What the Soviet Space Program Taught Me About Digital Product Design
summary
Soviet choices show concrete UX warnings: rushing to be first produces inflatable airlock improvisation on Voskhod 2 where the cosmonaut vents suit oxygen, gets decompression sickness and survives only after an emergency mountain landing; Zond 5 splashes down in the Indian Ocean instead of Kazakhstan; centralized leadership around Korolev creates a power vacuum after his 1966 death and the program later launches Soyuz I despite 200 documented design faults, producing the first in‑flight fatality. These are lessons about speed, testing, and resilience.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction and welcome
- 1:29Space Race background
- 10:35Speed and corner cutting
- 21:47The Korolev Effect
- 27:34Propaganda and reality
- 33:34Lessons for digital design
- 37:39Q&A session
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