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Read this fantastic, albeit lengthy, article today -- UX design for startups: the age of user experience design. It's really a quick dive into why UX matters, what it is, and ways to leverage it.

Some choice quotes:

“Design and marketing aren't just as important as engineering: they are way more important.” says Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups – one of the most important startup incubators in the world, and he’s got a point. The world has changed and products now succeed if they provide stunning UX.

I wish corporations understood this, as well as startups!

A UX designer’s work should always be derived from people’s problems and aim at finding a pleasurable, seductive, inspiring solution. The results of that work should always be measurable through metrics describing user behaviour. 

Too often I feel we don't have a good way of quantifying our work. Yes, not measuring user behavior is a problem because we UX need them in our fight to prove our importance. But the lack of them is also a problem for any business...otherwise, how would you know if you're succeeding?

in any commercial project UX design cannot be separated from the business model of a product. Designing UX without any knowledge about the business side of the product is a futile and stupid thing to do. A product that doesn’t bring home the bacon will soon cease to exist and the whole effort will be a huge waste of time.

Marcin Treder finishes with talking about using the Lean Canvas, which reminded me strongly of this article -- Lean Startup is Great UX Packaging. A bit simplified, but gets the major points of the Lean Startup Movement across.

Mostly I'm worried now that the secret is out, and all these people who embraced Lean Startup principles will suddenly realize it's just more UX and stop trying it.