional practice at every level.
The idea that seniors don't make certain kinds of mistakes is a narrative worth challenging, and one that senior practitioners can help change by talking honestly about their own experiences.
The most useful mistakes to share are the specific, real ones — not vague "lessons learned" platitudes that don't actually help anyone.
Processes reduce the frequency of errors and catch the most consequential ones. They don't produce perfection.
Seniority means having the tools to handle mistakes well: taking responsibility, learning specifically, building better habits, and continuing the work without losing confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do experienced UX Writers still make mistakes?
Yes — consistently. Mistakes are a feature of doing real work at the edge of your current knowledge, not a sign of inadequacy. What changes with experience is the quality of the processes around the work, and the ability to handle mistakes constructively when they happen.
How should a UX Writer respond when they make a mistake that affects users or students?
Acknowledge it directly and fix it as quickly as possible. Thank the person who pointed it out, if someone did. Build a better process or review step to reduce the likelihood of the same mistake recurring. Avoid spending more energy on self-criticism than on the actual fix.
Is imposter syndrome common among UX Writers?
Yes. Research consistently shows that imposter syndrome is widespread across creative and technical professions, including UX. It tends to emerge particularly at career transitions, when taking on new responsibilities, or when receiving critical feedback. Normalizing honest conversations about mistakes and limitations — among both junior and senior practitioners — is one of the most effective ways to reduce its impact.
How can junior UX Writers build confidence when they're making a lot of mistakes?
By recognizing that mistakes in the early stages of a career are the primary mechanism of learning, not a sign that you're in the wrong field. Tracking what you learn from each mistake, building robust review habits, and seeking feedback from practitioners who are further along in their careers all help build genuine confidence over time.
What's the difference between a productive mistake and a preventable one?
A productive mistake is one that happens at the genuine edge of your knowledge or experience — something you couldn't fully have anticipated. A preventable one is the result of skipping steps, insufficient preparation, or ignoring a known gap. Both happen, but they call for different responses: a productive mistake calls for learning, a preventable one calls for process improvement.
How do you build a quality control process that actually catches errors?
Layering is more effective than relying on a single step. Combining self-review, peer review, and tool-based checking (like Grammarly or ChatGPT for grammar and readability) catches different categories of errors at different stages. The most important layer is often structural: building review time into the schedule rather than treating it as optional.
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