Being a user-experience designer can get frustrating—enough to drive a person to drink.

In 2011, I decided to share some of my frustrations with the role by creating a website, www.uxdrinkinggame.com. People soon began submitting their own frustrations, and the site currently has a list of more than 1,000 of them–most of which are funny, but also sadly true.

Having worked in both product management and UX design myself, I found it interesting that so many pertain to the struggles of the two roles working together. This article is devoted to five of those reasons, and how we can work together more effectively and stay sober.

If someone says the project is so important that we aren’t following process, drink. Understanding the user experience is a process that should be practiced when any product is built. Whether it is practiced well is another issue. When I explain the process to people, I call it “see ball, hit ball, run.”We follow a number of defined steps that allow us to succeed.