A UX designer breaks down three stages: Discovery (user research), Development (ideation and prototyping), and Iteration (refining with feedback). The key point is they don't happen in order. Move between them as the problem demands, not as a checklist.
The way I think about the UX design process is that it is a 3-step process of discovery, development, and iteration, right? And at the discovery stage, I'm conducting user research. I'm trying to understand what the user needs to do. I'm trying to understand why the user needs to do that. I'm trying to understand the problem that the business is trying to solve or the problem that we're trying to solve for the user. And in the development stage, I'm coming up with all my ideas. I'm coming up with all these solutions, and I'm trying to put something in front of the user that I can see how they can experience it. And see how I can get feedback from them. And in the iteration phase, I'm putting the user feedback back into the solution and trying to see how I can make the solution better. And all of this could come before each other. Now you need to understand that as well, that you don't follow a linear process as a designer. You follow the process that is required to solve the problem.
